It's that time of year again when many schools have Parent Teacher Conferences. Do you attend P/T conference? How are they handled in your school? Are they Teacher lead or Student lead? Do you take yor Student along or do you perfer a private conference?
I tend to go to all of them.I know in 6th grade the student.And they aslo have them that way in 7th grade too.Yes i will try to attend all of them.That is the only way i can find out what needs to be worked on at home.
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My son just had his review yesterday. You had to schedule a meeting in order to pick up the child's report card. It is teacher lead and yes, we had to bring him along this time. The previous times we were asked to leave them at home or at least for him not to be in the room when we were talking to the teacher (and I never understood this because this was about your child to begin with).
I am proud to say that he earned an awesome report card --all As and nothing under 95%.
He also got a glowing review about what an outstanding and helpful student he is. His teacher says that he is very self-motivated.
Now if I could only get him to act like this at home!!
Our elementary schools are the same way. You make an appointment and there are usually 3 families at one time. The students then bring out and show their portfolios of all their accomplishments and the like and then the teacher will join in. We are told if we want to talk to the teacher without the child, we can make another appointment. In middle school it is basically the same. High school was different in that the teachers all sat on the outside walls of the gym and we would line up for a conference. Then we would have cookies and juice that the cooking class had made.
I remember as a child waiting at home for my parents to come back from talking with my teacher. It made me behave in class, I will tell you that!
When my kids were in elemenatry we were encouraged to bring them with us to scheduled times for fifteen minutes to a student. With conferences with special education teachers, they wanted us to leave them at home.
When in middle school they have the teachers lined around several rooms with each grade level in different rooms and you wait in chairs to see each teacher your child has. They also encourage you to bring your child with you.
By bringing your child with you; you can hold your child responsible for his actions in the classroom and out. It clears up confussion that can occour otherwise.
This year, High School; I made my son meet and join me after school before the conferences started. That way he was held accountable for any work not turned in. And the teachers got the answers from him and not me. As I wouldn't have been able to answer their questions and we had a better afternoon without any conflicts afterwards.
Most of his grades were A's with some B' & D's.
We already had ours. The way it was done was school was out that day, From 8 till like 6 or 7 pm that night the teachers had schedule an appointment with you. If you could make it that day, you had 2 choices of time you could make it. If you could not make it that day, then they would re-schedule another time that was best for you.
On my form I asked if I could get the girls as close as I could, and both teachers did just that. It was like 20 min btw of each other.
The oldest gd was over at a friend house, but the youngest one went with me. I made her sit out in the hallway, when I talked with the teacher, until the time came we needed her to hear what was going on.
I was very pleased out things worked out and like this method
When my dks were in Middle school they tried to have student lead conferences. You would have an appointment with your student, their home room teach and you. The student would go through their portfolio and tell you what they thought they were doing good in ot not. The homeroom teachers main function was to make sure that the conference moved along and was completed in time for the next appointment to begin. Since you only got to see the homeroom teacher, if your student was having a problem in another class you would have to schedule another appointment at a later date to discuss it. This system is no long in place as most parents found it pointless and inconvenient.
High school conferences are usually held in the teachers room over a two night period. You can go at your convenience. Sometimes you may have to wait for a few minutes, but usually never very long.
Even though it is not quite conference time here, I think Parent Teacher conference are very important for parents to attend. I know I have a high school Jr. now and sometimes the temptation to skip conferences comes up, but I do think it is very important to meet your children's teachers even if you have a good student. It also lets your older students know that you still take their education seriously and so should they.
I hope everyone's school year is going well so far.
My son's high school REQUIRES parent conferences twice a year. No conference, no report card. They get a new set of classes in January, so the November and April report cards are given out at conferences. We always make sure to meet ALL his teachers, even when he has a good grade in the class. It's good all around. The teachers see that the student has parental support, the parents find out if there's anything the student can improve, and they also get to put a face with the name of the teacher they've been hearing about for 2 months.
His teacher says that he is very self-motivated. 
