Parent Conferences are coming up again.
I swear we just had them but, apparently, it’s been a year. A WHOLE YEAR. They are coming up the week after next. We have a minimum day schedule which means our kids go home at 12:32pm. And we still get one recess and one lunch.
I KNOW!
!!!!!!!!!!!!
🙂
And, for the first time since I’ve been working in this district, we are also having one whole non-student day that week so that we can have more conferences during the day.
I think that’s what you have to do when you have 59 kids in your class. Maybe. I don’t know. Shoulder shrug.
Anywho, this is where you guys come in.
Every year, our entire teaching staff gets together during one of our Professional Collaboration Teaching And Meeting And Not Working In Our Classroom Times (I might have gotten that wrong, but you get the gist) to coordinate sibling conferences.
In other words, we make sure all sibling conferences are back to back (to back to back) so that the parents only need to come to school once. For example, they might meet with me at 12:40, the sister’s teacher at 1:00 and the brother’s teacher at 1:20.
Back to back to back.
Kerry, my twin, said that her school in Texas does not do this and you just have to hold your breath and hope for the best and/or look at Facebook or Instagram or blogs on your iPhone while you wait in between your children’s conferences. Or go to Target in between. Or, even, go home and cook dinner and go to sleep, and then go to the other kid’s conference the next day.
I couldn’t believe it. Your school doesn’t coordinate sibling conferences?! WHAT?!
When our staff gets together on this particular Coordinate Sibling Conferences Day, and we have preference notes from parents and we have noted who has a sibling in whose class, and who has more than one sibling in multiple classes, it is mass chaos.
Mass Chaos, I said.
It is horrible.
I can’t stand it.
I can’t take it.
Everyone wants to talk to everyone and people are shouting over each other and yelling across the room, “I NEED OLDHAM!” or two teachers are yelling across the room, “WE NEED OLDHAM!” or “WHERE’S OLDHAM?”
Well, I’ll tell you where I am.
Cowering in the corner with my Super Organized Conference Grid praying and hoping that I don’t have to erase anything.
It is extremely complicated, but it is the only way we do it.
Over the past few years, I’ve started emailing teachers and getting it over with before the staff actually meets.
However, a couple of teachers think that’s cheating so it’s frowned upon.
It is a GIGANTIC HEADACHE.
But, somehow, and I don’t know how, it all works itself out and the parents only end up having to come on one specific day for one specific block of time.
So my question to you is . . . DO YOU DO THIS AT YOUR SCHOOL????!!!!!!!!
**I do not have 59 kids. I have 30 currently. I did have 31. I can have 32.
It just feels like 59.
LOL! We call it Wall Street at our school! Many of us prefer to do this over email because it gets SO chaotic in the library/Wall street. But before we even schedule sibling conferences, we have to wait to get our schedules from our ELL department, because they schedule all our interpreters first. We are not allowed to TOUCH our schedules until we get them from ELL. Poor single kids; they get the worst times available… Our conferences are next week and we get 1/2 days ALL WEEK!! WHOOP WHOOP! 🙂
No we do not do this! This seems like a scheduling nightmare! I actually send out my conference times via email through Volunteer Spot. It shows the the times I'm available to conference and the parents sign up. It send me an email who has sign up for what time. Our school is WAY too big to coordinate with siblings teachers. We have 15 first grade teachers and around 1200 kids at our school.
We had Open House last night, and we always have conference sign-up that evening (as well as Book Fair and cookies in the café) in the gym so families can coordinate times. If they don't get signed up, teachers email each other to assign times that are close together.
Yes! We used to do it this way. It was such a pain, especially when teachers were absent. Then we moved to having parents sign up online (www.signupgenius.com), which most parents really liked. So much easier for us!
We used to have to make up the schedule, send it to parents, and then change times if they requested it. Talk about hectic!! Now we use http://www.signupgenius.com. It's great! The parents receive a link and sign up for their own times. We love it!
We have NEVER done it this way! Our secretary coordinates it all. She has giant Bristol board sized grids that are laminated and she starts with parent requests and plugs those in, then moves onto siblings, and then singles. It is very hassle free for the teachers as all requests go to her and any changes are made through her and all I have to do is write the times on the pieces of papers to go home.
Oh Hell to the no. That sounds awful! Here parents do the scheduling and they just have to hope for the best. I use sign up genius and I love it! We got one full day off for conferences this year.
we used to! it was horrible – we would start out all organized with the family with the most kids and it would slowly turn into chaos haha! now we use sign up genius – way more efficient. admin can even go in on the back end to block out specific times for breaks or certain conferences that may need longer or multiple teachers!
We just send emails to the teachers with common families and go from there. Last year 16 of my 27 had siblings to coordinate with, this year 11. The earlier the slips are returned, the more likely they are to get back to back times.
My kids' school lays all of the schedules out on a table at curriculum night and has the parents sign themselves up. That way they have to coordinate the times. 🙂
We only have 400 kids in our building but NO WAY! That's craziness!
Our secretary used to figure out all the conferences for siblings and everyone else once parents had returned their forms with preferences for times/days between our two different conference evenings. The last couple years our secretary has placed sign up sheets for each teacher on a long table at open house which we hold right before the school year starts. That way the parents sign up for their own time slot for each of their kids and the parents have to pick time slots around what is open and what works with their schedule. We do conferences twice each year so whatever time slot they pick the first conference will also be the same time slot they are given in February when we have the next round of conferences. It has worked really well. There have been few issues with this in terms of scheduling.
I want to hug you, that sounds tiring!
I only have 2 of my 16 preschool students that have older siblings. So much simpler for the schedule this year.
We do that! Except now since it was so chaotic our principal makes us all sit in the lounge and do it one at a time. It is painful and it lasts a full hour and it's not even during our duty time. We have to come in early. Also I had 6 no shows to conferences this year-which is pretty average for our school. So frustrating, especially when I have to work from 7:30-7:30 for 3 days that week because of conferences! I wish we got the day off to do them!
WE used to do that I HATE it!!! Now we try to work it our with parents who have multiple children in our school- but we do more of a first come, first serve type scheduling. I don't know about you, but often the parents who have several kids are the last to send in their time request form- so we'd have to shuffle everything around to accommodate them. Not so anymore, if it works , it works- if not- oops, sorry.
Oh my goodness, no. That sounds like a nervous breakdown to me! At my previous school, we did our best to coordinate, but at my new school (2nd year) not so much. I assign a time if they didn't sign up at BTS Night and go from there. I only had to change 2-3 this year–pretty good! We get 2 whole non-student days for conferences—this year Oct. 30 & 31.
Halloween without students? I wish!
Fall and Spring Conferences are a beat down. We have a 2 week window that we meet with every family. We don't have any time off…we have to schedule them before school, during our conference break, after school, and we even have 1 night that we are required to stay until 8 pm to accommodate the working parents. It wears me out!
We try to coordinate with other teachers but most teachers at my school use Sign Up Genius and its up to the parents to pick their own times. It would be too crazy at my school to do it in one day we have over 800 students.
I make a google doc and the parents go in and sign up. Early bird gets the worm. They coordinate their own lives with other teachers. Some people want to go on separate days. Honesetly, that coordinating for them sounds like a nightmare! They can change their own date on the google doc. We close it at a certain day so that we don't get any weird last minute changes we are not prepared for,
We do coordinate. But it goes SUPER FAST~ our secretary sends everyone (teachers) an email with your class list and any siblings they have next to them on a spreadsheet. Each sibling is color coded with their teacher's color. We end up being able to jot down which teacher's you need to meet with to line up times. If you show up late to this one you are having conferences until 8:30 each night! But we also DO NOT have shortened days before, during or after conferences. That.really.sucks. Because you know we are all SO ready to talk all evening after an entire day of teaching and then go home and get up and do it again the next day – including staying late for even more conferences.
If you know who you need to meet with before you go in- it goes A LOT more smoothly and quickly. We have our conferences next week. Feel your pain.
Ha. We totally do that. Except we might SHOUT OUT family names, siblings, and times like it's a flipping auction! "3:23 who has 3:23? 4:28? who has 4:28? The Smith Family, going once, going twice? Smith Family, scheduled" and if you happen to take that exact moment to look at your conference sheet to PRAY that maybe, just maybe, this might be YOUR YEAR to finally get out before 9pm only to realize that~~~ BAM! You missed your turn? Now knowing that you have only one option left, so you speak up in your little wimpy voice at the end of all these shenanigans and say "Umm does anyone have a Smith?"
#conferencegirlproblems
LOVE YOU TEENY~ Thanks for keeping it real.
PS I got 59 too! (or 27, all the same right?)
Online sign ups! Suggest it! It'll change your life! (We also use sign up genius–it's their job to get on there when we tell them too–if you don't, too bad–you get what you get and you don't throw a fit!)
We stopped coordinating conferences a few years ago. It's been heaven!
The teachers don't coordinate, but I have had parents request a time and/ day so they can coordinate.
We we used to do that. Now the parents sign up at Back-to-School night. They coordinate their own times. We only pick times for the parents that cannot attend BTS night.
My school is pretty small (only about 400 kids, we're a k-3) so we just go to one another with our sheets and try to fit in siblings as close together as possible. Parents request their top 3 times/days so sometimes to be able to coordinate they end up with their 3rd choice. No one has complained, though, in the two years I've been there.
We used to do the "everyone in one room scheduling sibling conferences" and then we got away from it for some unknown reason. So then I would spend at least an hour chasing down teachers trying to schedule sibling conferences….Waste.Of.Time!!!!!
Bottom line: this year many of us used either VolunteerSpot or Sign Up Genius and I couldn't be happier. I have not heard one complaint. The only thing I needed to do that was special was schedule conferences for parents without internet and for parents that needed a translator. (Only 2 this year. Yippee!) I will definitely do this again in March for round 2 of conferences!
I am in the middle of conferences right now…..19 down, 3 to go tomorrow!
We do our sign ups online through sign up genius. The links are sent out to families with siblings a few days before the rest of the families. That way it's up to the parent to schedule their conferences back to back if they prefer it that way.
I had to reread this to make sure I read it correctly. And then I said a "Thank you!" prayer that we don't do that. I would be right there with you in the corner. Most teachers use Sign-up Genius. If a parent can't get what they want, we try to work with them, but no guarantees. I hope you went home and had a big glass of wine and a cuddle with Murphie!!
We have a pretty slick system. Our secretary iss able to sort and print out a list of all students with siblings followed by the teachers name. She sorts them so the families with the most kids are at the top of the list. Our entire staff comes to the library with a blank schedule. One person takes the lead and calls out the 1st family name and all teachers involved say which slots they can take that line up for parents. We can do the whole school in less than an hour. We fill our remaining slots with students without siblings. Works well
Oh heck no! We did that year 1 and it was mass chaos. Year 2 (this is our 12th year now) we put sign up sheets in the foyer and the parents sign up for when they want to meet with whom. They figure it out. We spread them out over two days as well. Day one is afternoon and evening conferences. Day two is morning conferences. There are 35 slots I believe in all. We can have a max of 30 kids. I just had a parent tell me yesterday that they won't be able to make it and just call them if I think we need to meet. Woohoo! Only 29 conferences now! Good luck!
We have sign up sheets up for conference days during our Open House in September, so most parents sign up then. The sheets stay up so as parents come in to the school, they can sign up. If they don't sign up, the secretaries call and schedule the rest of them. You way sounds way more entertaining/scary, though! Glad you made it out of that meeting in one piece!
Carolyn
We schedule siblings first. A list comes around (we have three homerooms at each grade) that lists the kids by homeroom, youngest to oldest (k-8; the HS parents schedule theirs online). Their sibling's class is listed after their name. Kindergarten starts the list. You fill in for anyone on your list, and if you see one has a younger brother, you turn to his page and make yours in the time slot before or after.
Very civilized…and this year, for the first year ever, admin did not start the list on the day we were supposed to send the reminders home. 🙂
I beseech you to ask your school to give it a try. (But then we would have nothing fun to read…)
No!!!!!!!!!! Thank goodness. I use sign up genius. No paper. One computerized grid. They all sign up for ONE slot at home on the computer. They can see other people's sign ups so there is no double signing up. Life changer. Sounds like it would not even work at your school and I can only imagine having 59-30 slots to fill. You deserve more than one day off for the insanity.
We do this to a "t!" I always "cheat" and email teachers before. Lol
We do coordinate sibling conferences. But our princpal does all the scheduling. We send home s time request form so we know when is good for parents then she schedules it all fills out the forms to send home and we just send them. Very easy for the teachers. We have about 600 kids in our school.
Oh no! Our school secretary schedules all the sibling conferences and then we do the rest. If the parent of a sibling has to reschedule, they need to do it through the office to coordinate all the children's times.
I'm just home from the second of two evenings of parent meetings… shattered doesn't even cover how I feel!! We have a sign up google document with all the teachers on separate tabs and its up to the parents to choose their own times, no arguments and they can see when the good times are gone! Of course its always fun when the wrong parents sign up to see you and you have email them to change!
Butterflying Through Teaching
No way!!!!! We have an online program system that parents get on and sign up themselves – at their home or work or wherever. The system sends emails to parents reminding them to sign up and then a confirmation of when they do sign up. If a parents does not sign up, then it is up to the teachers to contact them and sign them up. It is a wonderful tool! Good luck!
Oh my…that sounds horrible. I am at a pretty small school and we are super lucky. Our wonderful secretary does it all for us. We have lots of siblings, our school is K-8, some families even have 5-6 kids in our school. She spends several days coordinating it all. I am thanking my lucky stars for her hard work! Hoping you survive this traumatic experience.
~Laura
Luv My Kinders
Ours are come whenever you like because we all meet in the gym. I don't like it because it is noisy and sometimes you want to talk about private stuff that not everyone needs to know about someone else's kiddo. Also, hate the no scheduled time because parents get testy if they think that they are not getting in when they should.
The best thing I have seen is we meet as a faculty and the kindergarten schedules first and if we have a sibling we schedule around the kindergarten. Then we move to first grade and schedule and everyone else schedules around first grade. It is easy and goes quickly.
Kristin,
We have taken it upon ourselves to start using an online conference sign up, so it is completely OFF of the teachers! PARENTS are in charge of scheduling their own (and coordinating their own!) It is heaven, let me tell you. No sitting down and trying to figure out who gets their first choice, or who can't even get a third choice because everyone wants the late evening conferences! It is first come, first served. They can even CHANGE their time slot if there is something else available. I. LOVE. IT.!!!!! We have used SnappySignUp.com and SignUpGenius.com Good luck! Last year, just first grade did it, but now a ton of other grade levels are trying it and loving it. My daughter's entire school does it.
YEP! This year we had a 4 way! 2 sets of twins from one family. COM-PLI-CA-TED!
Holy, so, like 10 years ago! HA…just kidding. I remember those days though! We put out the sign up sheets at curriculum night, have the parents sign themselves up. They can attempt, as best they can, to coordinate with other teachers if the time slots open actually allow for that. Otherwise "suck it up". My own boys' school do it this way too. I can usually find slots next to each other and if I can – I just I go to the book fair and shop or chat up another parent while I wait. No big thang. I take the list and put it into a google sheet and let the parents who weren't able to come in and sign up {for shame!} sign themselves up that way. I hear next year we're going to an online system for signing up – my boys' school did that this year and it was easy peasy.
Get with the NOW California! HA!
We used to do this and it was super complicated, but for the last several years we have used MyConferenceTime.com which is like TimeToSignUp and SignUpGenius. Love it! Much less stress. 🙂
I used to, but it is too difficult now. The families have so many siblings. I have a student who is child #6 out of 9 (all girls! What are the chances?) And others who have 3 or 4 siblings. We send a schedule of appointment times, they pick 3, and we send confirmations. That is hard enough to arrange.
Oh, we used to. Then came…
Sign up genius
Google it.
You're welcome 🙂
We do the same thing as you and it's crazy and we all hate it. The only thing that makes it worth it is that SOMEONE BRINGS SNACKS! We did have the office staff schedule one round and just tell us last year, but that ended up being wven more chaotic. Good luck!
It sounds like you spend as much time scheduling the conferences as actually having them! I work in a much smaller school so this isn't a huge issue. Also we get a day off for conferences but don't have to do them all then. A lot of teachers hold theirs afterschool or before school for a week or two so parents just stay longer or come earlier when they are dropping their kids off anyways.
I came from a school that made us coordinate sibling conferences. It was the worst and you couldn't get it right. My current and best school ever has conferences figured out. We hold conferences Thursday after the kids leave until 8. Then Friday until noon. It used to be that parents sign up on sign up sheets by the office. They pick their own times for all their conferences. Then the week of conferences I check if everyone signed up. GUESS WHAT!!??!!! They all do! Then they all come to conferences and we all live happily ever after! Its so easy and it seems to work for us. This year they sent out a mass email with sign up genius links and the parents still all signed up digitally. I didn't worry about scheduling I just showed up at my conference times. If I didn't have conferences I didn't have to be there! I had a 2 hour work day one of our conference days. Did I mention how I work at the best school ever? Plus we all have 15 minute conferences and someone comes on over the loud speaker and says get out your time is up. Really they are a little kinder but you get the gist. Then you never have a crazy back up or parents that suck up all your time. The cherry on top of all of this is that there is a scheduled dinner time where parents can't meet with us and we have an awesome dinner prepared for us. Then our principal draws names to win gift cards. My only complaint is I am yet to win a gift card. At my previous school that didn't have conferences figured out, I won gift cards all the time. I guess there is a trade off! Its a true story I love my school and the moral of the story is use signup genius or move to my school!
Ashley
teachinginbroncocountry.blogspot.com
We do the back-to-back thing to. We have 1 (or 2) teachers from each grade level and the building secretarys (we have 3 buildings on our campus – 1500 kids). we do it in 1/2 a day and it goes pretty smoothly. The secertarys say a family name and the teachers that have the students, and the teachers call out a time that teacher (in their grade level) available. It goes pretty smoothly. We start with the families that have the most kids first and work our way down to the singles. Y
Wow, I've never heard of such a thing! I'm considering myself lucky, like Laura (above), we have the greatest secretary who does it all for us, too. Thank goodness! It's a lot of work … but maybe the online sign-up is the way to go. I'll have to share!
We used to do this and it is complete chaos!! This year we are all using sign up genius. Families with 3 or more kids will be scheduled by the school secretary before the pages go live so that those times can be blocked off. Then the rest of the parents will go on and schedule their own conferences. My only concern is that I like having some level of control over my conference schedule and this leaves it purely in the parents' hands. We have three afternoons and two nights for conferences. In the past we have only had one night, so I'm assuming every night conference will be taken even if a parent could come during the day.
We do it this way but it is not complete chaos. We schedule sibling translations first, then single translations, and then siblings without translations. People are fairly patient and complaint which makes a big difference. Occasionally there will be a teacher who bucks the system and doesn't follow the rules, but overall it works fairly well. I like the idea of signup genius but I would hate to lose control of my schedule. Plus I think we would have a lot of parents who would not signup at all.
I Have 2 Questions
We DO coordinate sibling conferences at our school. We call it "the auction" though it isn't really anything like an auction. We meet and the principal calls out sets of siblings. We call out the times and note them. We do try to schedule at least some before the meeting so we can yell, "DONE!" when he says our students' names. It's a very satisfying feeling to yell, "DONE!"
Jan
Laughter and Consistency
We do coordinate sibling conferences. When we meet, we call it a Barn Dance because it really is like going to a barn dance. First we send out forms with all students and on this form, parents are to list all siblings and who their classroom teacher is. Once we get the forms back, any families with 3 or more kids get sent to the office because when we meet, those are the ones that get scheduled first because of the large number of siblings. After that, we then look for the other brother/sister's teachers to coordinate the ones with 2 in the family. It really works at our school when coordinating.
We used to do it that way. It was most definitely a headache! Now, we have the parents sign up at Curriculum Night. I totally feel your pain!
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