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About Me
- Dr. Susan Ferguson
- I teach English Education, Foreign Language Education, and ESL Education, and I advise STEM Education Majors at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama--and I LOVE IT! I love to invite others to find the poet that is within them--I am certain a poet lies within each of us!
Well, last week was quite normal however they did not approve my study aboard trip. I am still researching to find out if I can do it alone. I hope so because it will be great for my students. Record cards come Monday and I know I am going to have students all around my desk not because of their grades however their conduct. I find report cards are a great chance to communicate with parents and I find I get great results with conduct comments. I miss the class it the one time a week I can talk to adults longer than 15 minutes.
ReplyDeleteOk, this is the week for Spring Break, right? Happy Spring Break!
ReplyDeleteHey guys! I missed you too. I hope you had a great break. I had the opportunity to hear from various content people around the state at the state AEA/ACT meeting today. I did a presentation re: ELLs. It was a very interesting meeting. I will have to tell you guys about it when we meet again. There may be some other study abroad opportunities for you. Someone sent me a message a few weeks ago. I will see whether I still have it.
ReplyDeleteJenny,
ReplyDeleteReport cards are a great time to talk to parents, but I also make bi-monthly phone calls to those parents whose children are doing well, badly, or I find some change in their demeanor. Parents tend to respond much better if a teacher calls prior to the grade reporting because then they feel they have time to change things. I hate making parent calls (because you never know if you're going to get yelled at or not), but I think they are especially effective if done early on.
Brittany,
ReplyDeleteI think you're right. I think on the whole, parents appreciate when you call to let them know if there's a problem with something. I know I use other tactics too, that eliminates the whole "yelling" scenario. Alot of times I send letters home explaining the issue that the parents have to return with a signature.
This lets them know what's going on and I have a written confirmation that they read it and agreed to do something about it. I also always put something like, please call to set up an appt. if you'd like to talk in further detail about this issue"...which totally puts the ball in their court and kind of subconciously lets the parents know its their responsibility.
Sometimes when I call, they want to put the blame on the teacher and I always want to say...they aren't MY kids...I'm supposed to be teaching them German, not the rules of normal social conduct.
Break was nice!
ReplyDeletehappy spring break
ReplyDeleteMelanie, I feel the same way. Parents first reaction is always to blame the teacher. I sent letters home with students who are failing each month. Somehow it is always my fault or the fault of the child's disability. Not that the student does not want to do anything at all.
ReplyDeleteMelanie,
ReplyDeleteIf I teach again I'm going to send the letters home for a signature. I worry all the time about the parents being surprised.
Last week we wrote about the lack of motivation the students exhibit. I assigned a section of Huck Finn for the 10th grade with a few questions to turn in when we met again in one week. I had one student do the assignment.