Bloggers of Shakopee: Conferences

It does seem that often the students that need the most attention are the ones that do not show up.

I felt I had fairly good turn out at the conferences. I sat next to a core subject teacher and had almost as many conferences as they had. Like your experience, almost every conference was with a parent of a student that was doing well.

I try not to lose to much sleep over it. I can see the pattern that leads to student success and am more concerned that I try to do the things that help students succeed ( attend conferences, check up on homework, use school view, etc.) wtih my own kids. I know it works and it is the little piece of the world I have some control over.

I feel confident that as a teacher I am working to reach all my students but as callous as it may sound - you can lead a horse to water, but youcan't make it drink.

attention Bloggers of Shakopee: Conferences: "This is my February blog: Today I came to school feeling somewhat aggrevated by the last couple nights of conferences. I always have high ..."

Conferences

This is my February blog:

Today I came to school feeling somewhat aggrevated by the last couple nights of conferences. I always have high hopes going into conferences that I will see the students I want to see, connect with parents, address concerns from all parties, and make intervention action plans. However, this is not how it goes down.

Of the approximately 20 students with a D or an F, I met with 4 of them. With intervention conferences, the teachers have previously contacted parents, letters have been sent home, yet still we don't see many of them. Open conferences consisted of meetings with families where the students are doing great and I have little to no concern (which is great - don't get me wrong).

I really like having the parent contact whether the conference is positive or negative. It gives me the opportunity to connect. It is great to deliver happy news, and it is comforting knowing the student and parents know my concerns. However, I am aggrevated that I just spent two nights away from my family, and the results will not be seen. I didn't meet with most families where my concern is the greatest.

I know there are several factors that play into this, including working parents (oftentimes several jobs) and just aren't available, parent who really do not care, students who do not care, students who do care, but can't seem to find success in many of their classes, students who are not in the right learning setting (best fit) and much more I'm sure.

How do the rest of you handle this feeling of failure?
Would you do anything in addition to what has already been done to make contact?
What other factors do you see playing into this problem?

Please disregard the last blog entry. Apparently a blog post and a rap battle are not one in the same.

Yo homes TA is in the house!! Its time to twist some rhymes and spit some fire!!

FYI everyone, Todd Anderson will be joining our group. He is a Tech Ed teacher, and I'm sure will offer some great insights.

Practice makes....a lot better!

Last year when my 2nd graders made coil pots it did not go very well. Very few of them were much good, most were very uneven, lumpy, holey, and quite a few were crumbled messes.

My new tactic this year was to have a practice day. I invested some of my budget in enough modeling clay for a whole class. My plan for the rest of the year is to have a practice day before making the real clay project for whichever grades it seems necessary. The modeling clay can be reused for this since it will never dry out (supposedly).

So day one of coil pots was making one step-by-step with the modeling clay. I tried to check on each student to catch the ones who were having trouble at the start. We practiced rolling nice even coils, putting them in the proper place on the base, blending the ends of the coils together. And in the end, we squished it all up! Sometimes art is just the act of creating.

Day two I warned them the real clay was different and there might be some different instructions so they had to listen well. I walked them through the coil pot again step-by-step and let them finish it up on their own. While they did that I made sure to stop at each table and check each student's work. Most did not need much help since they had done it once before, those that did I could concentrate more on.

Their coil pots are a hundred times better this year. Almost all look like a pot, and most are well constructed and less uneven. Even the patterns they added look better.

I think some of their success was because of some changes I made in how I taught the steps, and because I made a bigger effort to check everyone's progress early on. But I feel those are small things compared to practicing ahead of time. When they made the real pot it wasn't their first time, it was something familiar to them and I could see they were more confident about it.

Also, they love clay and they don't get to use it very often. A one day coil pot just isn't enough. The practice day allowed an additional day of working with clay without having to worry about wasting clay or storing it.

It's often hard to find the time in elementary art to do a practice piece first, or to make some planning sketches. But whenever I've taken the time to have them do it their final art is usually higher craftsmanship, more creative, and better thought out. I'd like to try to fit it in more often. What do you guys think? Do you usually have students practice something first? Do you have any ideas for quick practice?