Conferences

This past week I had the opportunity to sit in on parent teacher conferences for a night. My CT and I discussed everything beforehand and determined that while she would handle everything with the parents of our seniors, she would get the ball rolling and then have me talk to the parents of our freshman. Everything was going pretty smoothly throughout the majority of the evening. Most of the parents were understanding and were willing to help if there was a certain area that their child was struggling, and the others were just happy to hear that their children were doing well in our class.

At around 6:50, the staff made an announcement that conferences would be ending and that all of the parents who had not yet visited with the teachers were more than welcome to come back the next day. I began packing up and preparing to head home, as a few students with their parents came in to chat with my CT (informally, not as a conference). As I finished loading up my laptop and other items that I had been working on, one of my students and her mother came in. “No big deal,” I thought to myself, “I’m really not in any rush this evening.”

I introduced myself to my students mother and the first thing she asked was, “What is the point of this book my child is reading?” Well there was something I was not expecting to end the evening with. Our students are reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, a book that, while culturally enlightening in a lot of ways, does have a lot of 15 year old male vulgarity within. I began explaining to my student’s mother just that-focusing more on the cultural enlightenment, not on the vulgarity of course. Fortunately for me, my CT and I had sent a permission slip home along with the book prior to our students’ beginning it, so we were able to use that as reinforcement. My CT came over after about a minute or two of my explaining and helped back up everything that I had said up to that point. We offered an alternative book choice in case it was a big enough issue for her daughter to continue reading the book. By this point the mother conceded and sighed that, “Well, at this point I suppose the damage has been done. Since she is so far in, I’ll let her go ahead and finish the book.”

The point that really stuck with me during all of this was something that my CT said. While the book is a little bit rough around the edges, and a lot of people might take offence to some of the content, it is important not to only challenge the students, but to challenge the teachers as well. If the teachers are not able to defend the content that they are teaching, then there is really no point in them teaching it in the first place. To this, I was happy to hear my student’s mother say, “That’s fair, and he was able to defend it well.” 

Conferences

This past week I had the opportunity to sit in on parent teacher conferences for a night. My CT and I discussed everything beforehand and determined that while she would handle everything with the parents of our seniors, she would get the ball rolling and then have me talk to the parents of our freshman. Everything was going pretty smoothly throughout the majority of the evening. Most of the parents were understanding and were willing to help if there was a certain area that their child was struggling, and the others were just happy to hear that their children were doing well in our class.

At around 6:50, the staff made an announcement that conferences would be ending and that all of the parents who had not yet visited with the teachers were more than welcome to come back the next day. I began packing up and preparing to head home, as a few students with their parents came in to chat with my CT (informally, not as a conference). As I finished loading up my laptop and other items that I had been working on, one of my students and her mother came in. “No big deal,” I thought to myself, “I’m really not in any rush this evening.”

I introduced myself to my students mother and the first thing she asked was, “What is the point of this book my child is reading?” Well there was something I was not expecting to end the evening with. Our students are reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, a book that, while culturally enlightening in a lot of ways, does have a lot of 15 year old male vulgarity within. I began explaining to my student’s mother just that-focusing more on the cultural enlightenment, not on the vulgarity of course. Fortunately for me, my CT and I had sent a permission slip home along with the book prior to our students’ beginning it, so we were able to use that as reinforcement. My CT came over after about a minute or two of my explaining and helped back up everything that I had said up to that point. We offered an alternative book choice in case it was a big enough issue for her daughter to continue reading the book. By this point the mother conceded and sighed that, “Well, at this point I suppose the damage has been done. Since she is so far in, I’ll let her go ahead and finish the book.”

The point that really stuck with me during all of this was something that my CT said. While the book is a little bit rough around the edges, and a lot of people might take offence to some of the content, it is important not to only challenge the students, but to challenge the teachers as well. If the teachers are not able to defend the content that they are teaching, then there is really no point in them teaching it in the first place. To this, I was happy to hear my student’s mother say, “That’s fair, and he was able to defend it well.” 

The Grind and Other Bad Metaphors

It appears we have reached the point of the semester where everything seems to be coming at you at 100mph, yet the weeks go by just slow enough to give you pause and see the work piling up before you. I knew going into this semester that it was going to a little change of pace from what I was used to during the school year. Obviously this is in large part because I am now on the other side of the podium. As students, we became used to having seemingly every test from every class converge upon us at once, whilst two or three papers were sprinkled on top. This often made for at least seven big, grade deciding, projects to deal with over the course of the week. As teachers, we are now reaching the point of the year where we begin to experience the other side of the coin. While we may have only one subject with two or three grade levels a piece, each of those classes are sending numerous assignments, large or small, our way to be graded. We are at the point where lesson plans need to be adjusted in order to accommodate unexpected changes in our schedule. With each of those schedule changes, we may have to rush to create new lesson templates for our students to use the next day. In short, we are reaching the time period right before spring break.

The semester is reaching the mid-point, the peak before the downhill slide into summer. We are at the point where we can all but see over the peak of the mountain and look onto the valley below. We are at the point where repetitive sentences and cheesy metaphors make a blog post feel way more emphatic than it should. But as those papers pile before us, as those last minute rushes to change a our schedules occur, there is still the understanding that in two weeks we can take a breather. With a little bit of work, not only can we all at least come close to getting caught up in the classroom, but we can get caught up with our own personal studies as well.

See that’s the trick for us right now. Teachers and students, they are two sides of the same coin—and as student teachers our coins are two faced. We inhabit both sides and are currently fighting through the semester as both students and as teachers. And wouldn’t you know it, both our student obligations and our teaching obligations are coming to a head at the same exact time. Funny how that works. The hope, however, is still there. If nothing else, we can champion the fact that we have to work twice as hard, and then with a little luck, breathe twice as easily once spring break rolls around. I know that these next two weeks have the potential to be hell, getting myself caught up on grading and lesson planning. But this isn’t anything new. You and I will get through it like we have every March, with the knowledge and reassurance that after Spring Break, we’re practically there.