What I Learned About Parent Teacher Conferences This Year

Typically, I dread Parent Teacher Conferences. Not only are the days long, but I also feel a sense of anxiety related to the unknowns like how will parents react to what I share? “What I share….” Even though in the past I have endeavored to have the kids “participate,” I have come to learn there is a drastic difference between having them participate and empowering kids to lead the conference. Conferences are especially powerful when kids can articulate their learning goals, opportunities for growth, and fully take ownership of their explaining their learning.  

The pandemic forced many teachers into virtual Parent Teacher Conferences that looked a little different this year. The shifts I made to support virtual conferences, and a shift in my attitude or perspective, changed the tone of the conferences. Unknowingly, I made several improvements to the conference format, but there are still many more changes I can make to continue to make them more authentic and meaningful. 

 

My district/school had Parent Teacher Conferences this past week. What a great day!!! A long day, but I great day! I got to spend my day bragging on twenty-one amazing kids to their parents. What an honor and privilege to be their teacher!

 

Every single child has accomplished something that we can brag about to their parents. That shift from starting the conference with a positive, but ultimately still focusing on the deficits, to FULLY celebrating the child as a human being and mentioning an opportunity for growth, really made a difference. A subtle shift with a BIG impact. 

 

It also helped that the kids used the structured PowerPoint template I gave them to create their own slide deck for the conference. Since they created their own slide deck, which included work samples that they took pride in sharing, they were eager to take over the conference (instead of briefly participating while I talked).

 

This year, the pandemic gave me one other major talking point. Parents need to hear a counter-narrative to the message that has been repeated over and over again in the media—It breaks my teacher heart to hear the media talk about “learning loss.” What I have witnessed isn’t loss but growth, maturity, independence, resilience, technical savvy, ability to multitask... and so much more. We need to celebrate kids and all of their amazing accomplishments this past year, many of which don’t appear on a report card or standardized tests. 

 

I still have a long way to go. Moving towards a gradeless classroom that is more focused on learning—the process and not necessarily the products—will continue to move my conferences forward. The kids were definitely more invested in conferences this year, which was AWESOME! It might be helpful to give them more options to creatively share what they have accomplished. I also want to find ways to involve parents not only during Parent Teacher Conferences, but in our learning community throughout the year. 

The Beauty of Mathematics: A Continuum

 “Mathematics reveals its secrets only to those who approach it with pure love, 

for its own beauty.”  Archimedes

 

 

I think most people who are reading this article have at one point or another made the following comment, “I don’t understand this ‘new-fangled’ (Common Core) math. This is not how I learned math when I was in school.” I know that I have repeated this comment more times than I care to admit. As a teacher of mathematics, I have had to learn math from a whole new perspective in order to teach it to my students. As a bibliophile, lover of books, I have never quite felt the same love for math that I feel for literacy. Even though I may not love math the same way I love literacy, I have grown to appreciate its beauty. I have come to understand math is also about storytelling with a language that is both universal and unique.

 

Literacy expert Louise Rosenblatt (1978) distinguishes between two types of reading: efferent and aesthetic. The stances represent opposite ends of a continuum. I believe the same is true for mathematics. When a student is viewing math from an efferent stance, he or she is engaging in math for pragmatic reasons. For example, completing a calculation using a traditional algorithm to efficiently solve a problem like 12 x 5 = 60. At the opposite end of the continuum, a student who is viewing math from an aesthetic stance finds joy, pure love, in curiously exploring the beauty of math.

 

What is beauty? Merriam-Webster defines beauty as, “the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit.” Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Not sure who first said that famous quote, but I do know that sometimes we pass by beautiful people, or things, because we don’t take the time to stop, notice, reflect, and wonder. I have come to learn that “mathematics is not about numbers, equations, computations, or algorithms: it is about understanding”—William Paul Thurston. Math is orderly, sublimely pure, and perfect. The simplicity of math can be found everywhere (see pictures below). The University College London has used brain scans to show that complex mathematical equations, or formulas, can evoke the same sense of “beauty” as an artistic masterpiece or music from a great composer. My job as an educator is to help my students efficiently and accurately calculate numbers, equations, computations, or algorithms, as well as look for the universal beauty in math. My job as an educator is to help my students understand and appreciate that beauty, because mathematics is not just a worksheet, it inhabits the world all around us. 

 

According to Stahl and Nagy (2007), “Language is a key component in the learning process. People’s perceptions of the world are largely shaped by their vocabulary knowledge. Indeed, words are the tools we use to access our background knowledge, express ideas, and learn new concepts” (p. 4). Students can solve equations with little effort, or vocabulary knowledge, using a calculator (efferent stance). I need to also help my students develop the language they need to communicate their mathematical thinking beyond that of calculating a simple equation (aesthetic stance).

 

This “new-fangled” math is definitely not the math I learned in school. This “new-fangled” math reveals secrets that open a world of possibilities and opportunities far exceeding any numbers, equations, computations, or algorithms. It requires language, storytelling, processing skills, critical thinking, creativity, perseverance, and teamwork. All skills necessary for success in the global society we live in today. What a gift students have been given that I rarely had access to when I learned math. After being cooped up all winter due to the weather and COVID-19, take a moment to go outside with your child and explore the beauty of math in all its forms. What mathematical beauty do you notice? What do you wonder? What words can you use to tell the story of math? The real-world applications of math are endless!