It’s one of the longest days of the year for teachers: parent teacher conferences.
The tired third grade teacher at a local public school is preparing for a late evening of talking to parents. There is a lot on his mind, as he has a class of 24 students — all with varying academic strengths and weaknesses.
Once the conferences start, the teacher finds himself sitting across from the parent of a student who is particularly struggling. The student is always tired, is behind in reading and writing, and often fails to complete homework assignments.
But to the parent — a single mother working two jobs — has her own list of concerns. Her son says he is being bullied on the playground and recently lost all interest in reading at home.
How should this situation be handled?
At a mock parent teacher conference exercise Monday inside Tuohy Hall, it was up to two seventh-grade students from New Heights Middle School — a public school about three miles from SJC Brooklyn — to come up with a solution. The students were among more than two dozen attendees at SJC Brooklyn’s annual Celebration of Teaching event. Students from Fontbonne Hall Academy, a Catholic high school in Bay Ridge, also attended the event.
St. Joseph’s Alpha Epsilon Omega chapter of Kappa Delta Pi, the international teaching honor society, hosted the celebration.
A Day of Teaching
In the day-long event, students took tours of the Dillon Child Study Center, SJC Brooklyn’s on-campus laboratory preschool, and The Hill Center, the campus’ athletic complex, and had the opportunity to discuss college and teaching with Kappa Delta Pi members enrolled at St. Joseph’s. A panel of child study and adolescent education teachers answered questions the students had about college and teaching careers.
Immediately after the panel discussion, the visiting students participated in a mock classroom activity. There, they got a glimpse of what it takes to be a teacher.
Karen Russo, Ed.D., a child studies professor at SJC Brooklyn, led the mock class that challenged the seventh-grade students to participate in the pretend parent teacher conference. The exercise was an example of an activity she uses while teaching sophomore-level college classes.
Students from @Fontbonne_Hall and @newheightsms engaged in a mock Parent-Teacher conference at our KDP Celebration of Teaching event! 👩🏻🏫👨🏿🏫 @sjcbkchildstudy @SJCBKKDP @kappadeltapi @SJCNY pic.twitter.com/0k0dS5jimC
— Karen Russo (@kaykayrusso) January 28, 2019
“It’s an exercise to figure out how to handle a parent teacher conference,” Dr. Russo said. “It takes a lot of practice.”
Some of the students in the classroom were surprised at how difficult it was to play the role of the parent or the teacher. One pre-teen pointed noted it was hard to figure out how to immediately solve some of the problems raised in the conference — especially when it came to bullying.
Advice from Teachers
The six teachers on the panel — Samantha Woisin ’09 ’12, Christina Quintana ’14 ’16, Mary Teresa Nelson ’76, Jessup Sanna ’16 ’18, Danielle Endes ’13 ’16 ’18 and Rosemarie Marchese ’10 ’12 — answered questions the students posed about teaching and preparing for college.
While the students still have several years to go before it’s time to apply for college, many sat at the edge of their seat, engaging with the panelists. They asked thoughtful questions and received valuable advice from the panelists.
A panel of SJC Brooklyn alumni — who are employed as teachers — participate in a panel discussion during the Celebrating Teachers event.
“If I could give you one piece of advice — if you end up going to this college or any other college — it is to get involved,” said Endes, the assistant director of the Dillon Center. “Even if it’s something that you might be nervous about trying, try it out and see if it’s something you like.”
Jennifer Figueroa, a counselor at New Heights, said the Celebrating Teaching event was a great learning experience for her students.
“The day was wonderful,” she said. “It was like a career day mixed with a college expo.”
Figueroa said she was happy to be able to show her students a smaller, more intimate college. At a smaller school students can formulate closer relationships with professors, she said.
Bianca Rosiello, a senior child study major, with a concentration in psychology, who also sits as the vice president of Kappa Delta Pi, said she was proud of the way the Celebrating Teachers event transpired.
“I thought the day went really well,” Rosiello said. “I think the students got a lot out of it.”
Success! 👩🏻🏫👨🏿🏫 @sjcbkchildstudy @SJCBKKDP @kappadeltapi @SJCNY #sjcbkchildstudy pic.twitter.com/u0fpBvsj7K
— Karen Russo (@kaykayrusso) January 28, 2019
