Parent Conferences and Week before break

  Hi All, hope everyone is staying warm on these blustery cold days. Last week as I had mentioned, parent-teacher conferences were held Thursday evening and Friday afternoon. Overall I was fairly pleased with the turn-out. I would have liked to see a few more parents, I had three Thursday and one Friday, but I will take what I can and do what I can to help the students. My mentor was able to see a lot of his parents families, so he was really excited to have that opportunity. It is just a great opportunity to check in with the family, update them on their students progress, what they might be able to work on and also sometimes find out a little more information we might not know. These meetings can often be quite enlightening, especially when the student attends with the parent/guardian and you are able to see their interactions as well. The families I was able to meet with, I had some really productive conversations and was quite pleased with the discussions. It is very interesting to hear about my students from the parent perspective, gives me a little bit more of a fuller picture as to who they are and what they are about through the parents eyes. This weekend I spent trying to catch up on work and I was able to attend a Siena basketball game vs. Iona. The Saints had another large win and are continuing on their very successful season. It was a nice way to unwind from the week and gear up for getting work done.
  This week is going to be a crazy one, as is every week before a break is. I was surprised at how energetic and not focused my students were today, I can only imagine how it will progress through the week. A lot of today's work called on previous knowledge, so I was extremely pleased when the students remembered that previous information rather quickly. It made me feel better to know that they are paying attention and are actually retaining the information. Some of the students asked really great questions about the excretory system. I was glad that I had anticipated some of their responses ahead of time, so I was better able to answer their questions. I must admit I am just as excited as they are, that next week is break. I have a lot of work to catch up on and I wouldn't mind a little extra sleep as well.
  Well that is it for now. I will try and check back in later in the week.