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Is there anything that you’d like your teacher to know about you?
What do you like best about school?
Is there anything about school that is hard or frustrating?
Who are your friends in school? What kinds of things do you do with your friends at school?
What types of things would you like to do more (or less) often?
Please plan to arrive on time for your conference. Knock on the classroom door so the teacher knows you
have arrived.
Wrapping it up
Please use only your allotted time for the conference. If the end of the conference is near and you need to
address issues in greater depth, schedule another meeting with the teacher. At Touchstone, it is the shared
responsibility of both
teachers and parents to ensure that concerns about children’s academic, social and emotional needs are
communicated. Sometimes scheduled conferences do not provide enough time for mutual understanding of
the student’s needs, and in these cases parents must be sure to arrange opportunities for further discussion with
the teacher.
Parent-teacher conferences are a wonderful opportunity to understand your child’s ways of learning and
relating to others in the classroom setting better. Consider each conference to be just one installment in an
ongoing partnership between you and your child’s teacher. Take advantage of these conferences to
strengthen the parent-teacher partnership and the unique environment that Touchstone provides for its
students and their families.
Grouping Policies, Process and Arrangements
The Touchstone Teaching Staff, and Head of School spend a considerable time each spring creating class
groups for the following year that are responsive to the needs of the students and the best learning groups that
we can put together. The ultimate goal is the creation of effective learning groups – groups for cognitive,
social and emotional learning. As we do so, we strive to balance all of the following, and often competing,
considerations:
Group dynamics
The dynamics of a class group heavily determines how much learning takes place in a
class group, and the Touchstone teachers, at grouping time, are continually considering the needs of
individual students in the context of the groups we are creating. Because we believe that students learn
from each other, because students work together cooperatively in small and large groups, and because
social/emotional learning is part of the curriculum, the composition of the class group is carefully
considered. The importance of the dynamics of the group also accounts for the difficulty we have making
changes once groups are set.
Class size
Our goal is to create classes of 15 on average, but in the past ten years we have had classes of
12 and classes of 18. Whenever a class exceeds 16, the teaching staff will formally endorse the need for it
and the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors will be informed of the need.
Boy/girl ratios
Age composition and spread
Friendships—We do not see friendships as the defining element in grouping, although we are mindful of
them. Students develop socially and emotionally by developing new relationships and friendships. It is rare
that children are in the same class with the same friends for their entire time at Touchstone. We encourage
and support the growth and development that occurs when children form new relationships. Every new
school year is an opportunity for a new start for every child, and it is in the process of adjusting to a new
class group that this growth and maturity can occur.
Academic and social development levels
Personalities
Leadership abilities
Special needs and circumstances We balance the group considering learning styles and strengths as well
as students requiring extra attention.
We use the following process and calendar to create groups: