First year teaching parent-teacher conferences are now over. The version of me that went into the fall conferences are very different from the version of me that the parents saw this past week.

The discussion points were nearly the same: Great kid, very social in class describes the vast majority of my students. I went over progress monitoring testing that we do in math, talked to each family about options for practicing math after school, addressed more individualized concerns and questions. The advantage to my conferences this time however was that this time around, I actually mostly knew what I was getting into.

Honestly, my gears have shifted quite a bit this spring. In the fall, I was mostly concerned with impostor syndrome and making sure I knew the curriculum. Now that I have more of a feel for how the classes will go, my attention has shifted to not just ending the year well, ensuring that my students are ready for 8th grade, but also to what I know now and how to best structure for next year.

We have a very unique and sometimes challenging group of 6th graders heading to our 7th grade classes next year.

So, in the midst of this reflection on year 1 and planning for year 2 all of the sudden the spring conferences caught up to me almost without warning. But this time, I felt so much better about them. And whether it should signify the end of the year or not, it felt like a huge milestone: I made it through talking to parents this year and still managed to feel at least a little polished, like I actually belong in the classroom (which I do, but again, impostor syndrome).

Honestly, looking back at this school year, the amount of things I have been juggling has been insane. I completed a teaching program, moved, started teaching my own classroom for the first time, and am currently beginning a Masters program in curriculum and instruction with plans to branch out and work on a graduate certificate in mathematics once the masters is completed (Yes, I know it’s not a normal route, but my life has been anything but a ‘normal’ route and that was even before attaining my teaching credentials).

If you have happened to stumble across this post and this blog and you’re going into teaching and nervous about parent communication. The best advice I can give you is what a previous principal told everyone while I was a paraprofessional:

Find something good about each kid to share with parents. Parents aren’t there to hear what’s wrong with their student*, they love their kids and want to know that the teachers care about them.

While attendance at the middle school level was low. Using all that advice created some great conversations with parents. I am very pleased to report that all the conferences felt like they went very well.

*Yes, by all means share if the kid gets chatty during class, etc…, but focus on the good as well. And wrap any negatives with a positive sandwich. If the kid has issues with behavior there is a good chance that is mostly everything the parent has heard from the school.