parent's night

Parent's Night was yesterday and went far better than I expected. I had ~20 percent turnout, which is good for high school in general and amazing for here.

The best part though was feeling like every conversation went well. That parents left with confidence in me. Whether I bragged on their student, honestly said the student wasn't working, or some mixture of the two, everyone was positive.

They weren't all easy conversations. When my first mother told me who her daughter was the first thought flashing through my head was "I couldn't start with an easy one, could I?" But I was able to pull out yesterday's assignment and say "We took 50 minutes to work on this. You can see what she didn't get done." (Anything.) "I would come ask her if she needed any, and she'd just smile at me and say no, covering her paper all the time." Mom's going to be in class on Tuesday.

There was one family that I'd been warned about because they love to argue. The student loves to debate a point and makes careless errors right and left. I feel like he's one that doesn't try nearly as much as he could. So when his mom asked if I was using a book, I explained that the book's provided for the material I'm teaching right now are trash and that the students are not at the level for the book that's supposed to go with their class.
"Well I was just wondering where you got your questions."
"I have teachers editions at home and use the internet a lot."
Apparently the real issue was a question in the homework. So I worked it on the board. I think it was a good thing that I made the same mistake she'd made. (So nice to have a parent who KNOWS math.) I couldn't see my error immediately, so I reworked it a different way. Finally, I had the lightbulb, "Oh, there's the mistake. I forgot that negative sign. That's the same type of mistake your son makes. I make the careless errors too, so I know how important it is to look for them and be careful." I think she was just as happy to find out what her mistake was as she was to know that I could solve the problem and do the math.
From there did the last homework problem with her son. Which was an amazing chance to show her how I work with him in class. I had him work it on the board and asked the same type of questions that I do when she's not there. "What's first in your order of operations?" "If you add two what does that do? Is that really helping you?" He didn't get it immediately, but did eventually. As they were leaving, I asked if that method seemed appropriate for him or if she had some other approach that she'd like me to take with her son. Full approval.

It's good to have parents on my side.

Especially when I hand out grades that are a depressing wake-up call. The answers aren't being handed out anymore kids. You have to learn to do it on your own. And in order to learn, it's a good idea to be in class. Don't complain that you didn't get the chance to study when you haven't been here in a week. Knowing that those parents approve of what they saw will keep me going until some more students start picking things up.