Conferences

This week is conference week!  I dread the long, Thursday...we teach all day Thursday and then have conferences after school until 9:00 pm.  Then, we have conferences all day Friday until 3:00pm.  It's an exhausting 2 days!  We also have an additional evening conference the following Thursday and then have to teach that Friday.  YUCK!  Anyhow, this pas weekend I was busy getting everything ready to go!  Because of my #1 selling Parent Teacher Conference pack, the organizational piece is a breeze.  I have all my forms ready...the main thing I have to do is collect my thoughts and get my talking points ready.  I have a pretty good class this year, so conferences shouldn't be too bad!

Early in the year, after I've finished assessing my kids on their Beginning of the Year Assessments, I sort them all into their own folders.  **I also give the same assessments again in November to show growth.**  One folder per child.  This makes grabbing conference materials easy.  A day or two before An hour before conferences begin {LOL}, I order the folders in the order of my conferences.  I place the folders on my table where I'll be meeting with families.

I update my guided reading level chart.  *This chart is found in my data binder pack.  This is an excellent visual for parents to see where their child began, where they are now, and how they compare to their peers.  This is especially helpful to show those advanced and below-level readers.  It puts things into perspective for parents.

On my conference table, I have a basket of goodies of some sort to give to parents for coming.  I typically do popcorn, but have done S'mores, also.

The kids get their desks ready before leaving school.  They do not take their data binders home on Thursday; they stay on their desks for conferences.  The binders are a great tool to lead our conference discussion.

I keep any handouts I'll be sharing with parents on my table.  This is an old photo below, but many handouts I give to parents are included in my conference pack.  **And especially helpful is a timer!  I do not like to run behind.  Mainly because many of our families have young siblings and I know it's hard to keep them entertained them in the hallway.  Speaking of hallway, placing a basket of books and some coloring pages and crayons is another thing that I do.

I place a "Giving Tree" page on my conference table in case parents want to donate something small to our classroom.  I try to include things that aren't too expensive and are staples for our room.  If they want, they can take an apple.

There you have it!  Easy-peasy!  Mostly everything shown in this post is found in my Conference Pack.  If not, it's been hyper-linked throughout the post.

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xo
Megan