I had 3 parent conferences today, thus rounding out my 5. Of my 5 kids (the sixth one is too new to have a conference) I got 3 moms and 2 sets of parents. I realized that all 5 of them live with both of their biological parents, although I am not sure if one set is married or not. It makes me sad that we are surprised when kids’ parents are still married to each other.

I had one father ask me what I meant by “alphabetizing” when I told him his son is very good it.

One mother mentioned to the classroom teacher that her son would like to be moved to Ms. Otherteacher’s class because he knows it is the “high” Literacy block. I tried to spend the conference letting her know, gently, that he was not even on grade level, and therefore not a candidate for being moved up (I teach the “middle” group). Of course, this was the same mother who asked if her son should be reading at home. When I told T this he said, “No, no, why would you want to do that? We’ve found that it actually fosters improvement.”

Then there is the mom who not only reads with her child each night, but follows along and keeps track of how she is doing. I gently (again) suggested that her daughter might enjoy reading more if it was less like school.

I won’t even get started on the couple who think their child is stupid.

Teacher funnies:
18. Meeting a child’s parents instantly answers the question, “Why is this kid like that?”

Random fact: I’ve known I wanted to be a teacher since I was a very little kid.