74/365 Sticky subject?

Can you guess what it is?

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Now no cheating

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Give up? It's a sweet gum ball. you know... from a tree. Those little things we slip on from time to time.

Well today was a long but decent day. We had parent teacher conferences tonight from 4-7. Actually, for me, A conference. as in one.

I took this picture on my break. I got me thinking about how sticky these little meetings can be. The one tonight went well. But sometimes you just never know how parents will react. There have been many that go as planned. Teachers sharing, parents sharing, we come up with a plan to help the student. We all walk away feeling like we have a little more insight and hope that things will change.

And then there are the others. The angry parent, the belligerent parent, the weeping parent, the worn out ones. Ones ready to blame, the ones ready to make every excuse for their child and themselves. The ones who have heard it all before, tried everything they can think of with the child, and have basically given up. Don't forget the teachers. We have days where we're tired, stressed out, and dare I say "cranky". We've talked all day and now we're talking more. We've made a million decisions (many split second) during they day and now we need to decide, working with you, the best way to help your child, when many times the child doesn't seem to want to help himself. We've been dealing with kid drama all day and now we aren't sure what to expect when we sit down with parents. More drama? We have to choose our words carefully and monitor our reactions and hope we (parents and teachers alike) all behave ourselves. Sometimes we don't. It's not pretty.

I guess my point is this: parents and teachers both feel uncertain when sitting down together. We all hope for answers, insights, and solutions. We all want the best for the child involved. And hopefully, like tonight, we can sit down, set the day's events and emotions aside, and focus on the child and their educational needs.