Conference Week
I'm curious to know, from those of you out there who teach in an elementary school: how does your school schedule for conference days?
A few years ago our elementary specialists voiced a concern about the month of November. When Veteran's Day was on a Friday, and conferences were the Thursday and Friday after that, and the week that followed that one was Thanksgiving, specialist teachers could go very nearly a month without seeing their Friday classes. If your library time was scheduled on Friday that was an inconvenience; if your only music class was on Friday, and your choral concert was supposed to happen in December, that was a big, big problem.
The change we made, then was to move conferences to the week of Thanksgiving. We conference on Monday and Tuesday, then have a teacher workshop day on Wednesday, and have Thursday and Friday off for the holiday. It's worked so well that the Middle School has also adopted that schedule and the High School teachers would also like to see it get done for their building.
Other teachers who I attend class with, though, have the more traditional 5 days of early release. We did that at one point, and I didn't think I'd like changing to two full days of conferences, but I think it's better on the kids now. It's also saved my district some money because they don't have to drive as many kids on those conference days.
How does your district approach parent/teacher conferences, and what would you change if you could?
A few years ago our elementary specialists voiced a concern about the month of November. When Veteran's Day was on a Friday, and conferences were the Thursday and Friday after that, and the week that followed that one was Thanksgiving, specialist teachers could go very nearly a month without seeing their Friday classes. If your library time was scheduled on Friday that was an inconvenience; if your only music class was on Friday, and your choral concert was supposed to happen in December, that was a big, big problem.
The change we made, then was to move conferences to the week of Thanksgiving. We conference on Monday and Tuesday, then have a teacher workshop day on Wednesday, and have Thursday and Friday off for the holiday. It's worked so well that the Middle School has also adopted that schedule and the High School teachers would also like to see it get done for their building.
Other teachers who I attend class with, though, have the more traditional 5 days of early release. We did that at one point, and I didn't think I'd like changing to two full days of conferences, but I think it's better on the kids now. It's also saved my district some money because they don't have to drive as many kids on those conference days.
How does your district approach parent/teacher conferences, and what would you change if you could?
Labels: conferences, parent/teacher conferences, scheduling
posted by Ryan at 11:24 PM
1 Comments:
We release school for two full days. Teachers are allowed to set their own schedules...some conference one evening, I end up going both afternoons and evenings since so many parents work. We split ours on either side of Vet's Day this year...Monday and Wednesday. Surprisingly I had 100% turnout, always a nice bonus. I heard at the H.S. they had terrible turnout though. Interesting idea of conferencing Monday/Tuesday of Thanksgiving week.
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