Right ... Parents Night

Meant to update earlier about Parent-Teacher Conferences, but generally they went really well.

First off I saw more parents Thursday night, than I did all of last year - which was only about 33. Some of the teachers who teach freshmen saw at least 60+.

I got a lot of really nice compliments from parents. Many of them said how their son/daughter really liked by class, others said their son/daughter told them they had to come see me "because he's so cool."  -- I take all of those with a grain of salt, the parents may have just been trying to be nice to me so I like their student better - Suckers that won't work!

I had another parent that said, "when he comes home at night he always talks about your class. He told me that in your class, when you talk it seems like you only talk for 5 minutes but then he looks at the clock and realizes it's been 40." I thought that was a great compliment because most times i feel like I'm just droning on in front of the class.

Another parent was trying to find my table in the cafeteria, and when she finally came over she told me she had asked one of the student volunteers where I was sitting. The student told her, "Oh, he's in the back corner, he's the one that looks like a teddy bear." Awesome - students think i look like a teddy bear. Really?

But I did have the classic parent conference mixed in with the others. I have a student who is a really smart kid, he might not appear to be paying attention but if you ask him a question in class, he'll get it perfectly. anything we do in class he is great at. However, he problem is that he doesn't do any work outside of school. At this point in the year, he's only handed in one homework assignment on time. It was clear his mom was very frustrated with him. It was also clear that she was on the verge of tears during the conference because nothing I said about the student was a surprise to her. Classic example of a kid doing nothing with his potential. I did say at least 25 times that he is a great kid - didn't seem to do anything for the parents.

 - But, friday after school this kid came to talk to me. We talked about his homework, what he can make up, and different things from parent-conferences. So I'm hopeful maybe things might turn around for him - but that is pretty unrealistic of me.