Hold Effective Parent Teacher Conferences Keep These Ideas In Mind!!
Holding effective parent teacher conferences starts with proper preparation for the conference/interview.
Since some teachers may feel intimidated by parent teacher interviews, I discuss this process as part of the teaching workshop that I hold each year for student teachers at York University in Toronto.
Watch this short video, as we brainstormed how to run effective parent teacher conferences. It will provide you with many useful ideas.
Now that you've watched my video and hopefully found it informative, here are some additional effective parent teacher conference tips.
* Dress appropriately that shows your professionalism,importance of the meeting and respect for the parents.
* Don't allow any possible distractions or interruptions during the parent teacher conference - e.g. close the door, turn off your cell phone.
* Maintain a positive attitude, good eye contact and listen attentively, i.e. learn as much as possible about the student's home life, their hobbies, responsibilities, etc.
* Be relaxed and calm when discuss a behavioral or emotional issue. Your intent is to get the parents to be your allies and work together to resolve any problems.
* Show your concern and bring up some positive attributes about the student before discussing any issues or problems. Provide specific examples when discussing any difficulties or problems.
* If and when you discuss actual events about the student's misbehavior (or other problem), give examples of what he/she did or was involved in - if the student is there, all the better - he/she has to explain and be accountable.
* If the student attend the parent teacher conference, ask him/her to leave (with a smile) about 5 minutes before the interview time is up, so that either you or the parents can discuss any personal issues.
* Elicit suggestions (for improvement or resolution of any problems) from the parents first before offering your own suggestions.
* One more important thing - You may have parents coming to conference and catch you off guard. For example, you have a student doing well with lots of "A's" or marks above 80% any yet the parents will say "That's not good enough for my child, why didn't my child get "A+" or above 90%?"
