We went to the open house for our daughter's grade, tonight. It was -- interesting.
The teachers were all knowledgeable and motivated. Their demeanor and style ran from open, friendly, "I'm here to help your child succeed" to stern, focused, cold, "Four screw ups, such as talking when I'm talking, and you'll have detention with me". They were casual to super-structured, occasionally informative, and one dumped so much info, I think I'd recognize his DNA now.
I'm glad I went. Now I know which classes I need to make sure my daughter's on track with, because those give no leniency ("If homework is late, you get a zero, but you still have to turn it in"). But I also need to keep aware of the others, because they're interested, and they obviously care (as distinct from the zero-giver). Some made sure we know what they're doing, and testing on, while one explicitly said "No, thats not me, I don't do it that way, I don't believe in it." Pick the style you like, you'll find a teacher who uses it, and one who's the antithesis.
And just about every single one said 'Hah, you think THIS is tough, wait till next year in HIGH SCHOOL'.
2 comments:
It's mucho important for kids to have parents who are motivated to endure parent-teacher conferences.
Kudos to you.
Well, this wasn't exactly a pt conference -- in fact, those are pretty awful, since, for the last three years, its been the kid doing a presentation that they prepared about what they're doing. Its supposed to include problems they've had, but I notice that they don't -- the kid doesn't want to put it in, and the teacher doesn't make them unless its egregiously bad. The teacher just sits there and nods as the kid does it. I think its a waste of time.
But one of us always goes, and for things like this, which was 'meet the teacher in a compressed time frame' (thinking of speed-dating, we refer to it as speed-teaching), we'll both go. Just knowing about that one teacher is useful; and, as we were quite taken by the enthusiasm of her English instructor, we bought a gift card for her to use in building up her stock of loanable books. We figured she deserved some positive feedback.
Post a Comment