This past week I was lucky to be able to sit in on caretaker-teacher conferences with my CT. The first one was with a male student who is on-level with reading, writing, science, and social studies but is at risk of being below level for math. For his behavior, he has a hard time focusing and gets in trouble when he is seeking attention from his peers. As we talked to his mother she denied his behavior problems but did agree to work with us about helping him out with math! My CT had online resources for her to learn about our new math Florida standards (MAFS) and connections to our textbook's workbook for extra practice. After, this conference we reflected we need to take more anecdotal notes with his behavior to show more evidence with parents/administrators. We had his agenda with notes home (signed by mom) about his daily behavior. That is what surprised me how she seemed so surprised that it couldn't have been true, but we had the days signed off? It was a good experience for me to learn how to be patient and always have multiple evidence when making claims! Next, we met with student who is just learning English. His parents speak Spanish. We had to ask a staff member to translate for us. This was so cool! I have never had an experience with an ELL student until this year. He just moved here last month from El Salvador and has improved so much! Reading at a 4th grade level and is solving math problems correctly in class, just in a visually different way. The problem for math is that he is below level because our summative assessments are all word problems, which cannot be translated for him. His father wanted to see what we could do to help with math and my CT had printed out the Spanish teacher's edition of the next chapter we were working on so his family could help him at home! I am excited to track his progress in math and see how the Spanish versions help! I am very glad to be able to be so involved with my students and their caretakers by being able to attend conferences in 5th grade and last year in 2nd. I have learned proper communication and what to bring to all meetings. My wish for my classroom is to always be connected with my students families. I believe we will work better together for maximum student achievement!
Welcome to my teaching blog! This is my personal space where I reflect on my lessons, classroom data, and my classes at USF. Feel free to leave comments to help me become an exemplary teacher!