Thursday, September 07, 2006
Back to School Night
Last night was back to school night. That's the night where the parents can come and sit in their kid's classes and listen to the teacher give a 7 minute talk about the class. I was nervous going into it since I have had very little parent interaction so far. I've been given various advice from other teachers:
"Don't let them know you're a new teacher; even if you have to lie."
"Just feel out the group and decide if you will tell them you are new to teaching."
"Talk bell to bell. Do not allow them to ask questions."
"Let them ask questions."
"I wouldn't plan time for questions, but questions are fine."
Really helpful.
Things went fine. The 7 minutes goes really quickly when you're used to talking for 90 minutes at a time. My first class had time for a few harmless questions, but after that I'd swear the periods got shorter and shorter. By the end of the night I felt like I had just gotten started when the bell rang.
When parents were entering my room I stood holding the door open and greeting them as they came in. Most of them would introduce themselves and tell me who their child is. I had one parent walk right past me as I started to say "Hello, I'm Mr. ...." She then turned around and looked at me and asked, "Oh, are you a teacher?" I'm guessing I'm younger than she was expecting.
I had many good comments from parents. Several told me they were very happy that I am someone who knows physics, and appears to really like it. Many of their children had teachers in the past who were teaching physics because they were assigned it, not because they chose it.
"Don't let them know you're a new teacher; even if you have to lie."
"Just feel out the group and decide if you will tell them you are new to teaching."
"Talk bell to bell. Do not allow them to ask questions."
"Let them ask questions."
"I wouldn't plan time for questions, but questions are fine."
Really helpful.
Things went fine. The 7 minutes goes really quickly when you're used to talking for 90 minutes at a time. My first class had time for a few harmless questions, but after that I'd swear the periods got shorter and shorter. By the end of the night I felt like I had just gotten started when the bell rang.
When parents were entering my room I stood holding the door open and greeting them as they came in. Most of them would introduce themselves and tell me who their child is. I had one parent walk right past me as I started to say "Hello, I'm Mr. ...." She then turned around and looked at me and asked, "Oh, are you a teacher?" I'm guessing I'm younger than she was expecting.
I had many good comments from parents. Several told me they were very happy that I am someone who knows physics, and appears to really like it. Many of their children had teachers in the past who were teaching physics because they were assigned it, not because they chose it.
