Teens often make their parents want to rip their hair out, but this girl has taken her adolescent attitude one step further.

Today we are talking transportation yoga! What little boy or girl doesn't love yoga that that is all about cars and trucks! There is just something about things that "go". Let's talk about how

Earth Day Free Printable Pack for toddlers and preK featuring letter sounds, pre-writing, word tracing, puzzles, do a dot, lacing, counting, number recognition, patterns, visual discrimination matching. Learn about recycling and Earth day!

Let’s talk about choosing words for vocabulary when it comes to increasing language and communication with toddlers.

Lessons to learn from the life story of Moses. Know why Moses is important and what His story has to do with believers today

There are so many benefits to stroller running with toddlers, but it can be tricky to keep everyone happy!

The Empowered Educator - Working with the Framework Learning Outcomes – Part 1 LINKING

These 10 Best Songs for Gross motor movement are just what is needed to keep even the liveliest toddlers active!

Let's talk about Good Choices and Bad Choices. What are good choices? How can we make good choices? Why should we make good choices? These are not just

What are open-ended toys and why are they good for kids? Read this post to find out, and then check out our open-ended toy gift guide to find all the best toys for your preschooler!

I am not sure how you feel about parent-teacher conferences, but when chatting to colleagues, I have encountered everything from frustration and dislike, to enjoyment and gratification. Personally, I love them: I find that meeting the parents or guardians of the teens I work with every day can be the most insightful, valuable and constructive experience. Below are just a few of the top tips I have garnered from my many meetings with parents (often learned the hard way). ____________________________________________________________________________ From my experience, unless there is a particular issue to discuss, parents come to teacher conferences just wanting to know that your really know their child: that you are on their side and have their best interests at heart. The best way to communicate this is to be as prepared as possible. In order to do this, at the beginning of the school year, I have all my students complete a few basic forms themselves, and then I place these in manila folders so that every student I teach has a file. Throughout the year, if I ever have an interaction with a student which is noteworthy, or if there is cause for concern, or even if they produce a particularly important piece of work, I pop it into the file. This means that when I meet with a parent, I pull out the file and have a substantial stack of material to reference. ____________________________________________________________________________ I can’t advocate for this enough: when dealing with teenagers, it is vital that they are always included in their own learning process - that they take responsibility for their own education and progress. Therefore, I always (strongly) encourage my students to attend any parent-teacher meeting I hold. This serves two purposes. Firstly, it means that students are accountable for their own education; they are active participants, and they are given a voice. Secondly, it cuts out the middleman; it means that you limit the potential for miscommunication and “he said, she said” messages. ____________________________________________________________________________ FREEBIE #1: Grab this free worksheet to have students complete at the beginning of the year, so you can check in with them on their progress and get vital information about how they learn best. ____________________________________________________________________________ This is the real benefit of having students attend (see above): I start any meeting with a student or parent with a series of questions to really get the pulse of the conversation and draw out any specific concerns. If a student is present I will always ask them questions such as: How are you enjoying our course? Which area of English do you want to grow in? Can you name one activity we have completed so far this year which you really enjoyed? One you struggled with? How would you rate your engagement in class? Where would you like to see improvement? If a student is not present, I might ask the parent questions such as: How do you find your child is doing this year? Do you have any particular concerns? Does he/she ever talk about what we are studying in class? How much is he/she reading at home? What area would you like to see improvement in? The answers to these questions can often be extremely revealing and will often then determine the path our meeting will take. Starting this way shifts the focus off of the teacher, and onto the students and their educational journey: a far more constructive focus. ____________________________________________________________________________ I always try to end my meetings by identifying one or two actionable goals for going forward. Usually, I have the student self-identify these goals, or we all come up with them together, and agree upon them collaboratively. This also serves two purposes: it gives a clear actionable focus moving forward, which often gives parents and students a feeling of progress, and a focus for growth; in addition, it really does help indicate the end of the meeting, and bring it to a close - a sometimes much-needed signal! ;-) ____________________________________________________________________________ FREEBIE #2: This is a template of the page I prepare and use for parent-teacher conferences; I compile one of each of these for the students with whom I meet. Click to download instructions and template. ____________________________________________________________________________ Finally, I really do try to keep parents/guardians as informed as possible throughout the year, and not just at parent-teacher conference time. Sending parents short emails, giving them quick phone calls when possible, or sending notes home on a more regular basis: all incredibly rewarding, valuable and satisfying parts of my job, especially when done to signal positive praise and achievement (you can read more about that here). If you have any specific questions or comments about parent-teacher conference, please do post them in the comments below, as all our Coffee Shop ladies have ample experience and advice on this topic, which they’d love to share. Looking for more resources for parent-teacher conferences? Check these out: Self-Evaluations for Parent-Teach Conferences by Room 213

Practice cutting with this cute weather themed cutting worksheet. A Great way for preschoolers to develop those scissor skills!

*Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. I recieved a small commission for items purchased through these links. However, all opinions are my own, and I only recommend products I really love…

Before your child is even talking, he is a sponge – absorbing everything you say! That’s why it’s important HOW YOU talk to your child in order to help him learn to talk.

Another difficult stage in parenting is when you have your baby climbing out of crib. Here are the reasons why and 5 great tips to keep them in their crib.

Books To Help You Talk to Young Kids About Sex - Books are such a safe way to introduce a topic to our children. Let's take the challenge and open up healthy and age appropriate conversations with our kids about sex.

Being fearful of things is super common in the toddler and preschool years. At night it’s usually fear of the dark, monsters, being alone or

Let's talk about some strategies to facilitate generalization and promote student success when targeting directions in speech therapy!

Help your little learners develop their pencil skills and shape knowledge with these printable 2D shape tracing cards

When your baby is tiny, you get in the habit of doing everything for him – as you should! But if you hang on to some of the habits you started from birth, you might be doing your budding toddler a disservice.

All about me lesson plans for preschool and toddlers. Get ready-made lesson plans, activities, and ideas for this fun back to school preschool theme!

We focused on rectangles this week as we work our way through the basic shapes. Here is what we had planned: And here is what we actually did: Here are the 5 books that we used as our focus each day. Rectangles by Jennifer S Burke Count My Rectangles: A rhyming and Counting Book by […]

Let's talk about introducing addition to young child and get them away from workbooks and printables. Teach math skills in a fun, hands-on way.

Ease separation anxiety in toddlers with these 5 tips. Learn what you can do to help stop separation anxitey in daycare and more.

https://ikbenalgroot.nl/help-mijn-kind-heeft-faalangst/ Hoe belangrijk is opvoeding voor een kind om voldoende zelfvertrouwen te krijgen.

Unleash your inner Picasso with these printable playdough mats! Explore his style, create unique faces, and discover the joy of artistic expression.

Wondering how to help your aggressive toddler get along better with others? Today, we're sharing a few parenting tips for dealing with an angry tot. We'll also talk a bit about when to worry about your toddler's aggression and seek outside help. Let's check it out, shall we? Today, a…

Miss Carole of Macaroni Soup beating the bongo here! Let's talk about drumming with Pre-K and K children! You don't have to be a...

Design your own summer shorts worksheet. This printable summer coloring page is great for creating and decorating your own summer clothes.

Er zijn leuke spelletjes te doen ter bevordering van taalontwikkeling bij een jong kind. Ken jij ze al?