Parent-Teacher Time and My ClassDojo Discovery!

Parent-Teacher interviews snuck up on me this year. Not sure why, must have been focused on too many other things. About a week before Parent-Teacher, all teachers, all over the world start panicking, each with their own unique reasons. 12 hours straight of interviews, don't have enough marks for the students, have not communicated home yet about issues, the classroom is a disaster, etc. For some reason, I don't panic. I actually look forward to it...

I enjoy a few things about Parent-Teacher interviews. I absolutely love meeting students' parents for the first time. That one 10 minute conversation tells a teacher so much about the student. Gathering information like that, the good and the bad, helps me to a be a better teacher, and helps me to understand and connect with my students. I also love the conversations with the parents. They love talking about their children, if they understand that their child's success is my primary concern, the conversations are positive, friendly, and enjoyable. Now, I have not yet experienced a negative Parent-Teacher conversation, and I am sure that it will happen, but if I keep the interview centered around the child, how can it not stay positive?

Here is a glimpse into my classroom on Parent-Teacher Night!

A nice welcome sign for the parents as they enter the classroom!

And of course, flowers and candy on the table for the parents and students... well, actually, the candy is for me. :)

I always have a slideshow of pictures from the art class since my interviews are usually in my FSL classroom! Good for conversation starters, or distractions if needed! Still need some posters or visuals on that orange bulletin board up top...

My little bunny sculptures in their garden! I love a  bright and colorful classroom!

Parent Teacher Conferences can be very productive too if I use my time wisely! I clean my desk, which I had not seen the surface of since the beginning of the year!
UPDATE! It is messy again... :(

I was also able to get all my TPGPs from the last 4 years hung up by my desk! Good for inspiration and reminders of what I need to work on!

Man, I was so productive this round! I also got my student work bulletin board changed...

...and my homework board which I had been putting off!

Moral? Keep is positive, keep it welcoming, and keep it student centered.

Area for Self-Improvement...

One of my major goals this year (in fact, it is goal #1 on my TPGP), is to communicate more effectively with parents on a more regular basis. I have gotten better this year compared to past years, but I am still not where I would like to be. I have kept D2L (our online tool for news, grades, due dates, etc) up to date, and I have emailed home once to the parents whose child is missing one or more assignments. I would like to email home on a more regular basis, commenting on not only the needs of the students, but also their successes. I need to make this more of a priority for the next few months.

I actually discovered an awesome online tool that could be used for formative assessment, providing feedback for the students and the parents beyond that of assignments and tests. It is called ClassDojo! Teachers can attach a little adorable monster character to each student. The teacher then creates badges, which are worth points! There are positive and negative badges (I'm not a fan of the word "negative", I would prefer "areas of improvement", but I can't change it..). They can be anything that the teacher would like to provide feedback on, for example, "Hard Worker", "Spoke French", "Up to date on all Assignments", etc. Teachers could have it projected during class, and subtly give out badges as students complete them! Teachers can also add comments to the badges, and students can create accounts so that they can log on to see their badges, their points and the attached comments! There is even a Parent email tool! Check it out! I am starting it with my French as a Second Language classes this week! I'll let you know how successful it is!