Write a research article for the National Association for the Education of Young Children discussing the value of conferences and offering some teaching ideas. After reading the article on family conferences, as well as last week’s readings on family engagement, please pick from ONE of the scenarios below and record a conferences as the child’s teacher. You should demonstrate that you’ve read the articles and the readings on family/school connections in how you present the conference. Since this is a pretend scenario, you get to decide the context that I don’t provide, but you should use your understanding of family engagement and child development to respond to the situation. Here are the articles on conferences: Articles for Family/School Conference Put yourself in the role of the teacher and make sure to cover the following: let the family know how you feel about the child, demonstrate that you came prepared make a positive connection with the family, address the issue with a plan, arrange a follow-up, After reading and choosing ONE of the scenarios below, please post your video as the teacher here. This again can be audio or video, it should not sound like you’re reading, it should be an authentic conversation. Please put TEACHER in all caps at the top of the post. THEN Due by SUNDAY: Find someone else who has posted a video of the teacher. Reply to their post as the family. How would you, as a family member of this child, respond to this video? You can reply right to their post. There is no right or wrong way to respond here. Don’t be mean, but do be honest about how you think a family member might respond to how the teacher delivered the information. If you as the teacher feel that you need to respond again, you should share another video. PS – if you and another classmate would rather have this in real-time – you can do a live chat in Pronto, record it, and then share it with me. Remember, just choose one: SCENARIO #1 Teacher-initiated conference: It is in November. You have a three-year-old child, Ella, in your class whose birthday is June 1st. The girl has been having a very hard time inserting herself into play with other children, despite trying in various ways. Sometimes, she tries to ask if she can play and other times she goes to where the children are playing and is destructive with the materials that they are using. Most recently she watched as a group of students worked on a volcano in the sandbox and then started walking very close to it and caused parts of it to crumble as the children screamed and yelled at her to stop. When asked about what was happening, she said that she wanted to play with them but knew that they wouldn’t let her. At your initial conference with her family (her mom and grandfather) in September, the mother talked about how Ella says she doesn’t have any friends in the class and often says that she has nobody to play with during her time at school. At that conference, you told the parent that you would watch what was happening, and then you would reach out to meet later in the fall. You now decide that it’s time to reach out. SCENARIO #2 Parent-initiated Conference It is in January. You have a 2-year-old boy, Marco, in your class (he turns three on April 12th) who has been taking fabric and making dresses out of them with two girls. The three children have been running around saying that they are princesses and pretending to chase each other and sometimes reenacting movies about princesses that they’ve seen. This play began in the fall with Marco and other boys and the two girls playing with dolls together. They would pretend to feed the dolls and put them to sleep or sometimes just all take the dolls around with them as they had other experiences. As the year has progressed, they play less often with the dolls and the other boy and more the three of them (Marco and the two girls) playing dress-up. The mom and dad would pick Marco up and ask him about the fabric that he was wearing. He would tell them he’s a princess and the parents would glance at each other. You talked with them regularly about the connections he was making with the children in the class and how he was a sought-after friend due to his openness to others and their ideas. The parents have recently been asking you about how much time he’s spending playing dress-up and then last week they requested this conference. SCENARIO #3 Teacher-initiated conference It is October and a five-year-old boy, Asar, (he turned five on September 30th) has been happily transitioning into your T-K class. He’s making friends, engaging with the materials, and even trying hard to work with another child who is still very much struggling with impulse control. He shows a lot of patience for the child and will often remind him to talk to someone rather than be physical. He loves listening to a teacher read and looking at books himself and when outside he spends a great deal of time engaged in dramatic play in the sandbox. He uses the trucks and wheelbarrow in his games with his friends and they often like to imagine what might be under the sand as they’re digging as deep as they can. Asar’s family, his two moms, have asked you several times about kindergarten readiness. They want to make sure that he’s ready to start kindergarten and worry that because he’s on the older side that he might get bored. They’ve asked about homework and for suggestions about starting him on a phonics lesson. SCENARIO #4 Parent-initiated conference It is in late September. You have a one-and-a-half-year-old girl, Natalia, in your class who is brand new to your school (she turns two on March 10th). Her family’s first language is Portuguese, which nobody in your school speaks. The girl’s dad is a single father who can speak English but is not 100% fluent. You had a meeting with him when Natalia first started at the beginning of September. You learned more about their family, including that her mother lives out of state, and that he speaks to Natalia primarily in Portuguese. As you’ve gotten to know Natalia, you’ve observed that she’s not verbal yet. She’s doing some babbling, but it’s very infrequent. When you talk with her, she doesn’t seem to engage with you/ or respond to your verbal cues. You attempted to use sign language with Natalia, as you often do with pre-verbal children, but Natalia, yet, has not mimicked any of the signs. She does seem happy; will let you hold her and seems relaxed in your arms and free to explore her environment. Her father has asked to meet to check in and see how she is adjusting to school. This article is an interesting perspective from an educator and a parent on how conferences should go. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/parent-teacher-conference-tips-elena-aguilar Here is another piece from the National Association of the Education of Young Children on the importance of conferences and some strategies for teachers. This file is attached Finally, some tips for teachers: Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/9-tips-organizing-family-conferences-maia-heyck-merlin
