Carrie and Tala: BFF

Parent teacher conferences start tomorrow and mine span the next two weeks. Conferences are thoroughly unpleasant for all parties. They are unpleasant for me because I usually have to break the bad news about how poorly the kid is doing in this area or that. They are unpleasant for the parent because they have to receive the information about how poorly the kid is doing in this area or that, and they are unpleasant for the kid because, well, you get the point. Of course, I try of focus on the positive, but I teach special education and it follows the kids struggle academically, so the parent conferences are bound to have some unpleasant moments.

The worst is when I present some unexpected bad news, like this paraphrased conversation from last semester.

Me: Jan is failing three of her classes.
Mom: What!? Why didn’t anyone let me know before now!?
Me: I’ve sent home a progress report every Friday for the past 12 weeks.
Mom: Well, I’ve never gotten even one of them. You need to make sure that the parents are getting them.
Me: I require that be signed and brought back on Mondays. In fact, my records show that I’ve gotten back a signed progress report from Jan every week this semester.
Mom: Well, I sure ain’t signing them!
Jan: Ummmmmm…..