Advice

We received an email today from a parent asking how their child could improve their grades. This student is easily distracted in class, only wants to talk to her friends, and as far as I can tell, does as little work as possible. When responding to the email, my mentor said that he was going to give me a great piece of advice which I would use for many years.The reply:


_______ needs to take a more serious approach to his/her studies. His/her attention in class is inconsistent and he/she is often concerned with socializing more than the material being presented. Insert a positive comment about the student.


I have commented before about the skill which teachers posses regarding the way they can politely tell parents that their students are not meeting expectations. This is a very valuable skill which I hope to acquire quickly!

Student-Led Conferences

Early release is on Wednesday and Thursday. I won't get done any earlier because I am only there half days anyways.

Sweetwater is having student-centered parent conferences. This way, more parents can come in and the teachers aren't as one-on-one. The students come in with their parents and explain everything. It is supposed to teach the students to be open about their grades and be able to explain to their parents why they have the grade they have.

The teachers who understand it seem to like it. There was a meeting about it where the teachers who were uncomfortable with it made up a lot of issues that might possibly maybe happen.

I like the idea, because it shows the parents that their students are accountable for what they are doing. It might give some of the parents (who really need to get it) the idea that they have to hold their child accountable and not just blame the teacher for everything.

If parents want a traditional conference they must make an appointment for another day.

BrainPop

One neat tool that I have been introduced to through my student teaching is BrainPop.com.

It is a pretty cool site. The have short cartoon movies for students to watch about different subjects. After watching the movies the students can do follow up activities like take quizzes, make charts, see timelines, see a list of FAQ about the topic, and access a whole bunch of other facts about that topic.

It's a great resource for students.

I signed up for free access to parts of the site. However, the rest of it costs money. I can see about 3 free movies per subject, get graphic organizers, and see some of the extras. If I wanted to sign up myself for classroom use it would be $195 (multiple computers can access) or say, a parent wants to sign up for it to use at home it would cost $99 (one computer use).

Here is a link to one of the movies about the Civil War. It should work for everyone.
http://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/freemovies/civilwar/

Blame

Apparently at some point a student spray painted the side of the school. I am not sure about the details of where and when. The really interesting part about it is that when the parent was shown the video footage of her daughter vandalizing the school building, the first question she asked was, "Well, where were the teachers?"

What?!?! 

This seems to be a theme in education. Not just for the bigger issues such as vandalism, but also classroom disruption, bad grades, or other similar problems. Many of the parents immediately assume that the teachers are doing something wrong, or that they aren't doing enough.