Parent-teacher conferences are a vital part of a student’s educational journey. They provide an opportunity for you and teachers to collaborate, discuss your child’s progress and address any concerns. If you want to have a richer and more in-depth and successful conversation with the teacher, we recommend you take a few minutes to prepare. Here are some things you can do to ensure you have the most productive and meaningful parent-teacher conference possible.
Preparation
- Review Student’s Progress: Before the conference, we encourage you to review your child’s assessments, work samples and any communication home from the teacher. Look for any insights these might provide into your child’s strengths and areas for improvement.
- Prepare Questions: If there are aspects of your child’s progress in school that you are wondering about, you should prepare questions or specify topics you hope to discuss during the conference. This can include questions about academic performance, social & emotional development & behavior, and any other specific concerns they may have. Your school may have the SchoolSoft Conference Manager configured to allow you to provide the teacher with comments or questions you have at the time you complete your conference booking. If so, this is an excellent way of providing a teacher with questions or identify topics you hope to discuss before your conference begins.
- Gather Relevant Information: Collect and review any assessments your child has completed as well as notes from previous conferences, Individualized Program or Educational Plans, or any other information that you feel may be important in relation to a conversation about your child and their learning. Try to prioritize one or two specific aspects of your review that you feel may assist the teacher gaining a deeper understanding of your child’s needs and abilities better.
Effective Communication
- Active Listening: During the conference, it is important to be an active listener. Ensuring you are fully engaged with the teacher, ignoring your phone or other distractions. Being an attentive listener is probably the fastest and best way to build a positive rapport with the teacher and will help ensure you fully understand the teacher’s perspective of your child as a child and a learner.
- Open and Honest Dialogue: You should be open and honest about your child’s experiences at home and as well as any challenges they may be facing. This information can provide valuable insights for the teacher and help them understand your child and personalize the support they provide to your child.
- Stay Positive and Constructive: Maintaining a positive and constructive attitude. When areas of focus for growth and improvement are being discussed, we recommend your focus be on finding solutions and working collaboratively with the teacher to best support your child’s growth and development.
Follow-Up
- Discuss Actions You and/or the Teacher Will Take: As your conference time is coming to an end it is wise to take a moment to summarize any specific actions or steps you and/or the teacher will take to address any concerns and support your child’s progress. If there are substantial items that will be addressed in the weeks and months ahead, we recommend trying to state clear goals or objectives as well as a point in the future when it would be appropriate to touch-base to check-in about what progress has been made.
- Stay Involved: Be certain to follow-up on any scheduled check-in that was discussed; whether that is a meeting, email or touch-base type conversation. It helps ensure your conference is contributing to creating conditions for your child to achieve success. Regularly communicating with the teacher, monitoring your child’s progress, and participating in opportunities to further collaborate with the teacher or learn how to better support your child at home are important ways to reinforce the partnership between you and the teacher.