Tonight is going to be one of the best nights of the year! Tonight is the night I get to sit down with parents and discuss my favorite subject- their child. I’ve been thinking this week about how much this event has changed since I first started teaching.
At the beginning of my career, in a much larger community, I had trouble getting parents to correspond with me and some wouldn’t even attend conferences. I had some parents who showed up at the beginning of the year and the end of the year, and perhaps attended one party. Now, thanks to daily folders, Facebook, email, and teaching in a small community, very few of my parents are strangers to me or to the school system. We have communicated all year and tonight is just a “summary” of what they already know about their child’s progress. We will simply review their current testing and perhaps discuss a few minor problems to be overcome before the transition to first grade. Our time together will be collaborative, not confrontational.
Maybe it is because of my age, but I am more sympathetic toward parents than I was when I first started teaching. I think school is actually harder on some of them than it is on their children. Parents realize now, more than ever, how important it is for their children to do well and get a good education so they can survive in our super competitive global economy. State expectations and requirements get tougher each year. More and more testing is required and the scores are more important. Some parents are more stressed about their child’s education than they are about their own jobs. And many parents are young enough to be my children- I just want to hug them and tell them “it gets easier”. But I’m not sure it will.
Tonight is also a good night to swap a few stories. Here is a great one from yesterday:
We were reading about the symbols of the USA and got to the page about the Statue of Liberty.
One of my boys said, “But Mrs. Maurer, I thought that was the symbol for Pre-Paid Legal!”
Sometimes you just have to laugh!
Have a great day. I will!
I cannot imagine what my daughter says to her kindergarten teacher.
Prepaid legal? How funny!
Posted by: Megan | February 24, 2011 at 08:23 AM