so it’s that time of year again. the glorious moment where we get to meet the parents of our beloved children. it’s always a fascinating experience. in no particular order, here are the highlights:
1) parents of boy-crazy
i have a brilliant student in my honors class. she’s smart, pretty, energetic, and horribly hung up on boys this year. i had her last year, and she was simply brilliant and excited about French. now she’s just as brilliant, but only excited about boys. unfortunately, her French grade has suffered for it. but i never like to be this direct from the get go. when the parents came in, i asked them if they had any particular reason they wanted to see me…and definitively, it was about the drop from a solid A to a solid B. initially, i told them that it was because of her participation – she’s been extra chatty this year, and while she focuses on the work, and gets it done, she also spends a bulk of the time chatting it up in class. they asked some more, and finally i said, “well, the major difference i’ve noticed from last year to this is…the boys.” the mom looked knowingly at me, and said, “amazing! you only see the kids for 42 minutes a day, and you’ve got it spot on!” she turned to her husband and then said, “see?” as if this had already been discussed, and the dad mumbled something about “this being the age when that gets to be important.” still, it was nice to see eye-to-eye with these parents.
2) mother of three
this year, i am teaching all the sons of one family, in three different classes, and they couldn’t be more different. when i saw the mom’s name on my conference sheet, she was listed under one boy, but of course, when she came, we ended up talking about all three – i was prepared for that. it was fascinating because she had such unique strategies for each of her boys, and we had a great time exchanging stories about her sons. for example, there’s the clever genius. he never raises his hand until i ask the difficult question that no one can answer. then he always get this sly grin out of being satisfied at being the only one who knows the answer. she loved that story. then there’s the polite boy, who always says hello and goodbye to me, yet never hands in a homework assignment. seriously, the mom brought in a stack of papers she found underneath the dining room table in case any of the teachers asked for missing assignments! still, at the end of our discussion, i remember thinking, ‘wow, the courage to raise three boys.’ mad props, mom of three.
3) korean conference!
i had to give my first conference in korean! yipes! i got nervous as soon as i saw the son and his mother appear at the door and bow to me. her son is a total slacker and doesn’t do his work, though he is potentially brilliant (i mean, come on, he IS korean, ha!). so the mom kept apologizing to me and then saying that she doesn’t speak English…could i possibly do the conference in Korean. in Korean, i told her my Korean was rubbish, but it was good enough for her. so here’s the problem. most of my Korean is limited to conversational Korean, and even that is limited to elementary school levels. i kept repeating “moon-jeh” which means issue because it was the only sophisticated word i knew. i used tons of konglish, though, and just flat out said “marking period” and “fifty percent” when the numbers started to trip me up. she ended by giving me her cell phone number and telling me to call whenever her son missed an assignment, and then said, “thank you…that was the best conference i’ve ever had. i’m so relieved to meet someone who understands me.” sniff. come on…wouldn’t that just make your day?
i’m only about half way through at this point, so maybe there’ll be more stories to come, but parent-teacher conferences are always a fun part of the job.
