The following report was adapted from one actually submitted during a previous year. Proper names used in the report have been changed to ensure privacy.
INTRODUCTION
Basis of CE
State here the basis of your clinical experience.
Clinical Interaction: Parent-Teacher Conferences
Procedure
Explain briefly what it is that you did in this clinical experience. For
example, see the "procedure" section of the Clinical Interactions
Handbook for this activity.
I attended the whole conference with Joseph's mom and teachers, and part of
a conference with Earl's grandparents and teachers, and part of another one
that somehow got scheduled at the same time. Finally, I attended a conference
with Darryl's parents and teachers. Darryl's younger sister was there too.
OBSERVATIONS
Experience
Summarize what you experienced during your clinical experience activity.
***Date of Experience: Thursday, 5 November, 2003
***School Site: Grant High School
***Times of Observation: The first conferences were around 4:00 P.M.; the
last conference was at 6:45 P.M.
***Duration: Each conference lasted about 15 minutes.
Observations
Joseph's conference
Joseph's
mom and his four teachers were there. His subjects were pre-calculus,
ceramics, PE and physics. His math teacher praised his ability and noted
his tendency to procrastinate
or skip some homework assignments, but he had something like a 95% grade. Once
when he missed some school so he could go to Kansas and work on a friend's
car,
but he promptly made up his missed assignments. His mom revealed Joseph's plans
to go into agricultural engineering, and the math teacher commented on how
much
math he'll be expected to take. His mom also made some comparison between
his effort and that of his older brother Robert who was surprised by the amount
of work required in college. The ceramics teacher said Joseph is working hard
and enjoying his work. His mom commented about a work he's made that had lots
of balls in it, and the teacher also mentioned that he has encouraged the students
to make some Christmas gifts. The PE teacher talked about pulling Joseph aside
to tell him he does not have to act funny to be popular. He wanted Joseph to
know that he is a lot more mature than that. Since then, Joseph's behavior
has
improved. All the participants in the conference appeared to leave with a positive
impression of Joseph's progress.
Earl's conference
Next, Mr.
Smith had two conferences scheduled at the same time. We briefly went to the
first one, for a student named Earl. It was a conference with his grandparents.
Mr. Smith said his learning at Grant High School has asked him to be more
interactive that what he was used to at his former high school. He's polite,
courteous, and never causing trouble, Mr. Smith said. Then there was a long
wait until the last conference at 6:45 , but Mr. Smith
got really excited after that conference because he felt he had found a key
to getting Darryl motivated.
Darryl's Conference
Darryl is
in Mr. Smith's 3rd block technology class. Also Darryl was taking ceramics,
journalism and PE. Mr. Smith spoke to Darryl's parents first as the other teachers
were arriving. He explained that Darryl tends to take a back seat, to just be
an observer and let the world go by, but he's trying to increase Darryl's level
of active participation. Darryl's mom asked for examples or clarification. Mr.
Smith explained that he's proposed several projects to Darryl (learning about
the global positioning system, helping determine a route for nature trail, and
making signs for the nature trail) but Darryl has not accepted any of these.
The ceramics teacher explained how Darryl puts a lot of effort into his work
and does not require any encouragement to get started, and "His works are
beautiful" he said. Darryl's mom asked the ceramic teacher about the possibility
of independent study next semester, and the teacher said Darryl could do it
and explained what he would probably have him do. Darryl's Dad mentioned that
Darryl helps around the farm, and when others are commenting on the beautiful
weather, Darryl will flatly agree, "Yeah, the sun's out." The PE instructor
said Darryl's really likes the weight room and the fitness program. His mom
confirmed that no unhealthy food goes into his mouth. He's lost 60 pounds
over 6 months, his parents said. He used to be 235 pounds. Mr. Smith
was interested in how he did it. His parents said he has weights at home. Plus
he
worked hard on the farm and ran for exercise. Finally, the journalism teacher
said the class is divided into two sections--background and productions. The
background part involves learning the journalistic writing style, which is
quite
different from essay writing. Now that they've gotten into production, Darryl's
grade of 91% will probably go up. He's writing a music review for The Observer,
the school newspaper. His parents said that he really likes guitars and music.
His journalism teacher said that he was practically hovering over her desk today
asking questions.
Analysis
Analyze your experience. For example, see the "criteria" section
of the Clinical Experiences Handbook for this activity.
Mr. Smith was very enthusiastic about the insights into Darryl's interests. He has ideas to encourage him to design a 3-D guitar model or some nutrition posters for the health class. Also I noticed that Mr. Smith actually wrote some of the ideas down on his copy of the parent-teacher conferences schedule. As we walked down the hall, he explained how once he finds out what's going on in his student's minds it like being able to put a key in a lock and turn it. The day he invited me to participate, Mr. Smith had explained that the way that teacher's conferences are now done at Grant High School was not the way they always used to be done. It used to be that each teacher would meet with each parent individually. However, by having all the student's teachers meet with the parents at once, the teacher's get to hear one another's insights, and if there are some difficult issues to deal with, the teachers have the support of colleagues in handling the issues. Also the parents end up having to spend less time at the school. Grant High School’s staff encourage all the parents to come to conferences. This contrasts with my high school where parent-teacher conferences were arranged only at the parent's request. Mr. Smith said that unfortunately with most of the kids who need to have their parents come to a conference, the situation is that the parents do not want to come.
CONCLUSION
Learning
State what what you have learned from this clinical experience.
The advantage of teaching conferences is that teachers get to communicate
with each other and with parents and offer mutual support. They also get to
consider
students as individuals, a practice which can often get overlooked in the busyness
of teaching. Also, if in the future I get involved in a situation where a bunch
of teachers have to stay late after school, I might want to bring
some supper in for some of the other teachers, like Adrian did. His food really
helped to make everyone feel less hungry and more at home.