It's that time ...

Parent-teacher conferences kick off tomorrow.
Tonight's to-do list:

• Call about 10 families that did not return the appointment form to see if they can be scheduled  
•  Sort a substantial stack of student papers to use as sample work  
• Go through the grade book to see who's been doing homework faithfully and who needs some parental reminders.

I ran over to my grade-level chair's classroom early this morning to ask: just what do I do with those 15 minutes of parent-teacher conference time? One more thing for a new teacher to learn ...
The kids whose parents I am most interested in speaking with in person did not bring back their forms. Scheduled a phone conference with one, but would really prefer face-to-face meeting if possible with the rest.
Had a great math lesson yesterday, team-teaching with two colleagues and the university prof who is helping us plan lessons. However, broke out the base-ten blocks today and had an awful time of it, as kids were more interested in constructing things than showing me what is the equivalent of one-fourth ...
One day I'll get this teaching thing down. Hope that day is coming sooner than later.