Make the Most of Parent Teacher Conferences

Make the Most of Parent Teacher Conferences: Stress Attendance

Parent Teacher Conferences (PTC) provides us with the opportunity to build relationships with parents to accomplish both parties overall goals: student success. With September being "Attendance Awareness Month" I encourage you to speak about attendance with parents during your PTC meetings. Some tips to focus on during your conference taken from High Expectations Parental Services:

1. Learn something about your student's family. Ask them their vision for their child's future. What do you need to know to help their child succeed?

2. Share positives about their child you have observed so far. Describe what you want your students to accomplish this year.

3. Inform parents about progress you have seen their student make and areas where their student can improve. Explain skills and challenges that students have. Explain what academic language means to our parents. Encourage parents to ask questions just like we encourage our students to ask questions.

4. Discuss with parents how they can help their student at home and the resources that are available to them. If a child is chronically absent, spend some time finding out what might be making it difficult for the student to get to school. Ask parents what makes it hard to get their student to school each day? There may be some alternative solutions we could utilize to alleviate this.

5. Let parents know how they can stay connected. Discuss how parents can stay in touch with you and how they can access the Home Access Center to see their student's progress.

6. Ask and create a plan. Be clearn about what you need and create a partnership between home and school.

Focusing on the areas mentioned above allows you to continue to build relationships with families and students.  It also builds a plan and establish goals for teachers, students, and parents to implement and strive to reach.  We can all utilize the steps listed above to guide us in the right direction of our ultimate goal of educators: student success.