Post-Conference Reflection

What a week! The flurry of a paper due in one of my grad classes, accompanied by preparation for conferences and then conferences themselves-- oh my! It was a wonderful night of rich conversations with parents, family members and students. I relish the opportunity to talk with families one-on-one. I make it a practice to solicit private time with students when I believe they're in crisis or heading that way, but the hallway of the school isn't always a great place to talk. With the room to myself and time set aside to catch up, reflect and analyze student and student work, my teaching and more, it's a ripe opportunity for excellent discussion. For me, the grade is really a small part of the conference. I am most interested in the dimensions of a student's life outside of the classroom that are influencing his or her experience in the classroom.

I have a confession to make. When I started college, I was considering a degree in psychology. I loved the notion of learning more about our mind's inner workings and helping others to unearth things about themselves that were dormant, in conflict or otherwise impacting their actions and behaviors. All students are fascinating to me because their choice to turn in work, participate in discussion or not do those things all have a root cause or more. Their attitude towards school, their disposition with peers or me all have some core motivation or cause. If I can understand where kids come from- culturally, personally, geographically et al- then I can better teach to who they are and what they need.

Suffice it to say, I have long conferences. SO, thank you to everyone who attended conferences and thank you for patiently waiting to speak with me. Despite the line, I hope you found our meeting to be productive and illuminating-- I know I did. To that end, I think it would fantastic to see parents more often than conferences in an out of school setting. Discussion could include school and student progress, but it need not. It could be about community building, ways to involve parents, book groups and more. Does anyone have any idea where a gathering like this could occur? How frequently would families want to meet? It wouldn't be required, of course, and students could surely attend. I'd love your feedback. Tell me what you think.