What a Week!

It seemed like the week was never going to end, but it finally did. My week started out crummy, but here are a few of the good things that happened to me:

- The parent meeting that I had on Tuesday ended well because the student is no longer in my Pre AP class. It is amazing how much more productive we were this week. 

- We did stations again this week after taking a break from them. I am absolutely loving the time that stations allow me to work with small groups of students. Previously I have been doing a small lesson with them about the topic that we are learning about, but I think I am going to move into some reading strategy groups as a review for our testing in April. My plan is to really analyze the data from our district benchmarks and then place the students into groups accordingly. Any good advice for this?

- I got a big compliment from my principal. She emailed a picture of my word wall out to the entire staff. It is nice to know that I am doing things right and that she feels they are worthy of sharing with others. 

- My district benchmark scores were not too atrocious. Of course they were not where I would like them to be, but they improved.

- After having TELPAS training this past Monday, I had to do my recalibration. I should have waited to take it because I failed it. Luckily, you get a second chance before you have to get remediation. I am glad to report that I made a 90 on it the second time. I may have done a little bit of a happy dance when this happened. 

- I also managed to get all of my grades ready and verified before I was called on the phone and told to do it. :)

I am ready for another great week in 6th grade! What are you looking forward to most this coming week?

Parent Conferences

Being that I teach 6th grade, we are not required to have Parent Teacher Conferences with all of the parents of our students. However, we are encouraged to have them if we are having difficulties or concerns about any of our students. I was concerned about one of my students, so myself along with his other teachers met today with a parent. 

I thought I was pretty prepared for this, but boy was I wrong. I took some data with me as well as some behavior notes that I had collected on this particular student, but that was not enough. I was excited to have the other teachers with me because we had all expressed some of the same concerns about this student, but they did not express those same things in the meeting like I did. 

I was informed that the child hates my class and me by the parent. That felt real good... NOT! I know that I should not let this get to me, but I have. I know that there are other students and parents who only have good things to say about my class and I just have to think about all of those instead of the negative things. I was glad that we were able to bring the student in and he agreed with all of the things that I said. 

What is your advice for parent conferences? I have 2 more later this week and am really hoping that I have a better experience this next time.