Parent/Teacher Conferences were this past week, and it makes for a very long day. Luckily, our Spring conferences are only one day (rather than two days in the Fall), but they go from 3:30-8 pm. By the end, I was a bit giddy from exhaustion.
I have a very loud, rowdy student who is full of personality. He CANNOT stop talking. Seriously, at any given moment, this student is talking, and he's talking loudly. I have had this student for two years, and I have never met his parents.
And then all of a sudden, his parents were sitting in front of me at conferences asking about their son. I told them I was very glad to meet them after two years of having their son. I gave them a progress report, stressing that their son had greatly improved his writing in the two years I had known him. His dad said, "We've also noticed his writing has vastly improved. Can you tell us why his writing has improved so much in two years?"
In a very quick decision, I decided to use humor. In my head, I figured my student had a very good sense of humor, so he had to get that from a parent, right? So I said, "Well, obviously he has improved because of his very good English teacher!"
They laughed heartily, and then I moved on to a "real" answer.
But then it didn't happen like that at all. Not even close.
Nope, these parents do not have a sense of humor. These parents did not laugh. They didn't even chuckle. They stared at me while I chuckled at my own joke before realizing that they did not like my humor. I quickly stopped laughing, cleared my throat, and very seriously said, "I'm totally kidding. The reason why Jake has improved his writing is...." and I gave them the answer they were clearly looking for. I felt like such a fool!
Note to self: don't use humor at conferences. It's a very serious matter, apparently.
3 comments:
That's funny!
Don't let these parents bully you. You need to call them on that, and tell them, "no, really...it's because I am a fantastic teacher, who rather than shun the kid for constantly talking and give up on him, I embraced the challenge and he responded well to me". "so, Mr. and Mrs. Jones, while I use humor, there is a great deal of truth in what I say". "the other reason for the turn around could be because you parents actually took interest in his grades by showing up to conferences instead of being self-absorbed". "Am I getting closer to the truth?"
Rich, I'll steal your words for next time! :)
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