Blogging Hiatus is Over.. and Parent Teacher Conferences

Whew! What a whirl wind of a couple of weeks, my poor little blog has been neglected, but I think I'm back in action.

A week ago Wednesday, my husband and I *finally* closed on our first home. A 1960's ranch, that hadn't been updated since the 1970's for the most part. Last weekend we painted the vast majority of the upstairs and moved the furniture over. This week, I crammed in 3 graduate assignments (just in the nick of time) and tried to stay ahead of all of the classroom antics. It was hard to find time to breathe.

Be prepared for several posts to reflect back on what we've done. Sorry, that I wasn't with it enough to help you and others along with planning along the way, but that's what Pinterest is for, right? 

Midway through October, we had our first parent teacher conferences of the year. They went really well. I thought I'd share a few ideas that happened before & after that may help you out with any approaching parent teacher conferences.

I love this picture of my classroom. It was a beautiful fall afternoon, and my room hadn't been that clean since my lovely learners and their comrades from our daily switches, never quite leave things in a neat way.

The big thing to notice in this picture are my windows. See those lovely pennants? They come from one of my best blogging buddies, Diane. She created a "goals pennant" that I had to have before conference. Fourth grade is the first year of an A-F grade card, and some of my kiddos needed to refocus, and think about some goals and how to achieve those goals. This pennant was perfect!

I put the picture on the outside of the window, and the student writing on the inside of the room. The pennants made for a fun thing to touch on during conferences. Many parents were interested to see what their child wanted to focus on.

A useful product throughout the year. Click to see more details.

For the rest of the room/ tips:

1. Have something for little ones to do. During student teaching my cooperating teacher gave me this tip, it's been great ever since. A few fall/Halloween coloring sheets awaited younger siblings.

Picture taken before I had the crayons out

 2. Make sure all feel welcome. I had a greeting on the overhead and a Scentsy going. It was a wee bit warm and a PE day. A neutral scent was needed. :) Not pictured, be sure to have enough seats for all who attend.


3. Be organized!

 With Halloween right around the corner and conferences slated through the suppertime hour, I had a treat for anyone who came. The folders, students drew on and wrote their names on were color coded by day and I stacked them in order of conference. The biggest help was a notepad. It never failed, each conference, there was a little something to check on for parents, reminders for upcoming appointments for the child, etc.


Hope these ideas help with any upcoming conferences you may have!