Reflection for TRB Standard 4

During my April practicum I was fortunate to be involved in a parents evening. A

key part of becoming a teacher is to understand the role of parents in guiding their
children to successful futures; education does not begin and end in the classroom.
My sponsor teacher wanted me to be an integral part of the conversations with the
parents. To this end, I Received her full support and excellent guidance in dealing
with difficult or unexpected questions during the parents evening. At this point in my
practicum I had been teaching the students for four weeks and I knew the abilities
and characters of the students enough to constructively comment on their progress.
In direct contrast to this, in my practicums prior to April I had not experienced any
contact with parents and I felt that my understanding of the students was lacking. My
experience was limited to my previous sponsor teaching informing me if they had
had conversations with a parent regarding the absence or misbehaviour of a
particular individual. The main reason why I feel that I have achieved this standard is
that an integral part of being able to guide a student is the information that you
gather from being in the classroom. To a large extent, a teacher can only marginally
influence the behaviour of a student outside of the classroom, so therefore the
support and involvement of the parents is absolutely essential in helping the student
to achieve their best. An example that supports this was during the parents evening.
A parent had come with their child who had shown positive signs of their potential
but there had been evidence that they were capable of farmore. Due to the presence
of both the parent and the student, there was a detailed discussion that concluded
with an agreement that the student should apply themselves more. The parent fully
supported this negotiated agreement and would reinforce it by limiting the students
access to social media. Post agreement, there was a marked improvement in both
the overall quality and application of the student in the classroom.Furthermore as an
overall whole, meeting and talking with the parents gave me a much better
understanding of the student and made them much more relatable. This also had the
side-effect of reducing the need for classroom management for the simple reason
that there had been contact between myself and their parents. Overall, this was very
much an experience which made me realise the value of parents being involved in
schools.