I am returning to school from a 12-week maternity leave soon, and I noticed that when I return is only a few weeks' out from parent-teacher conferences. I suspect I might wind up feeling rather silly having not seen the students for the entire quarter in conferencing question. My maternity substitute has a contract for the full year; after I return, the plan is to pass her around the school for positions here and there. Would it be odd to ask if she'd like to participate in conferences with me being that she would have the most recent and complete look at the kiddos rather than the teacher who has only seen them again for a few weeks?
While perhaps not required (depending on the wording around the year-long contract), I don't think it'd be odd at all. At the very least, I'd imagine that they should at least provide you with enough information to be able to carry out the conference yourself (data, key notes, etc...). I wonder if this is a conversation you could consider bringing up with your principal - perhaps they could pay for an extra day so that the sub would be compensated for the extra time spent, if they end up needing to spend additional time outside of a normal day of "subbing". Of course, if you just have a day off to do conferences or half days, and the sub will be getting paid anyways, I don't see why not. (Sorry, rambled back and forth there ) Did they do report cards during that time?
They did do report cards! I did not touch those! If she were finished after me, I wouldn't be wondering this. But I kept thinking that since she is still around, getting paid, etc., she could have great insight.
Are the conferences on a day that are a part of her contract, where she'd already be around per the contract?
They are. Since we have so many maternity leaves, the admin just gave her a standard teacher contract this year.
In this case, I'd suggest talking to the admin to see if they can either make sure she isn't subbing that day so she can join the conferences, or if she's in a maternity leave position, see if a sub can be scheduled for that classroom. Or, assuming the conferences are happening during non student-contact times but while she is still scheduled due to the contract, she should be there anyways and I could see her being expected to help with your conferences.
