“What are you doing in Math today?” the VP inquires of my grade 5,6,7 and 8 students. “We’re playing games.” “You’re playing games?” “Yes, we always play in math.” The assessments gathered from these classes provide me insight of where everyone is in their learning. My experience with assessments are that individual conversations to understand […]
Interviews
Does Homework Work?
The Purpose and Politics of Homework After teaching for over 18 years, one topic which is frequently addressed in parent/teacher interviews is homework. Often parents see homework as being critical to academic success. It’s a topic often debated and never really resolved, even for me as a teacher and as a parent. In my […]
Meet the teacher night
Tonight was open house at my school and as usual parents wanted to know how their son or daughter were performing. This is always an interesting question to answer because parents want to know about math and language and I want to tell about how they are getting along with others and how polite and […]
Time Management and Reporting
One of the greatest challenges teachers face is developing a healthy work-life balance, particularly when it comes time to write reports or meet with parents/guardians. While I am by no means an expert on this topic (as anyone who knows me will attest), I have learned a few strategies which have helped me immensely during […]
Reporting Time
It is that time again, or maybe the first time for you – writing reports. It seems to loom over us as the due date for reports approaches. Yet, it isn’t always as insurmountable as it seems. Here are some tips for assessing, organizing, and preparing reports: Create at-a-glance observation pages. These can be […]
Communication with Parents – Part 2
Getting the word out to all parents can come in many forms. Some teachers choose to Tweet classroom updates, while others use a texting service like www.remind.com. Whatever you choose to do to contact all of your parents, should be consistent, and you should be sure to only use it when contacting the whole group. […]
Math in Play-based Learning
Math is integrated into most of the learning centres in the classroom. Although glancing around the room, it often looks just like play. To ensure that I am continually assessing for math, I keep a clipboard of observations sheets accessible. I prefer observation sheets that have a square with each child’s name that I can […]
Preparing for Interviews
The interviews provide an opportunity for parents to meet the teacher, see the classroom, and ask questions about their child’s progress. It is also an opportunity for the teacher to ask questions that will provide a better background understanding of the child that is struggling in his/her adjustment to the Kindergarten program. You may […]
Constructive and Productive Parent-Teacher Conferences
Just having read Alison’s post “Reflecting On Reporting” I have to admit that all too often we tend to become focused on assessing our students with tools and strategies that can feel overwhelming in our need to “get it right” with respect to our evaluation of the students’ progress. The fact that “a picture says […]