Author: TCR Staff

Teacher Resources

Tips for Parent-Teacher Conferences and Report Cards: A Five-Part Series

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Has the time come for parent conferences? If you’re a veteran teacher, you know the drill. But for new teachers, the idea of parent conferences may stir up some nervous tension. Although parent conferences and report cards are periodic events and documents that need attention only at certain times of the year, it is imperative that you organize your time, energies, and information beforehand so that when that time rolls around, you are well-prepared and ready to complete report cards and hold successful conferences. How can you make any conference successful? Our five-part series on parent conferences and report cards will provide some tips that you can follow to ensure a positive outcome to any parent-teacher conference:

Part I: Keeping Accurate Daily Notes and Record Keeping

Keeping Accurate Daily Notes
The first and most important step is keeping accurate daily notes. Finding the time to record daily notes isn’t difficult; remembering to do so is. To begin with, you will need to give yourself daily reminders in a daily task book to “teach” yourself to use spare seconds to jot down notes. Once you get into the mindset of keeping daily notes, not only will you record information that will be invaluable when reporting time rolls around, but you will also enhance your observation skills by learning to be observant on an ongoing basis.

Record Keeping
Record keeping is a task that every teacher must do. Here are some timesaving tips to make record keeping easier, more efficient, and accurate.

  • When collecting tests to score and record, collect them in alphabetical order, last name first. You can then correct and record them straight into your gradebooks, instead of taking time to find each name on the page to record the information.
  • Use a pencil. You may need to change a grade, and a pencil keeps the page in better shape.
  • Color-code using colored pencils. You might record daily assignments in blue pencil and test scores in red, for example.
  • Choose a specific time each week to enter all grades into your computer.
  • Save even more time by using Gradekeeper software to manage your gradebooks. This powerful tool allows you to easily enter and record student information, assignments, and scores. You can customize by categories, letter grade cutoffs, and other grading options — even view or print a variety of reports, including class grades, attendance, individual student scores, and missing assignments.

How do you do your record keeping? Share your tips in our comment roll and let other teachers know what has or hasn’t been working for you!

Next Post: Part II: Arranging Your Room for Conferences

Classroom Management

Quiet Signals for Getting Attention and Control of Your Classroom

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What do you use to get the attention of your students when they are working? It’s hard for the “teacher look” to work when they are happily working on a group activity or not looking at you and talking as they work. One of the best treats a teacher can do for herself is to teach her class one or two signals for when she wants the attention of her students. You need several signals because if the class is quiet, one signal might work, but if they are noisy or on the playground, you may need a different signal altogether. The other key is that you need to teach the signal just as you would a math problem or a vocabulary word. After you have taught the signal, the students will need time and opportunity to practice it. If their practice is great, tell them so. If it is not, tell them they will need to practice the signal again until they can do it just right and mean it. If you accept less than complete attention, that is just what they will learn to give you. You may need to practice occasionally if they slip.

When deciding on the signal for your class, consider the age, grade, ability level, and maturity of the group. Just because it worked with the same grade level last year does not mean it will work well with this group.

Listed below are some possible signals.

Behavior Management

Student Discipline Strategies for Teachers

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A good teacher is never without a good plan for discipline in the classroom. Ask any teacher and you’ll know that good behavior management can go a long way. To help with managing student behavior, here are a few discipline strategies for teachers to keep in mind:

Discipline with Dignity
All students need to be treated with dignity. Even when a student is being disciplined, he or she needs to retain dignity. Private reminders and conferences with the child will preserve his or her dignity and yours.

One of the best things to remember concerning disciplining students is that they win whenever they get you to “lose your cool.” Take your time when students “push your buttons” and decide carefully on your response. In this way, you will not behave in a way that you will regret later.

Teach Students Responsibility
Students need to be taught that they are responsible for their own behavior. If a student does not follow the rules, it is best for natural or determined consequences to take their course whenever possible. When parents and others intervene, they take the responsibility for the student’s behavior away from the student.

Exercise Break
One of the best favors you can do for your students and yourself when students get wiggly and cannot seem to concentrate is to take an exercise break. One good time for a break like this is about 45 minutes before lunch. Take your students outside for 5–7 minutes of exercise led first by yourself, and then, after they know the exercises, the students. This is not to replace physical education, but it is a quick chance to do some specific physical activity when students need it most.

Another variation on this is to use low-impact aerobics for children in the classroom. One caution is that many of the shoes the students wear to school might be dangerous for exercise routines. If this is the case, you might want to encourage students to bring some tennis shoes to school for their exercise breaks.

Reward Good Behavior
A good discipline system should also include positive reinforcement for good behavior. Award certificates, badges, or simple, sincere verbal praise can keep good behavior on track and build self-esteem.

There are, of course, many more strategies for student discipline, and what may work for one teacher may not work for another. What discipline techniques have you found to be effective in your classroom?

Lesson Plans

Activities that Inspire Learning: Science Investigations

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Aside from being highly motivating and fun, science investigations provide an excellent opportunity for students to question the world in new and creative ways. The thinking skills a child develops while doing a science project are the same basic skills that will be used throughout life—to sense and clarify problems that exist and to find creative solutions to those problems. After a thorough review of the scientific process, allow students to guide their own learning by selecting a science investigation. Determine if you want students to work independently, with a partner, or with a small group.

Below is a list of ideas from which students may want to choose. Students will have to consider how they will conduct the investigation as well as how to present their investigation process and findings for review by the class or teacher.

Tip: You may want to do several science investigations as a class prior to assigning students to do one independently so that students gain an understanding of what is expected both of the process and the presentation.

Level 1
1. How much salt does it take to float an egg?
2. What kind of juice cleans pennies best?
3. Which dish soap makes the most bubbles?
4. On which surface can a snail move faster—dirt or cement?
5. What brand of raisin cereal has the most raisins?
6. Do ants like cheese or sugar better?
7. In my class who is taller—the boys or the girls?
8. Do different types of apples have the same number of seeds?
9. Do mint leaves repel ants?
10. What materials dissolve in water?
11. Do all objects fall to the ground at the same speed?
12. Do wheels reduce friction?
13. Can things be identified by just their odors?
14. With which type of battery do toys run on longest?

Level II
1. How far does a snail travel in one minute?
2. How far can a person lean without falling?
3. Can you tell time without a watch or a clock?
4. Does the shape of a kite affect its flight?
5. Does an ice cube melt faster in air or water?
6. How much of an orange is water?
7. Does baking soda lower the temperature of water?
8. Does the color of water affect its evaporation?
9. Can you separate salt from water by freezing?
10. Do suction cups stick equally well to different surfaces?
11. Which cheese grows mold the fastest?
12. Which kind of cleaner removes ink stains best?
13. Which gets warmer—sand or dirt?
14. What kind of glue holds two boards together better?

Level III
1. What type of line carries sound waves best?
2. Does an earthworm react to light and darkness?
3. Is using two eyes to judge distance more accurate than using one eye?
4. What materials provide the best insulation?
5. Do different kinds of caterpillars eat different amounts of food?
6. Do boys or girls have a higher resting heart rate?
7. Do liquids cool as they evaporate?
8. Which way does the wind blow most frequently?
9. Which dish soap makes the longest lasting suds?
10. How accurately can people judge temperatures?
11. Does the length of a vibrating object affect sound?
12. What common liquids are acid, base, or neutral?
13. Who can balance better on the balls of their feet—boys or girls?
14. Does sound travel best through solids, liquids, or gases?