It’s Parent-Teacher conference season! The awkward time of year when the school week is a series of consecutive half days to accommodate parent work schedules. This is a very important time for connecting with your child’s teacher. Parent Teacher conferences may seem daunting for some parents. What should you talk about? What should you expect? What is expected of you? What is your child actually doing when they’re not with you? As a former educator, I can tell you that the teachers have similar questions about how the conference will go; and some very burning questions for you about your youngster.
These meetings happen once, maybe twice per school year. It’s important as a parent to approach this opportunity with the right mentality so that you get the most of your time. Here are a few tips to make that short amount of time more meaningful:
These meetings happen once, maybe twice per school year. It’s important as a parent to approach this opportunity with the right mentality so that you get the most of your time. Here are a few tips to make that short amount of time more meaningful:
- Come ready to listen - Your child spends at least 6 hours a day at school. This means that the teachers have great insight on how your child works with people outside of your family; how they collaborate on teams; and how well they adjust to situations not in the home. Listen. Sit and listen. Behavior, confidence, performance at home may be polar opposite to the behavior, confidence, and performance at school. Think about what can you learn from this.
- Come with prepared questions - Are there burning questions you have about content taught in class? Rumors you heard about school from your child? Are there concepts you are having problems with helping on the homework? Bring a variety of questions to the conference. Be certain you are respectful in asking your questions. Teachers spend many hours on educating a class of 18-28 kids. Asking tough questions are great to get to the meat of an issue as long as you respect that the teacher is also an professional.
- Check in with your child - Talk with your child about their experience with homework and school work; with classmates; and with the teacher. Are there questions your child has? Are there issues that may have been overlooked between students? If your child cannot attend the conference, bringing their voice to the discussion and use it as a way to leverage collaborative, partnership between you and your child’s teacher.
- Check up on your child’s work - Actually look at all that your child has brought home. What is the consistent review and feedback that you’ve seen on school work and homework? It’s important to have a baseline and frame of reference when you bring up questions about discrepancies. Pro Tip: When homework or school work comes home, have students review any work they got wrong. Talk with your student about why it’s wrong? If you need help with correcting work, it’s always great to reach out to the teacher about how to get it correct next time.
- Come ready to collaborate - Communicate with your teacher that you too will work on reiterating and supplementing the learning that happens during the school day. And then actually do it. Your teacher can provide you with more work, ideas and projects, and even places where you can find resources.
It takes a team to educate your child. You’re an important player in that process, but your child is the most important part of the equation. Parent teacher conferences are an opportunity for parents and teachers to work together on strategies that can make the learning more impactful at school and at home. A successful parent teacher conference can turn a school year around before it’s too late. Parents are partners in their child’s education, use this opportunity to set the tone for the rest of the school year.
Do you have tips for successful parent teacher conferences? Share in the comments or share on Twitter using the hashtag #LetsK12Better!
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