5 Tips to Prepare for Parent – Teacher Conference
Parent-Teacher conferences mark an anxious time for both parents and children. Parents get anxious because they are about to receive a detailed insight into their child’s behavior and academic results which can reflect directly on how they are performing as a parent. However, the truth is that this is a valuable opportunity for parents to get an insight into their child’s development and have a productive discussion about the only other adults which will be invested extensively into their child, their own teachers who spend lot of time with the child and observe them outside the comfort of their homes.
In this article, we would like to highlight a few important tips to prepare for Parent-teacher Conference.
Tips to Prepare for Parent – Teacher Conference
1) Talk to Your Child about their Feedback
The first thing that every parent should do diligently is to get a perspective from their child about how they feel the things are going inside the classroom. As a parent, you need to be aware if the child is facing any difficulty in learning or interacting with peers & teachers in the class. Also try to understand if they are taking part in all the activities happening inside the class and being included in everything. You should also assess if the child is being complimented about something (positives) or the teacher keeps pointing something out repeatedly to the child to improve upon (development opportunities) since they will be useful talking points during the conference.
2) Pay Attention to your Child’s behavior
One of the most important things that a parent can do it is to keep a constant check on any behavioral changes in the child which can be result of classroom bullying or any other difficulty that they might be facing. Feel free to constantly check with the kid keeping them in a safe setting of their home and make sure you understand anything and everything that might be bothering them. Any instances must be brought to the attention of the teachers so they can also make sure that child is secure and their needs are being met.
3) Check their Notebooks and any notes from the Teacher
Make sure that you are keeping track of your child’s academic and extracurricular performance іn school. Constantly review their notebooks and grades to make sure that assignments are being completed on time and they are meeting the expectations. Also make sure that you keep track of any notes being sent from the teacher and act upon them. It is easy to miss these small things which will result in you getting caught in a very embarrassing situation in the conference where the teacher would expect you to know all of these details and rightly so.
4) Don’t have a Defensive Mindset
One very common mistake that parents make is to have a very defensive mindset while going into these meetings and giving justification for anything pointed out by the teacher. This is a very wrong approach to adopt in certain circumstances. By default, you should always assume that teachers as a trained professional would always want the best for your child. Any and every feedback being shared by them should be carefully heard and discussed with them for the betterment of the child.
Please also remember that teachers also almost always focus on positive associations with a child rather than negative so they are not likely to share any negative feedback or development needs with you unless they feel strongly enough about it. Use this as a valuable opportunity and try to learn about strategies that the teacher would recommend to reinforce positive behavior in your child for their future growth.
5) Come Prepared with a Set of Queries
For all the first time parents out there who have not been through these discussions for another child, a very critical thing to get yourself prepared for these sessions is to think in advance about what would you like to know from the teacher about your child. While usually teachers do provide feedback themselves, they will not always cover every point about every child so it is your responsibility to have a set of questions prepared which you can bring up based on your understanding. For e.g., you can ask the teacher about certain development needs of your child and if they can recommend any additional resources (books, extra classes etc.) to help.
Teachers are extensively trained professionals who observe hundreds of children every year and understand all the techniques that can be used to help any child for their particular problems. these conferences are a valuable opportunity for parents to get all the information and insights to help their children.
Do you have any other tips that you would like to share with our readers based on your personal experience ? Please feel free to let us know through your comments below.
