Are parent-teacher conferences necessary?
Nevertheless, parent-teacher conferences are a wonderful opportunity to extend lines of communication between home and school, keep parents informed about their children’s progress—both academic and social—and for developing cooperative strategies that can ultimately benefit every student.
What is the purpose of a teacher-parent conference?
Teacher-parent conferences give you an opportunity to increase communication between school and home, keep parents informed about their child’s progress, and develop a plan for the student’s future. You’ll find excellent advice to help you prepare for these meetings. New teachers will find this resource particularly valuable.
How do you organize a parent/teacher conference?
You should think about three stages: before, during, and after. Send a personal letter to each parent to confirm the day, time, and place of the conference. Inform parents ahead of time about the purpose of the conference. Gather file folders or portfolios of each student’s work.
How do parent–teacher conferences supplement the information conveyed by report cards?
Parent–teacher conferences supplement the information conveyed by report cards by focusing on students’ specific strengths and weaknesses in individual subjects and generalizing the level of inter-curricular skills and competences.
Are parent-teacher conferences important?
A parent-teacher conference is a great opportunity to: share academic progress and growth based on classroom observations, testing data, assessments, portfolios, and assignments. learn from parents or guardians so you can be better informed about students’ strengths, needs, behaviors, and learning styles.
Are parent-teacher conferences outdated?
To conclude, parent-teacher conferences are an outdated event that has been progressively replaced by technology until, now, they serve next to no purpose whatsoever.
Should I be scared of parent-teacher conference?
It is quite normal for you to feel nervous about a parent teacher conference. This meeting might be your very first, it might be a special-called meeting for a specific issue, or there may be some baggage that comes with the present school year making you nervous.
What is the purpose of a parent-teacher conference?
These meetings help you understand what your child is learning at school, their progress both academically and social-emotionally, and what you can do to support them. If your child is having particular difficulties, parent-teacher conferences also give you and the teacher time to plan how you can both help them best.
Who invented parent teacher conference?
In 1897, Alice McLellan Birney and Phoebe Apperson Hearst founded the National Congress of Parents and Teachers with a mission to better the lives of children in education, health and safety.
How do you escape parent teacher meeting?
How to handle a tough parent-teacher meetingTake a breath. If the teacher focuses on issues your child is having at school, before responding, take a breath and simply listen. … Be clear. … Give the teacher helpful information. … Move to solutions. … Get to know the teacher. … Hand out praise.
How do you deal with a difficult parent-teacher conference?
7 Tips for Teachers on Dealing with Difficult ParentsNo Surprises. … Meet Face-to-Face with Parents. … Alert Your Principal or Department Chair to the Situation. … Listen and Ask Questions. … Try to Find Things You Agree On. … Don’t Allow Yourself to Be Pressured. … Know When the Conversation Is Over.
How do you survive a parent-teacher conference?
Avoid angry or apologetic reactions. Instead, ask for examples. Ask what is being done about the problem and what strategies seem to help at school. Develop an action plan that may include steps that parents can take at home and steps the teacher will take at school.
What should parents ask at parent-teacher conferences?
Let’s explore the types of questions you should ask at a parent-teacher conference….Questions About CommunicationWhat is the best way to contact you? … Can I tell you more about my student?Can I tell you more about what’s going on at home?How can I stay informed of school programs and my student’s success?More items…•
What parents should know about parent-teacher conference?
When planning what to say at parent teacher conferences, prepare a way to end on a positive note. You could tell why you love having the child in your class, highlight an overall strength, or a special connection you have with the child.
Why are parent teacher conferences optional?
As you get older, most parent-teacher conferences are optional. This allows parents to decide whether or not their child is struggling. They don’t need to waste their time hearing their student is performing fantastically.
Why are conferences important?
Conferences are very important for the student who needs extra assistance to graduate or to make it to the fifth grade. The conferences keep parents involved in their child’s schoolwork that helps them retain the motivation to do well. If a student is not doing well, it could slide past the parent until report card time and that is too late.
Do parents need to know how their kids are doing when they are younger?
Parents need to know how their children are doing when they are younger to get a foundation going but once a student is a junior or senior in high school, you are old enough to know what you need.
What is parent teacher conference?
A parent-teacher conference is a face-to-face meeting between one teacher and one or both parents (or guardians) of a student. It is an opportunity to discuss a student’s academic progress and social behavior. Many schools schedule these in both the fall and spring. If there’s one part of the school year that strikes fear into the heart …
Why are parent-teacher conferences important?
Nevertheless, parent-teacher conferences are a wonderful opportunity to extend lines of communication between home and school, keep parents informed about their children’s …
What does it mean when a mother tells her son she is failing three subjects?
A friend of mine once said, “It’s important to remember that children are ego extensions of their parents.” If you tell a mother that her son is failing three subjects, you are, in effect, telling the parent that she, too, is a failure. On the other hand, if you tell Mr. Velasquez that his daughter is the most outstanding science student in the school, Mr. Velasquez will be mentally patting himself on the back all evening long.
How to get parents to come to your class?
Invite parents to bring a list of questions, issues, or concerns. Have sample textbooks readily available. Establish a waiting area outside your classroom. For reasons of confidentiality, you only want to meet with one set of parents at a time.
What are the stages of a successful conference?
Productive and successful conferences take careful planning. You should think about three stages: before, during, and after.
How to make arrangements for an interpreter for non-English speaking parents?
If necessary, make arrangements for an interpreter for non-English-speaking parents. Review notes on each student’s behavior, academic progress, and interactions with peers. Establish no more than two or three concerns or issues. More than that will discourage most parents. Clarify ahead of time who, exactly, will be attending each conference. Is it the child’s biological parents, a relative, a guardian, a grandparent, a foster parent, or who? Check and double-check names.
Is it normal to be nervous at parent teacher conferences?
You may be nervous about the thought of parent-teacher conferences. However, here’s something important to remember—most parents are just as nervous as you are. Your first and primary goal should be to help make them feel comfortable.
How often are parent conferences held?
At The International Preschools, parent/teacher conferences are held twice a year : once in the fall and once in the spring. Parents have the opportunity to speak directly with their child’s teachers about the child’s school experience.
What is a conference for preschool?
Conferences are a wonderful time to meet with your child’s entire teaching team. Each teacher in the classroom, whether he/she is a head teacher, associate teacher, or assistant teacher, has valuable insights regarding your child’s experiences at school and can give you a more complete picture of his/her day. Don’t be afraid to take notes, ask questions, and if need be, follow-up for a future meeting or check-in via email or telephone call. Parents know their children best; your input, concerns, and interest in your child’s preschool experience is valued and appreciated by his/her teachers.
What is a teacher’s goal?
Teachers create a set of goals for your child to strive to achieve throughout the year. It might be to increase his/her gross motor skills, or to offer information more frequently at circle time. Goals are individualized to the needs of each child; the attainment of those goals are assessed throughout the school year.
What happens if you are late to a parent teacher conference?
If you happen to be late, one of three things will happen. The first is that your conference time will be shrunk down to however many minutes you happen to have left, not giving you the time you’d like (or need) to discuss your concerns or to share your child’s celebrations with their teacher. The second option is that you will run over your allotted time, making the rest of the appointments after yours run late in turn. The final scenario is that you will have to wait to meet during a different empty slot which may very well have been the only time during the night that your child’s teacher had an opportunity to use the washroom and that opportunity has now disappeared. You can guess how well that one goes over.
How long should you discuss something at the end of a conference?
If you have something that you want to discuss, bring it up right away. There’s nothing worse than having something weighing on your mind and only having two minutes at the end of the conference to discuss it because other, less important matters, were covered first. Teachers can easily fill up the time slot talking about the day-to-day business of what your child is doing in class, so don’t let us take over the conversation!
Do teachers store up your child’s transgressions?
If your child is seriously struggling academically, behaviourally, or socially, their teacher has probably been in touch with you already. Contrary to popular belief, teachers actually don’t store up all of your child’s transgressions for the months leading up to this moment so they can hit you with a real whammy on PTC night – our goal is to have as positive an experience as possible!
During The Conference
-
Establish rapport – As an icebreaker, take notice of something that reflects well upon the teacher. For example, thank the teacher for having made thoughtful notes on your child’s homework or for the special attention in helping your child learn to multiply. Ask questions – Questions you ask d…
After The Conference
-
End the conference by reviewing what you discussed and restating your action plan. This is also a good time to set up your next meeting. When discussing the conference with your child afterward, stress the good things that were covered and be direct about problems that were identified. If an action plan is in place, explain to the child what was arranged. When an action plan is in place, c…
Questions to Ask During The Conference
- What subject does my student like most? Least?
- What can I do to help my student with subjects he finds difficult?
- How can I help my student study? Prepare for class? Improve his work? A good time to ask these questions is when the teacher gives you samples of your son’s or daughter’s work.
- Is my student trying as hard as he can
Overview
A parent–teacher conference, parent–teacher interview, parent–teacher night or parents’ evening, is a short meeting or conference between the parents and teachers of students to discuss a child’s progress at school and find solutions to academic or behavioral problems. Parent–teacher conferences supplement the information conveyed by report cards by focusing on students’ specific strengths and weaknesses in individual subjects and generalizing the level of inter-curri…
Regional variations
In Australian educational system, the meetings are known as parent–teacher interviews or parents’ nights. The exact practice varies by state and by school type. Some states mandate that the interviews be conducted, others do not. Government and non-government schools also follow different federal educational laws.
Some schools have only one round of interviews per year, others have more. Two rounds is com…
Types
Parent–teacher conferences exist in a variety of different forms, depending on a country, school district and individual school. The subtypes are characterized by the following attributes.
Like most other meetings, parent–teacher conferences can take the form of face-to-face meetings in which parents and teachers meet in person, or electronic meetings that are conducted over the phone or via video conferencing systems like Microsoft Teams, Zoom or Go…
Scheduling
Scheduling parent–teacher conferences involves finding a time that suits both parents and teachers with their existing time constraints and finding locations for the meetings. If all meetings would be independent without any dependencies, the planning of the meetings simplifies to unordered timetabling rather than full-scale scheduling where events need to be scheduled in a certain order, often because the output of one event forms an input for another.
Management
Optimized scheduling is advantageous only as long as the participants keep to the schedule by attending the meetings and starting and finishing on time. The latter can be achieved by a school bell or electronic voice-over message played over the school PA system, at each change of interview time (E.g. “Please move to your next interview”), avoiding to schedule very short interview times that are harder to keep running on time, scheduling empty slots at intervals to as…
Discussion
Parent–teacher conferences have been criticized for their class bias and inefficiency because the meetings are attended mostly by the parents of more privileged children, while the parents of the children who are more likely to need extra assistance do not attend.
See also
• Educational assessment
• Personal development planning
• Parent Teacher Organization