Parent teacher conferences come around twice a year (for me at least). I was super intimidated by PTCs when I was first starting out as a teacher. I felt like I had no idea what I was doing in my classroom. And some of these parents had children older than me! I felt like such a fraud.
But I know now that parents (on the whole, of course there are exceptions) trust teachers! In my years and years of parent teacher conferences I’ve learned that parents really just want to help their kids. And in my chemistry class, that’s usually very tough for them. Parents can handle most elementary and middle school topics, but high school chemistry is basically impossible. I have some tips for feeling more prepared for parent teacher conferences and how to handle it so you don’t feel like a fraud.
Ask for Parent Concerns Prior to the Meeting
I have a form that you can send out to parents, either in an email, on a flyer with the kids, or a Google Form. In this, you can find out what the parent’s concern are before the meeting. And you can figure out exactly what information to bring. You will feel WAY more prepared, and your meetings will run more quickly and smoothly.
The Sandwich Method
Whether it’s a parent phone call or a PTC, I use the sandwich method. This means that for every negative thing that has to be said about a kid, you sandwich it between two positives.
“Johnny is really social and makes friends easily. Unfortunately he is doing this during class time and disrupting his and his classmates’ learning. He is very smart so I can see him picking up on the classroom norms very quickly if we can work together to teach him how to behave during instructional time.”
You don’t want to beat around the bush and make the negative thing sound really positive when it truly isn’t. If Johnny is talking too much, it’s only going to hurt him in the long run. It’s so important to be direct with parents.
Support Your Claims
In a parent teacher conference, you want to make sure that you are speaking in a way that is supportive of the student and the parents’ interventions at home to help the student. I like to have some type of “proof,” really data, to show the parent. If Johnny is all of a sudden doing really well, you’d like to be able to show something that supports that. Because the parent will have a lot of confidence in what you are telling them, you’ll feel less like a fraud. If Johnny is talking too much, and you can show the grades are dropping, it supports your case that Johnny’s behavior is hurting his learning.
Ask the question “how can I help your child?” I’d also throw in the ways that you’ve tried helping already. This will help the parent to know that you are truly coming from a supportive place and that you want what’s best for their child.
Recording who comes to a Parent Teacher Conference
I like to record who shows up (because it’s not always the parent). I also like to take down current contact info and the best time and method to reach them. Consider following the PTC with an email to create a paper trail. But also to document the meeting for your own records. (You can save these emails and look back at them later in the year as you continue parent communication.)
