Wow, and I thought last week was busy.  This week was conferences at my own school (Washington) and we have had two late nights of working until 7:45 pm last night and about 7 pm tonight. That’s on top of teaching until 1:30 pm (dismissal time for conference days).  The good thing was that all we (my cooperating teacher and I) did 14 conferences yesterday and 7 today so we had a 100% attendance.  Tomorrow is another conference day but it will consist of working in our room since we are all done

What’s amusing is hearing what some of the parents have to say about their children.  For example, this evening we were finishing up our conference and said that we had no specific concerns about this student.  The mother said she was having some problems at home and then she said that “he hit my a**”.  She then goes on to tell us that he runs around the house naked after a shower after his brothers take his towel away from him.  Too much information!!!  This mother is a single mother of 4 boys with my student being the oldest.  They seem to be more friends than parent/child relationship and if they don’t get that in order, wow, will there be trouble in middle school!  Another time I had to ask my teacher how she doesn’t cry when the students start.  The parents are trying to understand how to help their child and then they break down.  It’s a vicious cycle!  It was really interesting doing conferences with Spanish interpretors.  You really have to slow down and wait for them to translate and then go on.  Quite fascinating, really.

Well, at least I’ve had some practice on the other end of conferences.  Having the knowledge that I do going into my own children’s conferences can be quite beneficial, but that’s another story. . .