Reporting (and another new report format)
Mid-year and end-of-year reports are the worst part of my teaching year. Written reports are all about how we communicate information about each student to their family and whanau. But there are times when I wonder how valuable these written reports are to parents...or are they just more of a mystery? Regardless of how I personally feel about them...they still have to be done. I can’t say my school hasn’t tried to make them more meaningful and less mysterious... But a miss is as good as a mile. I’m not sure that our parents really understand them. And this is probably due to the fact that teachers are not great at writing them. I spend a great deal of time agonising over writing my reports. Trying to succinctly say what I tried to teach a child over six months is no easy task. Trying to write it in ordinary language without parents requiring a B’Ed to understand can be a mission in and of itself. So after a number of years ...