Parent Teacher Meetings: Tips for Parents & Teachers!

Parent teacher conferences are challenging not only for educators, but parents as well. Educators often find themselves in the complicated role of explaining the academic dynamics and structure of the classroom as well as individual student expectations and performance. For many parents on the receiving end of this information, hearing about their child’s school work causes an uneasiness that makes the conference a stressful experience.

Tips for Teachers Meeting Parents

Use data to help alleviate conference stress! Allow each student’s achievements to do the talking. Assessing your students throughout the year offers acute and sufficient data for you to reference during conferences. Specifically, the Screener of Handwriting Proficiency  is a free, universal screener that is designed to help educators assess students’ letter formation, size, neatness, speed, posture, and pencil grip. This assessment is particularly helpful when discussing students’ writing needs or achievements. Handwriting and writing are fundamental pieces to a student’s overall ability to complete classroom assignments across all subject areas.  

In addition to having students’ writing samples and assessment scores, include other assignments and scores in all subject areas, so families have a comprehensive idea of their child’s performance in school.

Use data to your advantage and don’t forget to screen your students throughout the year. It’s better to be screening for success than screaming for it during family conferences!

By Tara DeSantiago Tara received her Bachelor of Arts in English Education from the University of Southern Mississippi. She worked as a teacher in both the public and private school environment. She is currently a curriculum specialist for Learning Without Tears and is a passionate advocate of early literacy. Tara lives in Grapevine, Texas with her husband and two daughters. She has worked for Educate, Inc, The Princeton Review, and is currently working at Learning Without Tears. Though born in New Jersey, as a ‘military brat’, she attended numerous schools around the world growing up, and graduated from high school in Atlanta, GA. Tara and her husband, Mario, have two beautiful girls, Sophia & Mary Grace and love to visit his family in Mexico almost every year.