4b Maintaining Accurate Records 

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My cooperating teacher set a great example for me when talking about keeping accurate records. By keeping up to date records of events, behaviors, and academic progress you are protecting yourself and providing insight into that child’s time at school. Academic records are very important to keep. During student teaching, I continually added to the binder that my cooperating teacher had for each child’s reading progress. Included in this binder is a brief history of all the running records taken over the course of that year, FRY tests taken, results from Star academy tests and then any other notes about that student’s interest and general attitude in reading. This is helpful to have because anytime a parent comes in and wants to know where their child is at you can pull out the binder and look at their records. About 2-3 times a week during reading time, I would choose a student to read with and check in with one of our records. They were very informal and low stress because students were accustomed to reading with the teacher periodically. I would check in with certain students more than others based on need.

 

Another way to check in with students in a non-instructional format is by keeping a conversation notebook. During my week long teaching block at Bothwell Middle School students kept learning logs. Each learning log was divided into sections based on subjects. At the back, was an area for letters to  be written back and forth between teacher and student. At the end of the day, I would write a note asking about the student’s thoughts on the day or their general interests. As the week went on I learned a lot about my students through the letters. I made sure to include the interests I learned about into my teaching as often as possible.

 

4c Communicating with Families

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Communication with families is an important link to successful education. There are a few ways that I

kept open relationships between myself and my student’s parents. To begin, I would  greet them with a

smile and ask how there were doing during drop off and pick up times. This is normally a fast paced part

of the day but it was important for me to take the time to engage in greetings and chat.

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During the first month of my student teaching placement, my cooperating teacher and I arranged a pizza

night for the third and fourth grade students. Families were invited to come in after school and read the

books their students had created. We purposely set up this time to serve as a night for me to introduce

myself to the parents and get a chance to talk with them. Many families showed up and I was able to meet

a lot of the parents and have one-on-one conversations.

 

Another way that I interacted with parents was through parent-teacher conferences. This was a time to discuss students’ academic and behavioral needs in the classroom. Since I teach both third and fourth grade classes it was fun to observe how both my cooperating teacher and the third grade teacher interacted with families. The more I experience these interactions the more confident I feel in my own interactions with parents. 

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My cooperating teacher showed me how she interacts with parents differently depending on the relationship she has with them. Some she routinely texts with and uses more informal language while others prefer her to call and email.  She also shared with me examples of notes she sends home throughout the year to keep families updated on class activity. At the start of the year, she sends out a letter introducing herself and gives a broad idea of what the students will be focusing on that year. I have kept these examples as resources of successful communication between the teacher and families. 

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