Right after the 100th Day of School and with Valentine’s approaching, it was my time to start thinking about Parent Teacher Conferences—I like to call them Family Conference since so many students are being raised by a variety of family members. There is a lot of thinking and planning that goes into conferences. Reviewing reports and scores. Finishing grading period assessments. Figuring out scheduling. All while still creating lesson plans and teaching.
Each of the districts for which I worked was just a little different for conferences. One had no school, but if the student attended the conference, it counted as attendance. One had days specific to conferences and were no school days for students. One had teachers stay late and had conferences late afternoon. One had teachers schedule within a set time period and we met with families before or after school dependent on what worked for them. Personally, I liked having set days, no school for students, but were marked present if students attended. Most of the schools in which I worked had student-led conferences, which I enjoyed.
What are some considerations in planning for conferences? Here are the main questions or planning I kept in mind:
- When will I hold conferences to meet the needs of working families?
- When will I need a translator and how to schedule one?
- If a translator is needed, how do I get documents translated as well and how far in advance must documents be submitted?
- What did I want to include on my helper sheet?
- How do I help students prepare to show their strengths to their families?
- How will I have the hard conversations needed for any behavior or academic challenges?
I want to expand on the helper sheet for a moment. The helper sheet was something I started providing to families well in advance of the conferences (I resent for each conference period). Since most of my experience is student-led conferences, it included questions a family might ask of their child during the conference as families don’t always know what to ask. The sheet could be brought with them, always having extras on hand just in case. It might include questions about the chosen student work, what their child finds most satisfying and most frustrating about school, or how might they help meet the goals set by the student.
Knowing the answer to these questions helped conferences go as smoothly as possible in the presentation of accomplished projects and an open caring conversation about students.
How do you prepare for conferences?