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Parent Teacher Meetings. Parent Teacher Meetings. Before the meeting During the meeting After the meeting .
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Parent Teacher Meetings • Before the meeting • During the meeting • After the meeting
Parent-teacher conferences were times of great anxiety for me as a child. I sat at home with damp palms, waiting for my mother to return with the bad tidings. I'm not sure why I had such a guilty conscience. I was a good student and never had behavior problems. But the conference brought together the most powerful adults in my life – my parents and my teacher – to talk about ME. The attention was unnerving.
Before the Meeting • How can we help parents • Have realistic goals for their children • Know how to advocate for their children • Know how to work productively with the education system
POET Positive: Catch kids being good Ongoing: Report good times and bad on a regular basis Early:Try to make contact before things go wrong Trusted: Respect confidentiality
Communication Strategies • Positive and Early • Letter of introduction to parents • Brief introduction • Goals for class, teaching philosophy • Contact information • Expectations for communication • Parent Nights, classroom visits, email address • Webpage of introduction?
Positive • Examples of children’s work throughout room • Positive comments on work sent home • Class averages on tests
Ongoing and Trusted • Regular communication • Letters or homework home • Post grades on web? • Email addresses • Parent nights
Before the conference • Get a better sense of parent concerns • Child’s interests • Child’s strengths • Challenges for child • “My child learns best when ….” • Parent goals • Other information • -see example at www.schwablearning.org/pdfs/2200_80_ParentTeachForm.pdf
Before the conference • How can we help parents • Have realistic goals for their children • We learn about their goals • Know how to advocate for their children • We provide an opportunity for communication • Know how to work productively with the education system • Evidence that we view their child as positive and that we respect their role as parents
During the conference • We want the parents to be aware of our concerns • We want to start taking action • We want to prepare them as advocates • Demonstrate that their input and action is important • Need to help them learn how to contibute
During the conference • Brief introduction to class and routine • Goals of class, samples of student work • Positive positive positive • Review the information parent provided • Confirm shared positives and shared goals
You are a teacher at a new school. The school district has families from a wide variety of linguistic backgrounds and economic levels, and you have been told that it can be challenging to work with parents.
You are concerned about Mark, a new transfer student in your Grade 6 science class. When asked to take notes from a text for homework, his summaries typically contain at least one misspelled word in each sentence, the handwriting is poor, and the summaries are very disorganized. His grades on tests are very poor.
The parent-teacher planning form that Mark’s parents brought to the meeting was only partly completed, the handwriting was poor, and contained misspellings. Their academic goal for Mark was “graduate HS”
Starting the meeting • Thank them for coming and bringing the form • Review the information • Ask some easy questions to get conversation going • For example, differences between new school and Mark’s old school • Size of school • Transportation
During the conference • Brief introduction to class and routine • Goals of class, samples of student work • Positive positive positive • Review the information parent provided • Confirm shared positives and shared goals
1) Describe goal(s) of key individuals • What behaviors do we want to increase/decrease? • for student • Better understanding of content • Better performance on tests • for parent • Better understanding of Mark’s current performance • Strategies to support success • Belief in their ability to support Mark • Become better supports and advocates
How will life be better if these goals are reached? • Student will be successful in school • Better chance of graduating • Parents will be better advocates
REVIEW: Be careful not to confuse “Goals” and “Activities”
2) Outline different approaches for reaching goals • Brainstorm lots of ideas • Work from parent suggestions of when child learns best • Quiet place to work (no TV) • Small chunks of work ( a little each night not cram on weekends) • Teacher input • Teach note-taking and summarization strategies • Implement peer practice activites
3) Identify the needed resources and impact • What do we need to do this? • What is the likelihood we will be able to get needed resources? • Quiet • Ear plugs • Small chunks • Study chart • Summarization strategy • Teacher commitment • What will happen if we do this?
4) Take action (pick an approach) and evaluate progress • Try an approach • Create study chart with checklist (teacher) • Check study chart each night (parent) • Collect data • Study chart and quiz scores • Make changes as needed
5) ! Celebrate success with others • Emphasize importance of personal effort • Individuals with a history of poor performance may doubt their ability to have a positive impact • Emphasizing the importance of personal effort can help them see that their behavior is important
POET Positive: Catch kids being good Ongoing: Report good times and bad on a regular basis Early:Try to make contact before things go wrong Trusted: Respect confidentiality
DOIT! • Describe goals • Outline alternatives • Identify best choice • Take action • ! (Celebrate success)
Parent teacher meetings • Working with another teacher • Working with a paraprofessional
Is this easy? fast? • No • But it lays the foundation for positive relationships in the future, and at least if you are going to be busy, you are busy doing positive things that you are excited about, not preparing for high stress meetings.
