Thursday, February 21, 2008

Conferencing with the teachers

Yesterday was parent teacher conference.
We received good enough reports from the teachers, that we have decided not to send the children away to military school ;0)
Our last conference in the fall didn't go so well. You would think that out of three kids, at least one of them would have had a good report from their teacher.
Nope.
My favorite part of the last conference was when we sat down with a teacher and she said "I'm sure that after seeing the report card you are aware of several concerns that I have.

"Report card?? What report card??"

Apparently this child had neglected to give us the report card that had been sent home days earlier. When we saw it, we understood why :P
Also, last conference, we had several comments from the teachers like "The work that is turned in is usually 100 % correct, there just hasn't been much work turned in."

This conference was much better. Most of the work was turned in, and we actually saw the report cards before parent teacher conference.
Aaron said "I figured out, that if I just DO my work when I get it, instead of staring at the wall, it gets done a lot faster"
Brilliant.

The kids have been working much better, and have shown an improvement. All of them!

YAY!!

Now for the funny things their teachers had to say;

CJ's teacher "He's so quiet. I wish he would talk more and participate in class discussions"
CJ's response.....................silence...................
(To be fair, CJ is a very quiet kid and when he does decide to talk, he usually says something very profound.)

Brielle's teacher- "She's so quiet. I really wish she would talk a little more in class. We hardly get three words out of her all day."

Are you serious? Brielle? The "POWER TALKER"?
This is the child who begins talking as soon as she gets up in the morning and doesn't stop until she is asleep at night.
Brielle's response to this comment. "I save all the talking for home. At school, I'm just recharging".

Aaron's teacher had him read to us the comment she had written on his report card. It went something like "It would be great if you could use your calm nature to help you to focus better."
At the point where he read "calm nature" DH and I burst out laughing.
The teacher said "Isn't he calm at home?"
(Um ......NO!!)
I reply "You are the only person who has EVER used the word "calm" to describe Aaron."
DH says "He's pretty much the opposite of calm."
The teacher says "One of my children was like that. He was quite a challenge. A teacher of his once said to me "Aren't you glad he feels comfortable enough at home to act like that?"
(I then asked Aaron what we could do to make him feel less comfortable at home.)

What I want to know is how can my children be so different at home and at school?
I guess I should just be grateful that they choose to behave at places like school and church.

10 comments:

Grandma Cebe said...

Ah, Parent-Teacher conferences...at least your kids teachers actually know your children names and who they are. I'll never forgot going to conferences for my then high school senior daughter. One conference with a teacher went like this: (some details changed to protect the clueless)

"Hi, I'm Sally Smith's mother."

Teacher obviously has no idea who my daughter is and says "Sally Smith??"

Me:"Yes, Sally Smith. She's in your 3rd period biology class?"

Teacher pulls out his grade book and looks for my daughter's name.

Teacher: "Oh yea." He runs his finger across the line that shows her grades and attendance. "Looks like she's missing this assignment and been absent a couple of times".

After I had waited in line for 10 or 15 minutes, that was all he could offer. I got up and left.

Melissa said...

I love parent teacher conferences... it always gives me such...um... interesting insights into my children!!
Glad that your conferences were better than the last ones :)

Kalynne Pudner said...

Oh, I know what you mean! The first year my kids were in public school, I went to a teacher conference and listened to all these comments that were absolutely dead-on with my daughter's personality. I was astonished the teacher had gotten to know her so well after only a few weeks.

Then after I got home and reported to my daughter, I discovered it hadn't been her teacher at all -- it had been her sister's, who is the opposite personality type!

Unknown said...

Parent teacher conferences -- one of my most hated parts of parenthood. My hubby always seems to find himself out of town when PTC time is around. So I get to do it with 5 children in tow. I hardley can remember what they say about my kids because I am to worried about what my 3 year old is destroying. I guess if my kids where soing anything to terrible I would remember that. :)

Christina

Kimber said...

I've been spying on your blog and have loved it!

I had a PTC recently that I actually asked the teacher if we were talking about the same kid. Why do I get the bouncy, non-stop talker, I have to repeat myself 4 times to get his attention kid at home and the teacher gets the same kid and comments "I have never had to ask him to pay attention or calm down". What??

Ahhh, the joys of motherhood.

(BTW I gave you an award on my blog - sorry I don't know you better and you have no idea who I am. Go to anotherdaydone.blogspot.com)

Hey It's Di said...

Oh how I love those conferences. I am like you and hear about a different person than the one I see (and hear) at home. I've decided it's a good thing because they seem to see a better child at school! Whew!

Suburban Correspondent said...

I don't think there is any pseudo-psychological child-rearing concept that I hate as much as the "He acts like that at home because he feels safe there" line. I laugh in people's faces when I hear that. Turn it around, instead. "Oh, you mean he can show his teachers and perfect strangers respect, and not his own parents? What is wrong with this picture?" Dr. Ray Guarendi says, "How would you feel if your husband were rude and mean to you at home, and all the women in his office would say things to you like "He's such a sweetheart at work, and so helpful! We love him! He must just feel safe with you."

Sorry - pet peeve. You're right - make sure he doesn't feel quite so safe at home.

Jen said...

Glad you got the report cards this time. I hate being caught by surprise like that. It's like realizing that you went to work without your makeup on. I hate when that happens.

Tausha said...

i to am totally amazed at how our children can be so completely different from home to school. Also-kudos on the Super Mom act the other day(lets be realistic, all moms are super moms everyday-in some way or another) and i completely agree with you about the drop off zone issues. My three year old has picked up "are you peolpe stupid" whenever we go to pick up. Whoops-guess at that moment i wasn't a "super mom"

Amber said...

I'm completely jealous that all of your kids are in school. At this point in my life that seems like a pipe dream that will never happen.