The past week has been my first parent-teacher conferences. I was so nervous going into them. I didn't know how to present a report card, how to explain areas of concern to parents and explain my educational strategies in a simple way so what I was saying did not get lost in translation with my interpreters. I decided to create a packet of each students work that provided hard evidence for why students received a 1, 2 or 3 on their report card. I had examples of tracing, coloring, writing and writing their name all in the packet. After all the student work samples, I had the official report card for parents to see and ask any questions after that.
It was hard to grade two and three year olds on things that they are just learning, and in my opinion are too little to be learning about. The report card is designed for Kindergarten in the United States which is developmentally inappropriate for my wee preschoolers. Alas, I am working for a private school and parents are paying high tuition for their children to learn English and other skills at a very young age. Many parents have given me permission to force their child to work harder, even though I have stated many times that I will never force their child to do something they do not want to do.
Once I finished the report cards, I was ready for the actual conferences. It was so hard talking to parents in English, having what I said translated into Chinese, the parent responding in Chinese and then having what they said translated into English for me to understand. A couple times my interpreter misunderstood what I said or didn't know what I was saying and I had to explain what I meant in another way and sometimes even two different ways for my point to come across correctly. After all the translating and showing of student work, parents were telling me how much their child enjoyed school and seemed very happy when they left for school and came home from school. How at home they are using English and singing songs from school on the city bus.
It warmed my heart to receive praise from parents, especially since I am a first year teacher and teaching with limited supplies, curriculum I don't agree with and to children whom I can't understand.
