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How to prepare for Parent Conferences

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Let's be honest, many teachers dread parent conferences!!!  I can totally relate, I use to feel the same way.  When I first began teaching, parents  intimidated me.    But over the years, I've learned that building a strong, trusting relationships with your students' parents goes along way.  That wasn't news to me, I learned that in my credential program and I've read a ton of articles with research that proved it.  But I didn't know where to start.  How in the heck do I build a relationship with parents?

I had students {90% were English Language Learners}who were not making adequate progress to reach grade-level by the end of the year.  So I thought going over their report card to show they were failing would do the trick…wrong!!!  To be truthful, standards-based report cards don't mean much to parents who don't understand what all the standards mean {collective nouns anybody}?  I had to come up with another way to approach parents.  Something that was meaningful and something they could take home and use.

So I created this Conference packet for us {myself and parents} to help us prepare for our conference.  I wanted parents to be part of the planning process because I was tired of “talking at” parents and thought it should be a collaborative process between all of us. Plus, I wanted parents to feel like they were being heard and they weren't just heading into a conference to be given a report card and then it would be over.  I schedule our conferences with Sign Up Genius to get organized and then prep. my conference forms so I can get organized.

easy teaching tools, fall, conference, anxiety, back to school, teaching, first grade, second grade, k-3
The packet includes a parent questionnaire you can send home a week before the conference.  I love this form because not only do parents have input, but it gives me an idea of what they want to discuss.  I'm such a planner and like to know what I'm walking into {call it anxiety or control issues}, I can't help it!  This form eliminates any anxiety for me because I know what to expect.
easy teaching tools, fall, conference, anxiety, back to school, teaching, first grade, second grade, k-3
Winter Pre-Conference form
At the beginning of our conference,  I give parents this form to take notes on.  I love it because parents can jot down that their little guy needs more comprehension support and math fact fluency and they can refer back to it when they get home.
easy teaching tools, fall, conference, anxiety, back to school, teaching, first grade, second grade, k-3
Don't write on this, give that responsibility to the parents to take notes.
Like I said before, the report card isn't always meaningful to parents because they aren't always easy to understand.  Bottom-line, parents want to know where their child is and where they need to be.  That is why I love this data sheet:
easy teaching tools, fall, conference, anxiety, back to school, teaching, first grade, second grade, k-3
I broke it up into different assessments that I use in my class on the left and the results on the right.  During our conference, I go over this instead of the report cards because it's easier to understand.  Once we go over this, parents want {hopefully} to know what they need to do to help their child reach their goals.  That's when I go over different reading strategies, math games, and sight word activities that parents can do at home with their kiddo.
  I hope you find this conference packet useful during a hectic conference week.  How do you prepare for conferences?
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