First Grade Skills

I've just about finished up parent-teacher conferences -- a little ahead of schedule due to some traveling I'll be doing during the Thanksgiving Break.Though the idea of holding 27 extra meetings just before the holiday break is always a little daunting, I always end up enjoying them. That was particularly true this year.This was my first time conferencing with a whole new set of families and it felt really good to connect with everyone. Often our conference schedule feels a little too early in the year -- how much is there really to talk about after just two months of school. But I actually found that it was a great time for a check-in. It seems that, at least in first grade, there are plenty of knowing looks and conversations-in-code in front of the children exchanged in the hallways between parents and teachers. It was refreshing to have some dedicated time to talk.Preparing for the conferences also gave me a chance to go through my resources and notes of observations and think through what kinds of things the parents needed to know. As I thought about it, I put together a skills checklist that I'll work on for each child to help guide my end-of-year report writing process.