Manic Monday

Today was one of those days where it was a good thing I have a student teacher....if I hadn't, there was no way I could have gotten everything done.

The day began with a parent teacher conference. Even though conferences are long since over, I have five parents who cancelled or never scheduled their conference with me so we are doing make ups. This week I have four. Today I had two.
The morning started with some very pointed questions about her child's reading ability. Questions like, "Well, could he do the assessment if he didn't have to write it?" Maybe he could, in fact, I'd say he probably could, most third graders are better in their oral responses than their written ones. But, on the other hand, the assessment is written. Every assessment they have to take, including the CMT's, are written. Whether I agree with that or not, that's the way that it is, at least for now. I understand the point of her question, she wants to know if her child could do better if the situation were different. At the same time, I don't understand the point of the question. I always feel it's best to focus on what we have to do....rather than on what we maybe could do if things were different.

That was my first conference....then came my second. One that I knew would be long, but ended up taking an hour. Largely because there was a lot of back and forth. Not between me and them, but between the mom and the dad. These are parents I've had before, and I absolutely adore them, but a note to all you parents out there: don't have disagreements in front of the teacher. These parents also had a concern about their child receiving extra help. Again, I understand what they were saying...they were worried it was too confusing for her to be pulled out and miss classroom time in one subject to get the support in a different subject. And they are right, I don't disagree with them, it is hard to get pulled out and switch gears. But, she needs help. Extra support. For me, and what I expressed to them, is that any help in reading was a good thing. I'm not so sure I convinced them since they asked me to see if I could switch the time of her support (which I know I can't)....but I said I'd give it a shot and we'll see what we get.

Next came a meeting with my student teacher's supervisor. Again, it should have been brief. I had nothing but positives to say, nor did she. My paperwork was filled out, t's crossed, i's dotted...yet somehow it turned into a thirty minute conversation. Then she had to meet with her supervisor, leaving me alone with my students for the first time in a long time. A nice treat to be honest, but I was anxiously looking at the clock so I could go meet up with a colleague to discuss a professional development I am presenting tomorrow. Forty five minutes later, she came back upstairs and I ran out to meet with my colleague. An hour later, I dashed out of that meeting to run to another.....

Like I said....manic Monday.