Upcoming MS Parent-Student-Teacher Conferences
Dear MS Parents,
Our Middle School Parent-Student-Teacher Conferences will be taking place during the school day, in place of classes, on Thursday and Friday, October 2 and 3, 2014.
Following, you will find some general information about the conference format, what to expect, and how to schedule your appointment(s).
Format of Conferences:
- Scheduled Appointment Required – You will be able to schedule these appointments online via an online scheduler we use – more directions on how and when later in this posting.
- Humanities, Math, and Science Teachers: You will be able to schedule a 30-minute block of time to conference with your child’s Humanities, Math, and Science teachers during that time. There will be a number of teachers in the same location but spread out to ensure your conversations with each individual teacher is private. Humanities, Math, and Science teachers will be located in the following locations:
- Grade 6 – all in MPB 2-3
- Grade 7 – all in room 4-310
- Grade 8 – all in the MS Skybox (room 4-309), exceptions:
- Mr. Kingdon will be in MPB 2-3
- Mrs. Major will be in 4-310
- EAL Teachers: If your child is enrolled in one of our EAL support classes, you will be able to schedule 20 minutes to speak individually with your child’s teacher.
- Learning Support Teachers: If your child is enrolled in one of our Intensive Studies (IS) or Academic Lab support classes, you will be able to schedule 15 minutes to speak individually with your child’s teacher.
- No Appointment Required (Drop-In Basis) – In the online scheduler, the following classes will not be listed to schedule an appointment with. Rather, the teachers will all be available for drop in visits in these locations:
- PE – all in 4-112
- Performing/Visual Arts Teachers – each in their individual classrooms
- World Language Teachers – each in their own classrooms
Note – For elective classes taught by one of our Humanities, Math, or Science teachers, the teachers will not be available to discuss student progress in those elective classes as the teachers will be conferencing with parents about student progress in Humanities, Math, and Science. If an elective teacher needs to speak with you regarding your child’s progress in that elective class, they will contact you. If you would like more information on your child’s progress in their elective class, please contact the teacher directly.
Expectations:
1. If you are attending the conferences, your child is expected to attend the conferences with you (in school uniform). Our goal is that your child plays an integral part of the conversation rather than sitting quietly as an observer.
2. If a family does not attend conferences or does not meet with every teacher at conferences, teachers are still expecting students to review their portfolio items and/or reflective pieces at home with parents prior to the conferences. Time in class is being used for students to reflect on their learning, add to their portfolios of work, and/or to create SMART goals. The information posted on Powerschool and HAIKU is also very helpful for understanding student learning progress.
3. If you would feel more comfortable with having a translator present during your conferences, you are encouraged to bring someone along with you.
We are looking forward to seeing you at our upcoming MS Parent-Student-Teacher Conferences where we hope many meaningful conversations take place of not only where your child is at presently in his/her learning, but of where their learning could go next!
When and how to schedule your conference appointments online:
Please follow the directions below to access Pick-a-Time. You can access the site anytime between 7:00am on Friday, September 26th and 12:00pm on Wednesday, October 1st to schedule your 30 minute block of time with your child’s core class teachers (Humanities, Math, and Science), 20 minute individual appointment with your child’s EAL teacher, or 15 minute individual appointment with your child’s Learning Support teacher.
To get to the Conference Scheduler, please click on the following link and then follow the directions below (you may want to print out the directions first so you have them handy to follow). The link is:Pickatime
How to Register – You need to do this even if you used the scheduler for previous conferences
- Click on the link provided above.
- Click “Login/Create Account”
- Fill in the required fields and register.
- For each middle school child you have, you will have to add them in
- Enter child’s student ID number
- Enter child’s birth date (use format mm/dd/yr eg. 02/26/10 – you need to include the / in between the month, day, and year)
How to Sign In (after having registered first time)
Enter your email and password. The system will know about any appointments you have made previously.
How to Schedule Appointments
- You will see the name of your child’s Humanities/Math/Science teachers as a group. If your child is part of either our EAL or Learning Support programs, you will see the names of those teachers also. Select the box next to the teacher name(s) that you would like to schedule an appointment with. You will then see the schedule of available times for those teachers.
- Each colored square represents an available meeting time. The legend shows you what teacher corresponds to what color. Click on a square to schedule that time
- Then click on “Create Appointment”.
- Repeat until you have a time with each teacher you’d like to visit with.
- You can click on the “Printable Schedule” link located on the top right corner and print the resulting web page to get a hard copy of your schedule.
- Please contact Mr. Baron-Toaldo at maurilib@isb.ac.th or Khun Arisa at arisap@isb.ac.th , in the MS Office with any technical difficulties.