Parent-Teacher Conferences

Parent-Teacher Conferences are just around the corner, so I figured I'd share what I do to maybe help them go a bit more smoothly. (But first, some humor!)

Okay, back to business. First, I have the students fill out a self-evaluation that I keep for the conference. I found this self-evaluation on TPT a while back, and used to have a different version, but she's updated it since then. My school lets students come to the conferences, so I have them read their own self-evaluations to their parents during their conferences.

Along with the student self-evaluations, I print out a PTC Checklist for each student to make sure I have everything together and ready to go. I use this during the conferences to make sure I talk to parents about everything on the list. I give them their report card first to check over. I also give them their Xtra Math progress report. We use 2 different assessments in 4th grade: the benchmark and the Gates-McGinnite test, so I provide their beginning-of-the-year scores and let them know my expectations for the end-of-the-year scores. I also let parents know how many missing/late assignments their child has had since the first day of school. I also remind them to make sure they sign the assignment sheet/newsletter each week. I use the Remind app in my classroom to remind parents about upcoming tests, field trips, money that's due, etc., so if they haven't signed up for it yet, I walk them through it during conferences. Lastly, I ask for Halloween party volunteers/food or drink donations during conferences. It's a lot to talk about in only 15 minutes, but I can fit it all in if I stick to the list and don't stray too far from the topics.

I also fill out strengths and concerns for each student that I go over with the parents during their conference (after the student-led self-evaluations). Sometimes, it's really hard to come up with strengths for those certain students! So, here's a list of strengths and concerns that could work for almost anyone.
Strengths:

• Very kind
• A friend to everyone
• Comes to school on time every day
• Helps others
• Trustworthy
• Neat handwriting
• Turns in (completed) assignments on time
• Always follows the rules, even when no one's looking
• Always volunteers (to answer a question or help another person)
• Grades/assessment scores
• Always focuses on work/tasks at hand
• Excellent work ethic
• Always on-task
• Always comes to class prepared

Concerns:

• Struggles with completing/turning in assignments on time
• Struggles to follow school rules
• Struggles with speaking respectfully
• Struggles with participating appropriately
• Struggles with friendships (drama, bullying, etc.)
• Grades/assessment scores
• Handwriting concerns
• Struggles with focusing on work/tasks at hand
• Work ethic needs improvment
• Struggles to stay on-task/stay seated

I also like to give parents a packet about how to help improve reading and math at home by doing a few simple things. I found this packet from Fun In First. All you have to do to download them is go to her Facebook page and "like" it for a free download.

If your parents are tech-savvy (and you have all their email addresses), an easy way to schedule parent-teacher conferences is to use Sign Up Genius. It lets parents sign up for a time and sends you a confirmation. It also sends out reminders when it gets close to conference time. We are fortunate enough at my school that our secretary schedules all of our PTC for us, but if you have to do it yourself, this website is really convenient and easy!

Lastly, here are just a few more tips to make your PTC go smoothly:

• Send a reminder note home with each kiddo with the date and time of their PTC
• Keep a few student work samples to showcase at each PTC
• Keep a teacher notebook handy to write notes about what you and the parents talked about and what you need to do to help each individual student (and how/when to implement it)
• Set a timer for each conference so that you begin and end on time and don't get completely off-schedule for the night
• Politely suggest another meeting time if parents still would like time to discuss things further
• Stay positive!

Fossils Rocks

Who would want to be a paleontologist for a day? My fourth-graders would! This lesson was SO MUCH FUN! I made "fossil rocks" for my 4th-grade paleontologists to excavate. They used hammers and screwdrivers (chisels) to break open their "rocks" and find the hidden fossil inside. Here's the recipe for the fossil dough I used. I also bought real shark teeth from Amazon to hid inside the dough before baking them. My students really enjoyed this lesson, but their favorite part was getting to take their shark tooth home!

Model Magic Fossils

In this lesson, students got to create their own fossils using Model Magic. (I used salt dough last year, but it didn't turn out well.) I passed out a chunk of clay to each student and had them roll their clay into a ball and then flatten it out to the size of a hamburger patty. Then, they used different materials (leaves, sticks, seed pods, plastic animals, etc.) to make impression in the clay, creating their own fossil imprints! They loved this! Many of them wanted their fossils to be perfect, so they re-rolled and re-stamped their clay multiple times until it was exactly how they wanted it. We let them dry and many of the students colored their fossils to look like rocks which really made the imprints stand out.