Okay. Welcome. Everyone happy. What's today? Tuesday? My name is Ken Sparrow.
Okay.
I am the president and founder
If we don't mind muting of school, Sims, and it is my pleasure on behalf of the school.
Sims team to welcome you well, to this webinar relating to yeah.
David smooth the next slide to, you know, dealing with typical conversations around the parent Teacher Conference.
And it's going to be a simulation experience again.
Well, I Dave, next slide. You know it is. It is the the the job of the educator, the job of the teacher and the administrator, the job in a school, at whatever level.
It's probably one of the most challenging jobs that we know of the the We.
We joke sometimes that the stakeholders, the demands, are often so exclusive of each other, and that each one can be more irrational, at least perception perceptibly more irrational than the next, and no matter what you do from a decision making perspective you could be in trouble, right somebody's
Not gonna like what you do. So how do we get better at that?
So we all know that experience is the best teacher, but the school of hard knocks can be rather painful, and another high stakes industries.
We wouldn't put people out into the field. We wouldn't put a pilot in a plane without hours and simulation.
You wouldn't put a doctor or a nurse into a into a an operating theater, or into a patient room without hours in simulation.
We wouldn't put our soldiers out into the field without hours and simulation.
Why don't we require that? Why don't we make that an option even for our teachers or for our administrators to practice to get some experience?
Some safe experience under their belt, so that they can actually have a better chance of making the best decision they can, and that they can be prepared, or the blowback cause there's always blowback.
So the skills that we look to help develop on the one hand, good judgment, because we need to make the best decisions we can.
And yet we need to be resilient, because, no matter what we do, chances are we're going to need to.
Contend with some negative, and the thing about judgment and resilience is that you really can't teach either of them.
The only way we get better at them is through experience. Next slide, Dave.
So when we talk about this idea of simulation, which we're going to go through, and many of you know this.
Those of you are familiar with us. Right? What we're gonna do is an online experience in which we're gonna put.
You're gonna play the role of in this case, a teacher and deal with one of those challenging scenarios dealing with the parent Teacher Conference.
I know that from my raising my children, that they were plenty of times.
I was at a Parent Teacher Conference, where I wish the teacher had spent a little bit more time practicing, and I'm sure frankly, that the teacher felt that they would have liked to have me.
I've gone through a simulation before I came into the meeting, and you know the the flexibility of this modality.
If you can go to the next slide, Dave, is that this can be used in a variety of ways, so when you're doing Pd.
In your schools or in your districts or in your university programs, they can be delivered as part of this kind of thing that we're gonna do today synchronously, whether it's in person or online.
We could do them asynchronously. You can do them again via this kind of video conference, or in person.
It's all. It doesn't matter because of the opportunity for engagement, the opportunity for coming collectively to deal with contextual issues, that there's really, not necessarily going to be a right answer.
There's a better or worse answer in the moment, and so to have that opportunity to engage collectively, and maybe even cross right, having parents and teachers have an opportunity to engage in an exercise that's just an option for development, an opportunity for open-ended discussion, where they can actually engage in and grow an appreciation for
Each other again, whether it's peer-to-peer, or who knows?
Those are the kinds of opportunities that this, that simulations provide in the next slide.
So for those of you who don't know, and you can see more information at our website school.
Sims.com. We have created a library of topics in which these online experiences are an option.
And our library contains simulations relating to leadership in schools relating to teaching.
Obviously and also for counselors. So in terms of the the variety, and this list is constantly growing and for those of you who participated in our webinar last month oh, we're David and I had an opportunity to Co.
- together design a simulation, we'll be showing we'll be able to share more of that development in the next couple of weeks.
So you can actually play a version of what we had collectively developed on screen the opportunity to design new Sims is always something that's an opportunity.
And that's the way the library continues to grow.
The next slide. All the simulation. What we talk with jumped over one.
Are aligned with the standards. And so, just in case you're curious for the teacher, Sims, Sarah line to Cape and in task, and again, we'll cover that in more depth subsequently.
But really the focus of today's program is going to be delivered by our colleague, Dave R. Stege, and he is a former superintendent, but he travel through the ranks.
He started off as a teacher, and then up through administration, and it's been many years in the field, and more most recently retired but we've had the wonderful benefit of being able to work with him in terms of of of harnessing his expertise and experiences and experience in terms, of being able to
Both design, but also to share with you in the deployment of this simulation.
So with that I will turn it over to Dave and leave you in his hands.
Thanks. Ken. I'm going to go right to the school.
Sims website and start up parent teacher, conference ken, can you see the SIM on the screen
Yup, you're good to go
Good. So folks, as Ken said, as I designed this simulation, I was really trying to put the teacher in the in a hot seat situation, and I I think that comes across and I think you'll start to see why.
And this is a good simulation for for teachers to practice, but also for other people.
Principals and other administrators to think about.
Boy, do we really put our teachers in this kind of a situation through a simulation, or in a real life situation, and what might we do in a better in a better kind of role in in terms of how do I support teachers during conferences, or how do we even make conferences that whole idea of parents and
teachers getting together, maybe the only 2 times they ever see one another during a year and and make it a more productive scenario.
So there's a few layers to this, as we're gonna see I'm gonna play the simulation, and it's tiredy.
And and you're gonna hear what it is and see what it is, and get a feel for how it works.
This is a point of view, simulation, so you will not see the teacher on the screen, but you will be sitting as you are.
The teacher and the parent will be the person who sits in front of you, and then we have 8 decision points in this simulation, and you will be asked to make some choices and we'll have some group discussion around that.
And then we also. Then there's a couple of reflective slides where we're asked to to say a couple of things, and, I'm add asked for some participation in that.
We're gonna type, something in the box, because one of the other really good things about the simulation is at the end.
You get a scorecard and you get some feedback on what choices you made, what the what the outcomes of those choices were, what the trade-offs were, something that you can either discuss again individually or in a larger group, as a as part of your professional learning so with that here is parent
teacher, conference.
And this simulation you will be introduced to a real life scenario.
Where you will be presented with challenges, and as you interact with the parent during a cost, your path through this simulation will result from the decision.
Do you make, as well as the consequences? At the end of the simulation you will be provided with specific feedback on the choices you made in a feedback, for we hope this experience will offer you some insight to apply in your practice
And move my screen a little bit, so I can hit the next button simulation context.
You are an experienced Middle school teacher, although this is your first year in this district and in this building the simulation takes place about 9 weeks into the school year.
On one of the drop-in parent teacher. Conference nights.
The conferences are listed on the school calendar and the principal's office does the promoting and reminding of parents of the dates and times.
The conferences are held from 4 P. M. To 8 P. M.
On 2 consecutive evenings there are no appointments necessary to conference with the teacher.
All the teachers are available in their classrooms, and parents drop in to visit with a or all of their child's teachers, one at a time.
So pretty traditional view of conferences here and again I know there's some other models behind this and some other ways to do it.
Which is another thing you could talk about as you're using this.
And how do you do it? Why do you do it that way?
There is advantages and disadvantages, but the this is the the model that I was most familiar with in my teaching career as a secondary teacher, and it's the one we chose today.
But we'll talk about if it was done differently.
Do you think there'd be a different outcome? That that's part of the the nuances of talking about the simulation background?
You teach a core content area of middle school and see about 150 students each day.
You expect to have 30 conferences between the 2 evening sessions?
The principal has communicated with teachers that the basic information to share at conferences is the students academic performance, and any concerns about the students behavior as the teacher.
You and the school have to communicate to parents that a students, academic grades and behavior issues are posted to the online electronic student management system in real time.
Parents can check them anytime. You also send a weekly newsletter to all parents via email each week, highlighting the week's learning and previewing next week's learning.
The school also encourages parents and teachers to initiate a meeting.
Any time either party feels a student is falling behind, and needs more or different support.
Again, pretty traditional system here. It's just the interesting fact that some parents just don't think they can talk to teachers.
Until conferences and and vice versa. Of course this school is encouraging people to communicate, but I think you're gonna find out there.
There has not been much communication between the teacher and the parent until this conference, which is about like we said, 9 weeks into the school year.
So here we go. In the simulation. Please share what information you currently bring to parent teacher conferences also reflecting on your experience, do parents find that information useful and valuable?
How do you know
Okay, so the question again for some reflection is, please share what information you currently bring to parent teacher conferences.
Do you parents find that information valuable? And how do you know that?
So we're gonna make that our first chat. We're gonna rent randomly. Put you just some chat rooms and
I can't find it in this version. Just second
See if I could do it. If you want me to
Yeah, I've lost my button when I put it in the screen.
So, Brian, please put us in chats up into some breakout rooms for 2 min and discuss this question about what do you currently ask for people to bring to conferences?
And do you do parents find that valuable? And how do you know we're don't know that?
Thanks, Brian.
Okay. I think everybody should be back. Would everybody like to turn on their mic and share what was talked about in their group?
What what any consensus was, or where people thought in your group you were at with this question
Did you repeat your question?
But what did you talk about in your group for these answers?
Oh, we we talked about being bring in the appropriate documents that related to whatever the conference was about.
We also talked about asking questions, so bringing questions, depending on what role you were.
So whether or not you're the parent sometimes administrators have questions, too, if we're not understanding certain things that may be happening with the child at home or with with health and that kind of thing.
So just making sure that we have all the information so that we can address the issue at hand.
Thank you. So that's kind of how that would work.
You could either can do this as an individual and reflect on this question, or if you're doing this as a as a group of staff, you could have that same discussion last conference.
It's been a long week, but you are almost done with this final round of parent teacher.
Conferences. Near the end of the second evening of parent teacher conferences at approximately 7 45 P.
M conferences are scheduled to conclude at 8 Pm.
You're sitting in your classroom after a lull in conferences, your thoughts about getting home soon are interrupted by the appearance of another parent in the doorway of your classroom.
It looks like you will have one more conference tonight. You wait.
The parent in, they sit down and introduce themselves, and share the name of their student.
Then they continue, okay. So now we're getting to the crux of the matter.
Here it comes, apparent it's not very convenient time.
You feel a little bit blindsided. But how do you react
I'm sorry it's so late. I I really wanted to be here to speak with you.
I mean, I'd rather not be here at all, and I'd rather not feel like I needed to speak with you.
But I do think there are some performance issues that need to be addressed
That seems pretty straightforward. Let's see what happens next.
You recognize the name of the student who seems nice, but has not seemed very motivated to learn how would you begin the conversation?
Start by sharing a positive comment about the student. Best to begin on an upbeat node to get things going, start by calling attention to the short amount of time left for the conference.
Get right to the point and get the conference focused on the screen.
Start by stating that this conference is about helping the parents support their student.
This is a helpful way to quickly engage the parents and focus on their role.
Start by suggesting that rescheduling a conference may be a good idea due to the time crunch.
There are several important items related to this students. Performance it may be best to reschedule at a time that works for the parent
Okay, let's hear what you have to say. So, looking at those options
Go ahead and vote on this poll whether you think you would choose option.
Choice, one. Choice to choice through your choice. 4.
So here we go, enter your
Your decision.
And we'll see what the group thinks
We have about 50 of us online right now.
Okay, got a lot of consensus. 90% of you said option.
One star for sharing the positive about the students
And so when a simulation, then what happens next is based on which choice we make. So I'm gonna do that right now.
And here's what happens. Thank you. And I am aware that my child has many positive qualities that they've developed over the years. But I'd like us to focus on why they're performance and motivation have gone down in your class. Can we please try to stay focused on those areas
To take a quick internal inventory. How are you feeling after seeing the parents?
Reaction? How do you think your reaction will frame how you continue to interact with this parent?
Okay, I, I think we saw what this conference is really about, which may have been a surprise to you.
Hmm.
So what would what would a typical response you think, be after you see this, parents respond?
How, how do you? How do you again react to this and continue to interact with this parent that's that's a really good question.
To think about, because again, this is again not what you maybe thought it was.
Gonna be but now we're starting to see what it's really going to be.
And some of these decisions now are going to be a little more
Nuanced, I'd say so.
I'm just gonna type in a cup, just so we can move on responding to the parent.
You acknowledge the parents can concerns, and then let them know that you will work to review as much academic and behavior information as possible within the conference time tonight which can serve as the basis for continued discussion before you can go on you look up and see what you presume to be another parent looking into the
classroom and waiting in the doorway. It seems they are there to visit with you before conferences in for the night.
At 8 0 P. M. In 10 min
So now you have another distraction. You have something that that's gonna keep you from perhaps engaging with this parent.
The way that you should, and it's just these kinds of things happen in these scenarios all the time.
Another email, another phone call. In this case, somebody standing in the doorway, maybe even eavesdropping on what the conversation is.
And this is just another opportunity to help new teachers in particular.
But all teachers remind themselves of how do you? How do you value confidentiality in these open door conferences?
And how do you have conversations with people when it's just sort of a open coming as you go?
Situation. You now feel rushed to complete this conference, which will not serve anyone.
Well, what do you do? Excuse yourself to tell the new parent that you will meet with them, but will need to go beyond 8 Pm.
Set expectations now, so you don't feel so, rushed.
Tell the conference parent that time is getting even more limited and urged them to schedule another meeting with you. It just won't work to rush through. This meeting stay focused on conferencing with the current parent and keep moving. Maybe you won't need the entire time with this parent after all
I'm gonna show you another feature to these decision points.
There's a little eye in a circle next to the next to the button, and so, for the first one says, Excuse yourself to tell the new parent what you will, that you will meet them, but we'll need to go beyond 80'clock.
And then it says, set expectations now so you don't feel so rushed.
So each one of these has a bit of cop more context to it, and a bit of rationale onto why, you might want to choose that one
So gonna put up a new poll
3 choices.
And let's see what the group thinks we should do
Few more, seconds
Okay. Let's see what we got. Every every choice got votes which is interesting to see 60% of you went with the first option.
And but 30% went with choice. 3. Brian, could you do another breakout room?
And let's particularly talk. If you were a W. Why, people chose the first option, but maybe they would change their minds after hearing what some people say about choosing the third option, and you'll have 2 min
Just not a few seconds
Okay. Well, that that was good. So
Let's choose the one that was most popular. We're gonna excuse yourself and tell the parent that you will meet them, or you will need to go beyond 8 pm.
Seems like the reasonable thing to do. But again, just because you may think it's the right thing to do doesn't mean that it's gonna go well.
And so I think one of the one of the really interesting things for simulations that help people wrestle with, or what do you value at the core of what this is about?
Your your decisions are based on your values. And and and some things that you're sort of, you know.
Come to the meeting with, and I think that's gonna play out in this situation.
But it doesn't mean that it's always going to be the best thing so let's find out what happened.
Not excused. You ask the parent you are meeting with to excuse you while you speak briefly to the parent in the classroom doorway, and they respond with a courage.
No, I will not excuse you. This is about my child.
Let's please stay focused. Other parents can wait just like I do not.
Surprise. So here we go. Now what happens? You look up to see that the parent who was waiting is no longer there, which has you feeling less rushed.
How would you go about sharing academic and behavior information with this parent?
You pull up the students. Academic performance in your online grade book and read to the parent a series of scores based on daily work, homework and tests.
Next you mentioned any behavior, incidents recorded and share additional options of the students, lack of effort and disinterest in learning
You ask the parent what they wish to learn about their students.
Academic performance or behavior. Before sharing your information, start by eliciting the parents.
Input, you provide the parent with the academic and analysis examples of student work and other information prepared prior to conferences.
You ask the parent to take a few minutes and look over it?
When they have done so, you ask what questions they have at this point
You ask the parent to tell you more about their student, what they like about school, and don't like about school.
Ask what their students, outside of school interests are, and anything else the parent feels would be important for you to know before you share the prepared conference information
Okay, so we have a choice to make here. And let's have a another poll.
And see what you'll think about. What choice do you think would be the best for this teacher to make at this situation
And we have some more divergent thinking on this question.
On this decision than we had on any of the other
Just a couple more seconds
All the choices are getting votes.
Okay, so it's pretty close between choice 2 and choice 3.
But one of got to most, and somebody decided they didn't like any of them, and one with choice spot, which is great.
That's something we can always talk about. What? What? What difference?
So let's go with 3
And find out what happens.
Yes, I understand the data. But my students attitude towards this class indicates that the instruction needs to be more engaging from my perspective.
Improving your performance is the key to improving my child's performance.
There it is. It's all about you. It's not about her child, and that's the crux of the matter.
And how do we help teachers? Any an educator understand that sort of point of view?
When these difficult conversation start. Rather than this process, that we've gone to.
So she finally tells you. So. I'm not worried about my kid.
I'm worried about you as a teacher, you're you're doing it all wrong, and it's your fault.
It's true responsibility, and she's just never going to give up, which is the essence of the of the sin.
It doesn't matter what you decide. She's gonna she's gonna wanna wanna make sure that you do something different.
And she might have a couple more tricks up for sleep when she think
Motion in the hallway. It seems that the conferences are dwindling down.
And as a result the whole way is filled with parents finding their way out.
It is suddenly quite loud. The parent who had been waiting in the doorway did not close the door behind them when they left you, feel that even getting up to close the door might be taken as a sign of neglect on your part, by the parent you are meeting with and so you maintain your composure and work, to conclude the
Conference.
So again, another. What? We call a nonlinear event, something else that just causes you a little bit more stress and a little bit more disruption but that's the reality of being in these situations and it's a it's just something inevitable.
Is gonna happen like this, it's 8 p M. And you realize that the parents is not satisfied with the conversation and seeking information in support beyond what you can provide.
What will you do now? At 8 Pm. You thank the parent for coming, and note that the time is up, and conferences are ending for the night.
Use a business like tone and ask the parent to be in touch by email with any questions
Continue visiting with this parent beyond 8 Pm. Eventually all the information prepared for the conference is shared with the parent
Ask the parent if it would be okay to pause the conference and meet again in a couple of days at the parents.
Convenience. Show the parent you are committed to their student, suggests that there are issues at play here that are new to you.
Another option. Specify on next screen, on the next screen.
Note what elements of the options listed, you would combine for a better decision, or note any other approach you would take beyond the options listed
Thanks.
Okay, some real trade offs here for the teacher that's been to think about.
I'm gonna just rule out option one and option 4.
Let's just talk about 2 and 3 a little bit, because I think I think again that the trade offs are are in in in these decisions.
If you haven't, if the teacher hasn't figured it out, this is about them that are gonna like option 2, they're gonna feel like the more they talk the more information they give, they're gonna be able to satisfy this current.
Well, I think we've started to see. That's not gonna happen.
And they are gonna try to make this happen. And you know, out in in a different time, get some more information.
Let her calm down. Get some help. Those kinds of things, so that seems like the best of the situations here.
But again, there's some trade offs and player, and frankly I don't think it's gonna matter.
I think it's gonna always end up not being the right decision.
But let's go with number 3, and that now you understand, this is about use the teacher, and you just need to get by yourself some time.
And this is the best way to buy yourself in time. There's no sense trying to talk this out anymore.
Or convince her that you were right, and that she needs to see it from your point of view.
So here's what happens.
I came here tonight, hoping that we could agree on what needs to change for my students performance in your class to improve.
I'm frustrated that we haven't gotten there, but I am willing to put in the effort to meet again in a few days, though it would have to be in the evening again.
Okay. So to give you a little hit again, if you watched it.
If you watch the video again, the simulation again, and shows option too.
Then she just stormed out of the meeting, met with the principal principal comes back into your room and says, we're having a meeting a few days so you know what I'm saying.
We get to the same point, but they're sure a better way to get there in this version, even though she's not happy about it.
Then her storming out of your meeting and going to your principal, and then then we have a, you know, just a whole different set of scenario and a playout
Parent is not happy. The parents states that they are dissatisfied, and want to know what they have to do for their student to change teachers for this class, and leads to find the principal, the parent and principal meet in the hallway the principal calls you over after the parent leaves and
informs you that there will be a meeting tomorrow in the principal's office to follow up on the parents concerns
As you look toward meeting with the principal, to plan for the follow-up meeting with the students, parent, who would you want to attend and have input on the planning?
Select up to 4 of the following options, you and the principal counselor, one or more of the students, other teachers, someone else specify on next screen
So to just show you how that works.
You can in this, in this box you can check as many of the boxes as you want, and you hit.
Submit, just gives you a little bit of freedom to think about that.
In your particular school, and your particular setting. Who else might you want to?
Involve in this situation. I'm gonna just say, my
I'm a first year teacher. I have a mentor teacher.
Which of these options best describes the purpose of the meeting with the parent pick up to 2 of the following choices to list the specific concerns from the parent, and have specific answers for how to address them.
To find the parents additional resources outside of school to help the student to listen further to the parent and reassure them that their concerns have been heard.
But in the end the student is going to have to adapt to this teacher, and the current circumstances.
A different purpose. Specify on next screen
Okay, let's have a poll. Let's find out what you all think.
What do you think the purpose of this meeting should be about
Few more, seconds
Number one was the most popular reason to have the meeting, but Number 3 got a lot of cut away support to, and a few for for Number 4.
Now we're having a different purpose. But again, I think this is something to help teachers understand going into meetings like this, what is our purpose in the principle and the participants need to be on the same page?
Have have an understanding of that in order to have a successful meeting, particularly with this parent, I think it's gonna be more important to have that conversation upfront
So I'm just gonna pick those 2 that were most talked about.
And it's I should call the parent to set up the follow-up meeting, and then be in charge of leaving.
Why, okay, Brian, would you do a breakout on this?
Please let's just have a little conversation about who should who should call the parent the teacher.
The principal somebody else, and a little bit of discussion about why
Think we're all back. Would anybody like to share what your group talked about? And who could make the call
Who should make the call to the parent. What did your group discuss
Our group, but so that it's a teacher that should do that. And she should.
Own that meeting she also should ask the parent to be prepared to provide some specifics.
Esther, not our accusations, but our comments as to why she felt that the student wasn't successful.
As a result of the instruction. In other words, like I said in my small group, put your money where your mouth is, lady.
Sure.
You need to, you know. Share with me why, you're saying these kinds of things
Hmm.
And anybody have a different opinion that they'd be willing to share
I feel like the principal needs to make the contact, because the parent has already gone to them, and I I don't think you're being supportive of the teacher by saying, Hey, you know what talk to me already.
And now I need you to go back. The bad case at you.
You can set up the meeting supported. We did
Great great corresponding thought on that again no one, right or wrong, answer, but it's just something that people should talk about as this unfolds, and and everybody needs to be solid on what the rationale is, and why we want to do it.
The way we want to do it. So I think those are both excellent points of view.
So here we go. With the meeting with the parent schedule.
You anticipate the parachute and their misgivings about you as a teacher.
You think about how listening, and willingness to consider input can help to build trust.
When this parent around your desire to support their student in a while the meeting could provide an opportunity to build an alliance with the parent, to support your student, you recognize that if the student continues in your class, you will need to hide communication with the the simulation storyline is here on the next screen you will
Find a detailed feedback report for your choices and responses in the simulation
So here's what it starts to look like. We have learning objectives for each section of the simulation.
And then, which was mostly around the the decision points, and then we had our choice.
We had the other choices, and then some feedback on that based on what your choice was.
And so this is something you could produce to your principal if you were a teacher, to say I did the simulation.
I want my credit, or just to just to have a further conversation, like we have people do this, and then let's come to a meeting and discuss it with a little bit more purpose, because we've already inside.
And what was going to happen so that's how that looks.
And then
From the simulation point of view that everybody, once you watch a simulation, you can get feedback on it, and you can submit that
So couple of follow up questions, but I have to
Second.
It's the January 20 third Webinar date on the on your menu bar.
Yeah, I can't see it on my screen.
There you go! You got it!
Okay, do we have it up
Yeah, just page down. I just go down one screen
Because I Oh, here we go. Okay. So a little bit of follow up.
Then, just for you to think about it again. First question I'm just gonna have you jump, jump on, just drop right into the what you think.
If we had an extended timeline of the simulation No. One.
We went beyond what the last screen said. We had the meeting, and we had this happen.
Where? Where where would you like us to take it? Well, what scene would you have liked to see next, for example, would you like to see the scene from the meeting, or seeing from the next parent teacher conference like in 9 9 9 weeks down the road?
And we have another conference where we have this parent in this teacher.
Discuss, what do you think would be something that you would predict?
That would be a good scene for us to see whether or not this parent and this teacher are going to get along.
Anybody want to share a thought on that
I would love to see, because the principal is also in that meeting, supporting the teacher.
But I would love to see them have some coaching like questions so they could really get to the bottom of it.
Obviously that parent, even though she says she need to meet in the evening.
She chose to last 15 min minutes, knowing that the meeting ended at 80'clock, and so she wanted to be able to say what she had to say.
Knowing that the teacher wasn't gonna have enough time to truly respond to that.
So I think that was a power move on her plate, so I would love to see them have the conversation, and that, and then the teacher asked questions that that brought them back around, so that by the time they finished the parent was thinking more about the student, and really having a tour picture of what was going on in the
classroom, as well as understanding truly where the parent was coming from.
Obviously something is bothering the parent. And right now is the teacher. You know.
She's putting it on the teacher, but it may not be the real problem, so I could.
I would love to see the principal as well as the teacher, being able to ask questions that led to what the real problem is
Thank you. Any other thoughts on extending the timeline, and what you'd like to see
There's a bunch of things in chat
No, those are all great comments. I I think the other point of the the simulation is to point out the fact that again word is a beginning teacher.
Learn how to handle these kind of conversations. How do you help a beginning teacher?
Learn to say, to say to a parent, and and get the parent to really believe in that, that I hear you.
I'm I'm listening to you. But let's do it in a different way.
There. There was just an experience with that that that is the point of having simulations like this.
It's to get get people that practice and get people that experience before they actually have to do it.
I think that's the benefit of having the follow-up conversation after the simulation.
Yup!
Right.
So that the group can share maybe ways that they had handled similar situations in the past, and then not that one is right and what is wrong. But you know just to be able to hear those those comments is very useful
So what would you think if we wrote another simulation? That was kind of part 2 to this, and it was the parent feature meeting, and we played all this out in a simulation based on the fact that we've seen what happened in the parent teacher conference now the parent the teacher and the principal are gonna
Have a real coaching conversation are gonna have a more of an in-depth conversation about this.
So it could be more of a leadership, simulation, or it could be more a teacher.
Singulation again to have that conversation with the principal you can just put in the chat.
Do you think that'd be a worthy simulation for us to think about
Yeah, well, thank you for that.
Yeah, one of the things that we also find in in terms of, especially when you're dealing inside a building or inside a district where you have the opportunity for the principal to actually be the one facilitating right.
The the principal leading the set with their teachers, and where you get that opportunity for that dialogue to actually happen real time right? What? What is the expectation that the principal has of the teachers?
But what's the expectation that teachers have of the principal?
How? How are they gonna feel supported in an opportunity to get aligned in terms of, as we have these nights of of meetings, or days and nights of meetings?
What, how do I feel? How am I going to go into this, knowing whether you have my back what do you don't have my back, whether it's an open, ended question whether you will have my back?
But in terms of being able to to have that opportunity to actually engage in a conversation where you've got a scenario in front of you without a student or a real parent on the other side, but to get that kind of alignment in terms of how one will approach because obviously we can't predict exactly what's going to
Happen, but we want them to be thoughtful in terms of whatever response they're gonna make in whatever situation they find themselves
Thanks ken
I'm sorry. I just wanted to answer that. I think that is really important.
To have the principle shown as a resource, especially for new teachers, because they don't know that the principal can be a resource and a support in someone that they can lean on versus.
This is my supervisor I don't want to be in trouble, but this could be a really embarrassing, coachable moment for the new teacher around how to engage with this particular parent, and to know that it's okay to ask for help and not go through a path by yourself and
That's the principal, and your school leadership is there to support you.
Thank you very much.
I would like to see some way that an entry that participants could write in what their expectations are.
Kind of a follow up to what was just said of what they expect in that meeting with the parent.
What do they expect from the principal? So let you know the principal.
I know teacher have to have some common and free point when they go into the meeting, so if there was a way in the simulation for the participants to actually write down what it is they expect to have happen in the meeting with the principal, what are their expectations kind of like what support they're
Gonna get from the what they're hoping to get from the principal something to that effect, so they could write down their thoughts.
Is that a possibility to add like
A text box or something into these
Oh, I think it's a really good point, and it's part of the I think the beauty of these simulations is that whether that was actually added, you know, specifically, when you when you do this in a group setting that would be something to actually talk about.
And to put in context for people. And so it's just the jumping off point to have a lot more conversations that are around these same topics.
So, yeah, I think that's we watch the simulation the second time and shows different things.
Yeah.
I think we'd have different conversations. So my last question to the group today is that, just think about how you could experience the simulation differently if some of the context were differently.
For example, let's talk about some of the obvious ones.
What if the parent was of color? What if the child wonder if we knew the child's name?
What if the parent was male, not a female? You know.
What are those things that might cause the teacher, or cause the the context to be viewed, perhaps differently than than the way it was set up in the what are your biases?
In other words, and what types of things, Mike, you have to consider, and making some of these judgment calls at these decision points.
Anybody have any feelings on those contexts?
One of the other things that we look to as you're thinking about, that we look to uncover.
And you notice from one of the the right in screens which actually asked about feelings, how are you feeling?
And you know part of the effort. There is also to allow for this for people to call out right sometimes you walk into these meetings.
You're tired. Maybe you're stressed.
You're afraid it's something. This is maybe a parent that you've had a bad interaction with.
Obviously you haven't in this case, but maybe just had a bad interaction.
So your feelings you're feeling defensive. You're feeling, whatever it is that may be on the more negative side.
But that doesn't necessarily mean that you need to respond in that way. Right?
So how can we find that space to pause where we don't necessarily react on our feelings?
It could be biases to what day was asking about. Right?
So we may have a visceral reaction, one way or another, to the the parent coming in, or the parents coming in, whatever that situation is, or how we're made to feel by what is happening in front of us.
But the idea of being able to program in to create that space where, no matter how, I'm feeling that my response is, gonna have some thought behind it, right?
Because we we are program we're to fight right. If we get into fight flight from an amygdala hijack perspective, we may just react.
And chances are, and we joke sometimes right when it comes to being a deer in the headlines.
It rarely goes well, for the deer. So how do we make you?
Not that right? How do we program in? So that there is that pause, that space is created so that we can actually take a breath.
And then thoughtfully, or as thoughtfully as we can, but with some thought at least respond.
And that's the kind of thing that is difficult to teach.
But if we can create spaces in which there are opportunities to have those experiences, then maybe we can create that muscle memory where there is a pause, there is an opportunity to be thoughtful and respond to the needs of the moment, not necessarily your feelings of the moment which again, they're valid we want
To recognize them. We want to ignore, them. And, in fact, there's a lot of work.
Bernie Brown has done a lot of work relating to emotional granularity, being able to give in a motion a name.
Take away some of its power, and there and then be able to to step past it, to step through it, if you will and that's kind of the the opportunity from a position perspective with a role that we can play in terms of helping teachers in terms of whether we're a leader working with our staff whether
we're a faculty member, whether we're doing Pd, whether we're a counselor, whatever the case may be, didn't engage in this manner so that we can have that create those spaces in which better decisions can be made.
We are near the top of the hour. We'd love to hear questions, but before we open it up fully, just wanna let you all know that if you go to the next screen, yep, we have an upcoming webinar in a couple of weeks, I'm dealing with implicit
Bias, bias in the hiring process, which will be led by our friend and colleague from Drake University Trent Grenmire.
So that's gonna be coming up so feel free to the announcements will come out to register.
For also again please stay tuned for access to for those of you interested in seeing the SIM that we started developing during our last webinar relating to learning loss in the classroom that is going to be available over the next 10 days or so to get an opportunity for feedback so we can get some
Iterative process through with all of you, because, as you have seen hopefully, if you were on that webinar, or you can see the recording at our website, the opportunity to unpack a problem of practice somewhat like what day was doing during the playing of the simulation, right what are some of those underlying traditions that are at
Play, and really being cognizant of what it is, we're evaluating between one more facing these decisions at that point is is fun and developmental as well.
So with that would welcome any questions, comments that you have.
As we come closer to the top of the hour.
But thank you, Dave, very much for wonderful session.
So we thank you and your participation. And again, we're still willing to to stick around for those of you who might have questions or comments and feel free to unmute and ask
I'd just like to say, Yeah, thank you for this opportunity to participate in this simulation that you're building out.
I have personally used about 3 of your simulations, and my graduate classes, and I have found them to be very beneficial.
In helping students who are prospective principles make decisions about.
You know what is going to take place, given a situation, and I like the fact that the simulations that I used were actually aligned with the professional standards, so the students could see that their decisions are standards-based, or to start to think about their decisions in the context of standards so
I found them to be very beneficial, mostly with in small groups, and then analyzing the decisions and talking about the experiences people have had that are related to the actual simulation.
So I found that to be beneficial, and the students did respond that they had actually liked the ability to use them.
That's great!
Use this simulations.
Thank you very much.
Hi! Have a quick question. I also have used actually 3 of these.
I'll division. Use 3 of them last year, and they were very effective.
Brought some great conversation, and and and all. So this year we were looking at you know, once we would like to use.
And so I was actually previewing some through the as of using with new teachers and with a few a couple of them, that I looked at some of the engagement was a little less than what some of them had been like the ones we had used.
It had video and picture. But there was a some of my head.
Preview was just all words. It was. It was nothing. And I really like to aspect of the video.
And all because I feel like it helps the audience become actively involved in the simulation.
And then there was a couple that, like the volume of what was being read, and the person talking was one was really high and one was really low.
So you are having to adjust the volume based on who was speaking.
So my question is, are some more of these simulations going to be developed like, especially for these new teachers?
That would be more of like what we saw today. And we did the ones last year with like difficult conversations.
That was a really good one disruptive teacher, and then the transgender one and all of those were very much in line with each other.
Well, thank you for the question, and yes, all the new Sims, all the Sims that we're bringing out now certainly are going to be of this format, you know.
Right, right.
Some of the Sims predate if they their the library is filled with things that we have developed from the beginning of of the evolution of the of the company, and we are going back and refreshing them and adding the the the both the video and evening out the you know we had tried to
add some things in over time, which obviously as you've not seen so we're trying to fix those things.
I appreciate you pointing them out and actually offline if you don't mind getting them getting specifics.
That would be great, because we are trying to obviously the the opportunity to.
We like the important, we believe in the importance of video versus like avatars because of the authenticity factor. Right?
So it's not my building, and not my people, but they could be so.
That's an important component. And so being able to add that in is key.
And so we we hope to add to all of them.
But you know certainly, and all anything new, and anything from the last few years has had that combination of things.
And we're gonna continue to add and refresh as we can
Okay? And is there a schedule of of what is going to be added?
Or if I don't know if I'm looking at the most recent or not less like what you know, what is coming up
So we did I think there was an email which we can resend to you to at the in December that we're not with what's coming.
Great
We have a number of classroom management simulations that are going to be coming out from the teacher.
Sims Perspective, we have a couple of the counselor Sims that will be coming out as well.
One called planning for student achievement and one relating to STEM.
We have some leadership. Sims. We have the one on equity centered leadership which we actually unveiled in December, at the Learning Forward Conference, which will be made available another equity Center leadership that is in process with Virginia State university and others.
So, yeah, we have a a pretty robust development calendar.
And we'll there. We'll made that make that available in terms of perspective timing so that you can get a sense of what's coming over the course of the year.
Great. Thank you very much. I appreciate that
You're welcome. Thank you.
Any other thoughts.
Alright. Well, thank you all, and I think at this point we will hope to see you next month.
At the upcoming webinar, and if you have questions, please feel free to reach out, and we look forward to being in touch