We do conferences different

Yesterday and Thursday were parent/teacher/student conferences at my school. I love conference time. It sounds a little weird I know, but no matter how low a student is, or how poorly behaved they are in class, the conference always turns out positive - and from what I remember last year, it always ends up with at least some positive results as well.

Things I love about the way we do conferences:

~ It's right before Thanksgiving break

~ We take a minimum day on Thursday to make room for conferences starting at 1pm

~ Then we continue in the morning the next day

~ Which means we get to do conferences without the pressures of daily lesson planning and grading on our backs

~ The PTA makes an AWESOME soup supper for the teachers on Thursday night, since we are usually at school until 8pm

~ The 8th grade team chips in for breakfast the next morning

~ Some of the younger teachers go out for Cheesecake Factory after all conferences are over on Friday

~ All the teachers are there, and it's pretty insightful to hear from the other subject matter teachers on any one particular kid

I don't usually have down time during conferences - at least on Thursday. If I'm not at my own conference, I'm translating for someone. I had 2-3 appointments at each time slot from 1pm through 7:30pm on Thursday and it was INSANE. However, I only had two conferences on Friday morning. It was just nice to sit, and chat, and grade, and help the other teachers do some organizing, and munch on snacks. Especially the snacks part - I don't normally get a chance to eat anything from 6:30am through 12:40pm on a regular work day.

Notice all the comments about food? Yeah. I like food.