Catherine Keeter

Parent Teacher Conference Reflection

Before beginning my parent teacher conference with Ms. Raven I sent her
an email. The email served as an invitation and gave information on what I
wanted to speak to Ms. Raven about. I didnt realize how long it would take me to
write this email. The email was relatively short but I needed to make sure it was
written in a respectful way that was friendly but also let Ms. Raven know that I
needed to discuss some serious matters with her. I think communication is very
important when it comes to parent teacher relationships. Teachers should let
parents know what is going on in the classroom and should reach out to
individual parents when necessary.
After emailing Ms. Raven, I began to gather resources to prepare for our
conference. In the email I told Ms. Raven that Jay did not meet expectations in
math last grading period so I decided to pull some of Jays math work to show to
his mom. I also wanted to speak to Ms. Raven about Jays aggressive outbursts
so I decided create an incident report of times that Jay physically interacted with
other students by hitting or kicking them. I created this because I though Jays
mom may ask for proof of his interaction with his classmates and I wanted to be
prepared. I also pulled a writing sample from Jay where he wrote that he did not
like school and had no one to play with. I choose to this piece of writing as
another example I could show Ms. Raven when discussing Jays relationships
with others. I think it is important to show parents student data so they see a
physical representation of their childs performance in school. Data serves as

proof of what the students are truly accomplishing and when parents see
examples of their childs work they are able to visualize their childs
understanding of content.
After deciding what aspects of Jays work I was going to pull to show Ms.
Raven, I gathered resources of my own to give to Ms. Raven to provide support.
The resources I choose coincide with my plan for improvement for Jay. My
overall goal for Jay was to have him perform at grade level in math, refrain from
angry outbursts, and develop friendships with his classmates. I decided to give
Ms. Raven a greater than less than math game she could play with Jay at home.
Greater than less than is a concept that Jay struggles to understand and this was
something I planned on pointing out to Ms. Raven when I showed her an
example of Jays work. I want to provide Ms. Raven with ways she can support
Jay at home. I feel like providing her with resources for Jay would help us to from
a partnership where I am working with Jay at school and she is working with Jay
at home and were are simultaneously working and supporting Jay together. I also
decided to print off an article for Jays mom. This article discussed the new
behavior plan I had chosen for Jay and I wanted to have it available in case Ms.
Raven wanted more information about it.
The last thing I created to bring to the conference was a conference notes
graphic organizer. This graphic organizer was divided into strengths, concerns,
and action plan for improvement. I used this graphic organizer as a guide to lead
my conversation. I also printed off a copy for Ms. Raven so she would know what
we would be discussing and so she could take it home as a reminder of

everything we talked about in our conference.

I started off the parent teacher conference by introducing myself to Ms.
Raven, shaking her hand, and leading her to the room we would be speaking in. I
asked her how she was doing and how Jay was as we walked. I wanted to use
this time to get to know Ms. Raven as an individual and to see how she was
feeling. When we got to the room we sat down next to each other and I thanked
her for coming. I wanted to make it clear that I appreciated her effort in coming to
the meeting to support Jay. I then opened up our conversation by discussing
Jays strengths. Jay performs well in science, focuses during instructional time,
and is creative. I wanted to encourage Ms. Raven that Jay does exhibit positive
behavior in the classroom and that I enjoy having him in my class. We then
discussed my concerns for Jay. I told Ms. Raven about Jays angry outbursts and
showed her the incident report I created. I also discussed Jays relationship with
his classmates and his performance in math. I asked Ms. Raven why Jay might
be exhibiting angry behavior and she let me know that it may be because he
plays violent video games with his brother. Ms. Raven asked me what I was
already doing in math to help Jay and I told her we had started to work one on
one together. After discussing these concerns Ms. Raven and I agreed on the
goal that we want Jay to perform on level in math, control his outburst, and bond
with his classmates.
After deciding upon a goal I introduced an action plan to Ms. Raven. This
plan involved giving Jay ways to cool down when hes angry by allowing him to
go get a drink of water or draw a picture to express his feelings, bringing in the

counselor for friendship lessons in the classroom, and instructing Jay one-on-one
in math. We discussed this plan and Ms. Raven thought giving Jay choices when
he becomes angry is a good idea. We agreed that I should send her daily email
reports about Jays behavior. She also told me that it may be difficult to bring Jay
early in the morning or have him stay late for extra assistance in math so we
agreed that I could pull Jay in class to work with him one on one when he
finished assignments early.
Our conversation was positive and we ended with a quick review of
everything we had discussed during the conversation. I walked Ms. Raven back
to her seat and thanked her for coming. I then sent an email to Ms. Raven a
couple of hours later again thanking her for taking time out of her day to come to
the conference. The email also reviewed everything we had discussed during our
meeting.
All in all, I feel as if the conference went well. It stayed positive through its
entirety and I was able to gain information about Jay. I felt like Ms. Raven and I
were able to collaborate well. Dr. Hill gave me good advice when we discussed
the conference. She said that I was well-spoken, positive, and engaging but that I
seemed a little nervous. She felt that I was knowledgeable about the content we
were speaking about and she liked that I was prepared with a plan. She told me I
was professional and encouraging. Something I could have improved on would
be taking the information gained during the meeting and applying it to my plan for
action. Dr. Hill told me that when she mentioned Jay enjoyed video games I could
have applied this knowledge to my action and could have mentioned that Jay

could play some math games on the ipad to encourage his performance and
math and to help him enjoy math more. She also sated that I could have
questioned for deeper knowledge by asking if Ms. Raven had internet access at
home. I definitely wish I would have used that opportunity to understand more
about Jays home life and to show I care about the familys needs at home.
All in all, I enjoyed participating in the mock parent teacher conference. It
was great to experience what a conference may be like before I get into the
classroom. I picked up some good advice from Dr. Hill that I will keep in mind in
the future. I want to ensure that I work collaboratively with my future students
parents. I want to ensure that I am respectful of family backgrounds and that I
honor the needs of different families. Above all I want to make it clear to parents
that my goal is to help their child to succeed and that I think we wan work
together to make that happen.

Invitation Email:

Follow Up Email:

Agenda:
10:45-10:48
10:48-10:53
10:53-10:57
10:57-11:00

Introduction, walk to room, discuss

strengths, get to know Ms. Raven
Discuss concerns, ask questions about
Jays life at home
Discuss plan for improvement, ask for
insight on what will help Jay succeed
Review conference, walk back to seat,
thank for coming

Resources:

Incident Report
Monday April 18th, 2016
Jay kicked Ryan in the leg on at 9:07 am while the students were walking back
from the carpet to their seats
Jay hit Jack on the shoulder at 11:13 am while lining up in the hallway
Jay took Sarahs notebook out of her hands at 12:05 pm when the students were
working independently at their desks
Mrs. Joyner reported that Jay hit Justin in the arm while playing a game in PE
around 1:00 pm
Jay tripped Sarah during silent reading time as she was walking to get a book at
2:15 pm
Behavior Article: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/student-motivation-alternatives-torewards-richard-curwin

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