Of course, this doesn’t have to be the case. There are a few simple steps you can take to help parents feel more at ease when they meet you for a parent-teacher conference.

First, you can initiate parent contact before conference night. Even if it’s a quick phone call or a few emails to touch base, it’s great for your students’ parents to be somewhat familiar with you.  Along the same lines, make sure you send a reminder email or note home of the day and time of the conference.

Also, don’t just have conferences with the “bad kids.” Invite all parents to take part in the conference. Parent-teacher conferences aren’t just for talking about what needs to improve. They’re a great chance to talk about successes and even just the curriculum in general. If there is a huge unit project coming up, tell the parents about it. If you have tests or quizzes every Wednesday, tell the parents so they can follow up.  Have a copy of the textbook available for them to see. The more they know about what is going on in your classroom, the more they can be involved at home.

And while we’re on the subject of celebrating successes…even the bad kids are doing something right. Make sure you let parents know how their child is succeeding in your class. Maybe their son isn’t the greatest at staying on task for individual classwork, but when it comes to discussions, he is a natural leader and always adds insightful ideas to the conversation.

Make sure you have a game plan. If a child is struggling in class, don’t just tell the parent about it.  Have examples of class work to show the parents. Concrete examples such as “I think your son is having a hard time using the quadratic equation because he doesn’t finish problems that involve it” is always better than “Your son is struggling in my math class.”

Get parents involved in helping their child succeed. Don’t tell them they aren’t doing enough. Ask them what they ARE doing and don’t tell them what they MUST do. Work with parents to figure out a way that works for everyone. If Tommy isn’t turning in homework, maybe parents need to initial homework every night. Maybe it means helping parents figure out a quiet, distraction-free place at home for their child to study. Maybe it means figuring out the best time of the night to tackle homework. But if you work with the parent, then they are going to leave motivated. And as an added bonus… it means you can follow up in a week or two to see how everything is going. Parents and teachers should feel like they are on the same team.

Feel free to invite the students. If a student is struggling and can see that everyone wants to help, and is part of writing the plan of action, then you may get a better response from the student. This way, students don’t spend the night worrying about what the teacher is saying, building a defense to any problems, and figuring out how to convince mom and dad that the teacher is lying. That’s just exhausting for everyone.

Also, be aware if parents share personal information about their child that you may not have known about. If mom and dad have decided to divorce or a new baby is on the way or there was recently a death in the family, this will have a direct effect on how a child performs in school. It doesn’t mean you should let students do whatever they want and not be accountable for completing assignments, but it does mean you need to approach the situation a little differently.  And if they share any information with you, make sure you know whether you can tell the student that you know this information.

Finally, end the conferences on a positive note.  Summarize what you talked about and what the plan of action is. Make sure you know the best way to contact them in the future and vice versa.  Oh and don’t just make a parent awkwardly wiggle out of a desk and walk away from you while you’re writing down notes. Walk them out. Shake their hand. Tell them it was great to meet them.

Parent-teacher conferences aren’t meant to pit the parent against the teacher, but many parents have that vision. If you work together to help students succeed and keep lines of communication open, then you are helping all of your students have a great year.

The post Helpful Tips on Navigating Parent-Teacher Conferences appeared first on Inventionland Education.

Chances are, you’re at least one or two weeks into the school year by now. Have you spoken to all of your students’ parents yet?

Although it might seem like an overwhelming task–especially in the upper grades when you may have contact with over one hundred students every day–establishing lines of communication with parents/guardians is a great goal for the beginning of the school year. We firmly believe, however, that it’s a good idea to voluntarily speak with parents before you have to contact them for what may be a less-than-wonderful reason.  While phone calls might seem old-fashioned, they allow you to have two-way communication which is important when you’re trying to establish a rapport. Here are a few ways you can make the conversation more meaningful:

1. Before making that first call, have students tell you a little about themselves. This can be via icebreakers, an essay, or a handout. When you talk to parents, you can mention things you’ve learned about their child. Whether you learn about where they went on vacation or something that may be troubling the student, it is good for parents to hear that you are taking an active interest in them as human beings.

2. Send a form home for parents to fill out and then discuss this with them as well.  Ask them what they think their child’s greatest strengths are, their concerns about the school year, and what they remember about being in the grade you’re teaching. You want parents to feel like you are working together, not battling it out. Giving parents a chance to talk about their child’s strengths is a great way to make that happen. 

3. Communicate about homework. It’s a necessity for learning, but can also be a parent’s worst nightmare. Talk to parents about your expectations with homework, how often they will have homework, and how to communicate with you if they feel their child is being assigned too much homework.  This last piece is key. Even if your student has six other classes, with six different teachers, when a parent feels as though they can talk to you about the workload, you are establishing that teamwork rapport that you need in order help their child succeed.

3. Contact parents who DON’T attend open house/curriculum night. Introduce yourself. Let them know you look forward to working with them during the year and that they are always welcome to contact you. If you gave out any handouts during curriculum night, ask them for an email address to send them over.

4. Contact parents who DO attend open house/curriculum night. Let them know it was nice to meet them and that you look forward to working with them this year.  Remind them they are always welcome to contact you. It’s a nice one-on-one follow up that is great for parents, especially in the upper grades as they may not have had an opportunity to speak with you individually. At the end of the phone call, ask parents for the best way to reach them. It may be with phone calls, it may be via emails, it may be by texting. You want to keep the lines of communication open; be willing to help make it easier on them. If you’re worried about privacy and using your cell phone for texting, free apps such as Remind: School Communication will let you send text messages out without giving out your phone number.

And remember…nobody likes getting bad news. You don’t just have to call parents when a student is not doing well in class. You can also call parents to celebrate successes or simply to touch base and see if they have any questions for you. Just don’t be surprised by long pauses of confusion, however, when parents realize you’re calling them with for a good reason. Hopefully, by the end of the school year, you can change their expectations of what parent/teacher collaboration should feel like.

The post Initiating Parent Contact appeared first on Inventionland Education.