Conferences…

In an ideal world, parent/teacher conferences lead to meaningful dialogue about student progress, next steps to improve and an overall feeling of shared effort between the parent, teacher and (sometimes) student. In my 12 years of teaching, however, this has rarely been the case. What are the obstacles? For one, many parents of students with the most needs don’t show up, whether it’s because they’ve heard it all before and want to avoid school all together, whether they don’t speak the language or simply because they can’t take off from work, that leaves us teachers feeling as though some of the meaning is leeched out of the conferences because we are left without a conference for some of our most vulnerable students. Often, when the parent is able to come and brings the student with them, we are able to have that meaningful conference but those seem few and far between.

So what is the solution? My co-worker suggested that parent/teacher conferences are a thing of the past since we now have school email where the parent can reach us if they need to. However, I think there isn’t a substitute for face-to-face interaction. I just wish that the time was used more wisely. Many of my special education students’ parents don’t come to conferences and these are exactly the vulnerable students who would benefit from these meetings.

Staying at night for conferences is a lot for people like myself who gave young children, and it would make it less of a chore for us if more of the time spent was improving our classrooms.