Parent Teacher Night

Last night was parent-teacher night and it actually went really well. Like all the others teachers have told me, basically all the parents you need to see don't show and all the parents you really have nothing to say to show up.

But it went well, of my 100 or so students, I have 25 of their parents show up. Not bad, I do teacher juniors so most of the parents don't really have the need to come into school and talk to their kid's teachers anymore. But some did. Parent Teacher night went for three hours, and I think I talked to parents in total for about 45-60 minutes of that.

Typical exchange:

"Hi, I'm [john doe]'s mom, how are you?"

"Good, [john] has a 90+ average"

"I know, I just saw there was no line at your table so I figured I would stop by. Ok, nice to meet you, goodbye"

"bye?"

There were three students who were failing and I was happy to see their parents show up so I got to talk to them.

Student 1: GREAT student, pays attention, participates, asks questions, very smart (got 100% on our first big quiz), but never hands in her homework.

Her Mom: "this is horrible, this is outrageous. I am not happy with this average [not mad at me, so I don't mind]. she said she wanted to study history in college, not with these grades. I won't let her. Oooh, I have to talk to her when I get home. This is just unacceptable"

Honestly, that was the most upset any parent got all night. So good for me I guess.

Student 2: pays attention, a little chatty, doesn't participate much in class, and does not hand in homework.

Her mom: "Why does [jane doe] have such a low average (49%)?

Me: "she pays attention in class and in engaged but honestly she just isn't handing stuff in.

Her mom: "Oh, I could just slap her ....."

Student 3: extremely quiet, never participates, never hands things in, did mediocre on the firs big quiz, just doesn't seem to care

His dad: "I see that [john doe] isn't doing well in your class, he has the habit of not handing things in. I think he's rebelling against his mother and I because we're academics. His mother is a computer technician and researcher and I am a mathematician and nuclear physicist."

Me (in my head) "HOLY CRAP! no wonder he's not doing anything in school. PHYSICIST!?"

but overall the night went really well. I had four parents tell me how much their kid loves me class. One parent who son is pretty much exactly my little brother Billy just in a different body told me "oh he really likes you. I can tell that something clicked and he really loves your class. He definitely admires and looks up to you." Another mother told me, "almost anyone can teach, but not everyone can inspire. i can tell you're doing great things because you have inspire my daughter to try harder and appreciate school."

So yeah. I must be doing something right.