parent-teacher conferences

As a religion teacher, I was told that parent-teacher conferences would be easy. They were. Out of about 60 students, I met with 5 sets of parents. Of those five, three of them brought their kids with them. And none of them were students who are having a hard time in my class. In fact, every single one of them is doing great work.

I knew I would scare some parents with the D's I was giving out, but the great email fiasco ended up turning out okay for most of the students involved. So the updated progress reports I handed out tonight all looked great.

There was something that shocked me, though.

The students that came along with their parents tonight are some of my more energetic, outspoken, and "active" ones. In front of their parents, though, they were completely different people. I was stunned. They just sat there, quiet as church-mice, waiting to see what would transpire between their parents and myself.

It made me remember this kid from back in my Boy Scout days. This kid was a raving lunatic. Today, he would be jacked up on Ritalin every waking moment of his life, but back then, he just got told to "settle down". Don't get me wrong, he was a good kid and he never hurt anybody or ever caused any real damage. But he was like the Tazmanian Devil. A 300-horsepower engine stuffed into a Pinewood Derby racecar.

Unless his father was around.

When his father was around, [let's call him] Joey was calm and quiet as could be. Completely different person. This always kind of made me wonder what was going on, that Joey had to release so much energy when his dad wasn't around. Was he clamped down so tightly at home that he just exploded when he was on his own? And what kind of environment did he really need?

So now I'm trying to guess what kind of environment these kids need in my classroom. What should I be encouraging/discouraging in them?

I don't expect to have answers yet, but it's interesting to wonder about.

Posted: Tue - October 7, 2003 at 08:43 PM

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parent-teacher conferences

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