FRHS English Department Staff Meeting Observation
Right after the Fossil Ridge High School Staff Meeting on October 14, 2015, I attended the English Department Staff Meeting. The meeting was held in the the English department head's, Jenny Putnam, homeroom, E102. The small department gathered around various round tables as Jenny and her assistant chair prepped the PowerPoint slides and chatted briefly in the corner.
The meeting started with introductions and a welcome back to the speech teacher who had been gone on maternity leave. All of the Option 3 CSU students, including myself, were introduced by our match up teachers. Then it was time to get down to business. Jenny started off thanking everyone for participating in the "new" version of parent teachers conferences this year. Apparently, instead of doing two back-to-back evenings where teachers sit and wait for parents to potentially arrive, they broke the nights up. The first night of parent teachers conferences were by appointment only. Teachers waited in their home rooms for parents to arrive and have a private and personal conversation with the teacher. There were mixed feelings and emotions about this new set up of parent teacher conferences. Some teachers felt that there were too many gaps in the meetings. They felt their time could have been better spent doing other things or things differently. While on the other hand, other teachers thought it was extremely effective and helpful. They were able to have the conversation with all the parents who made the appointment and when there was a gap in their schedule they made the effort to call or email other parents who hadn't scheduled meetings with them. Ultimately, it sounded like time management from the teachers was the main point that separated the teachers who liked the conferences and the teachers who didn't.
Sitting in on a department staff meeting was something I had never participated in before. It was a great opportunity to experience and meet other English teachers and see how this type of meeting was ran. The meeting was fairly short and ended about thirty minutes after it began. It was an informative and insightful experience.
The meeting started with introductions and a welcome back to the speech teacher who had been gone on maternity leave. All of the Option 3 CSU students, including myself, were introduced by our match up teachers. Then it was time to get down to business. Jenny started off thanking everyone for participating in the "new" version of parent teachers conferences this year. Apparently, instead of doing two back-to-back evenings where teachers sit and wait for parents to potentially arrive, they broke the nights up. The first night of parent teachers conferences were by appointment only. Teachers waited in their home rooms for parents to arrive and have a private and personal conversation with the teacher. There were mixed feelings and emotions about this new set up of parent teacher conferences. Some teachers felt that there were too many gaps in the meetings. They felt their time could have been better spent doing other things or things differently. While on the other hand, other teachers thought it was extremely effective and helpful. They were able to have the conversation with all the parents who made the appointment and when there was a gap in their schedule they made the effort to call or email other parents who hadn't scheduled meetings with them. Ultimately, it sounded like time management from the teachers was the main point that separated the teachers who liked the conferences and the teachers who didn't.
Sitting in on a department staff meeting was something I had never participated in before. It was a great opportunity to experience and meet other English teachers and see how this type of meeting was ran. The meeting was fairly short and ended about thirty minutes after it began. It was an informative and insightful experience.