18h30 – 20h30: Felt awkward.
I can keep myself together on the phone but get me in a room with a parent and I started feeling exactly how I look. Which is to say: young. Didn’t help matters that my assembled art gallery was, er, a bit underwhelming.
18h30 – 20h30: Felt awkward.
I can keep myself together on the phone but get me in a room with a parent and I started feeling exactly how I look. Which is to say: young. Didn’t help matters that my assembled art gallery was, er, a bit underwhelming.
7 Comments
Ben Bleckley
May 8, 2007 - 5:03 am -Have you ever considered growing a beard? I added about 5 years that way.
dan
May 8, 2007 - 6:11 am -Considered it, yeah, but unfortunately I’m bound by genetics to grow only this patchy, lop-sided forest on my face, that would probably engender me even less with parents.
Jeff
May 8, 2007 - 6:34 am -At least you’ve got some height. Also, I don’t know what the dress code is at your school, but I’ve found that wearing a tie helps when meeting with parents.
J.D. Williams
May 8, 2007 - 7:13 am -I have the same problem.
I think that the best thing to do is just be knowledgeable about their child. I see 100 kids a day and the parents know that. When I can tell them where their child sits, or who they are talking to that gets them in to trouble, it goes a long ways. Don’t b.s. them or use educational jargon either.
Just be straight forward with them. I teach 6th grade, your a high school teacher. The parents know their kids and how they act in school by now. They’ve been hearing the same song and dance by us for the past years.
Jennifer
May 8, 2007 - 4:39 pm -I have the same problem. I’m 24 and most of my students have brothers and sisters that are older than me. Nevermind the fact that I’m a happy/smile all the time type of person…that only ads to my age-deficit.
dan
May 8, 2007 - 5:04 pm -Oh geez … you’ve gotta cut the smiling out. Laughing too.
Dee
May 8, 2007 - 7:22 pm -Ah, just teach their kids and don’t worry about the age thing. It will change and the next thing you know, you will be looking at the parents and wondering why they look like kids themselves LOL
I have a 17 and a 15 year old. I like it that they have teachers who are a variety pf ages and personalities – it gives them the experience they need to learn to deal with all kinds of people and gives them a broader perspective.
( keep smiling Jennifer, whether they show it or not the fact that you look happy makes parents think you like teaching their kids and that is important to them!)
Amen J.D. as a parent I want to hear that you know my child – teachers spend almost as much time as I do with them by high school and the best way to head off problems is communication. I want to hear that from the perspective of someone who sees a hundred kids a day that mine is going to be okay. Parents and teachers have to be partners – and from the parents perspective, most parents are a little nervous about open house – I never know what my child may have said or done in class that will make a teacher judge me as a parent. We as teachers want our students to do well because it reflects on us and we as parents want that for the same reason. We want to know that we are doing a good job and that they will manage to at the very least survive us and better yet – that they will be successful because of us!