This is a term that refers to a pre-organized conference for parents and teachers to discuss the critical elements of student success both within and outside the classroom. An effective parent-teacher conference should follow a set agenda. The teacher should show examples of the kid’s schoolwork and any relevant test scores and share observations of the kid’s academic work, class participation, and social growth. Parents should prepare some questions for the teacher about anything that confused them or raised a concern during the earlier few months of school. Parents will most likely have one or two scheduled parent-teacher conferences every year. However, there can be exceptions, like if a kid is struggling academically or is having other kinds of issues, the teacher may advise an additional conference. Parents should treat this event as an opportunity to intervene in their kids’ school experience in a positive way.
The major benefits of attending parent-teacher conferences include the following:
· When kids are enrolled in a school, they enter into a different environment than what they were in before that time. They start to demonstrate different behaviors to adapt to the new environment. Parents often don’t see the side of their kid that’s seen with the kid’s peers. During parent-teacher conferences, teachers keep parents informed of their child’s behavior, progress, strengths, weaknesses, and interests.
· Teachers see kids from different backgrounds and comprehending each of the students is important to tailor their teaching methods. During parent-teacher conferences, teachers can get information about a kid’s immediate family and home environment, which helps them understand the kid’s abilities.
· Teachers are experienced and trained in evaluating their students using observations and different methods. These evaluations are done with a holistic view, considering the entire class. Therefore, these are different from the way parents evaluate their kids at home. When teachers share their observations and evaluations with parents, the parents gain helpful insights from a new perspective. This eliminates the probabilities of over or under expectations and takes the pressure off their kid.
· One of the significant problems of kids is that their problems often go unexpressed. Sometimes they cannot understand a subject, sometimes it’s a bully, or sometimes they just feel that a teacher is going too fast. If the kid knows it, he/she can talk to the parents about the problems, and the teachers will get to know about them during parent-teacher conferences. It helps the kid gain a sense of self-confidence and security.
