As Parent/Teacher conference season is upon us I decided I'd share some of my triumphs and failures of the many parent/teacher conferences and parent meetings I have had over my time in the classroom, which as a special education teacher were even more prominent in my time in the classroom.
Meeting with a child's adults to discuss their progress isn't normally the easiest thing to do and for me if I'm honest was one of the most challenging part of my job in the classroom. I believe part of that was that I taught K-2 students for most of my time in the classroom and often was one of the first people to tell a child's adult that they were going to receive special education services and describe what that was going to look like and how that was going to impact their child's everyday life in the here and now and in most cases for their rest of their child's academic career and life. While of course there was a team of other teachers, psychologists, and other administrators around I was often that contact point, as most special education teachers are.
Now one of the best parts of my job was sharing in the joys of students progress, sometimes it might appear small to the naked eye, but for that child it may have been a huge gain. So the joy of sharing with parents the news of their childs progress and sharing smiles, laughs, giggles, and the pure joy of a family seeing their child grow was rewarding beyond words. So it all is a give and take and it all comes down to building the relationship with the child's adults from day 1! So below are some tips, ideas, and resources for your conference season and meetings to come.
1. Build the relationship with the students adults from day 1.
As soon as a child enters your classroom, you have a relationship with their adults. If you build that relationship and trust between the adults and you, you are bound to have open lines of communications that not only will help the child and their adults but also you as the teacher.
2. A child's adults and you are a team.
Get to know the child, get to know the adults and what they are willing to share about their lives with you. Often times knowing more about the child and their adults will help you to understand dynamics and work closer with families to learn the culture, values, and wants and needs for their child. This is key and helps you as the teacher to build trust immediately.
3. Assume Nothing.
Never assume an adult knows what you are talking about. For me in the special education world and honestly in the education world in general we use a lot of acronomyns and code words for curriculum, education plans, progress monitoring and student growth. It is important that we assume an adult doesn't know our language, because most times they don't because it isn't their area of expertise. So share and explain the terms you are talking about with them and explain exactly how it fits with their child's day and education plan.
As you have probably picked up on while I am writing my students have adults, because not every child is living with a parent and families all look different and share diverse structures. I have always called my students adults their "Special Adult at home"which allows students who may live with grandparents, aunts/uncles, step parents, single parents, foster parents, LGBTQ+ families, and families with cultural differences that may live with more than parents the opportunity to identify who their adults are and how they are related without assuming students come from the same family structure you know or most of your students may have, it also accounts for evolving family structures and cultural differences in your classroom and honors all students and all of the adults that are their caregivers. This builds trust in students and their families when you honor the structure and differences/similarities we all may share.
4. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate.
Some years I had adults who were there for conferences and that is the only time I heard from them and other times I had adults who I was on the phone or emailing with on a daily basis. It all depends on the adult, the family structure, wants and needs, and the child. I always air on the side of over communicating with adults, sending emails just to check in, calling families to share new or just check in, and notes home to share what is happening in our classrooms. I know many teachers send home newsletters, post on social media (with consent of parents of course), and send emails regularly to families to let them know what is happening, what their child is learning and how they can support their child in the hours outside of school.
5. Share the Positive
So often communications home aren't positive, they involve a lack of progress, a behavioral concern, or a variety of other not so wonderful things to talk about with parents. So I always have found along with the hard conversations we need to have the conversations about what students are improving on and how students are growing. For some students there will be more obvious strengths and growth than others but every child has something beautifully wonderful you can share about them with their adult. So I always paired difficult and challenging topics to talk about with adults with the positive growth I am seeing in a child and their strengths.
It may go something like this.... Johnny is struggling to stay on task and will often leave his seat when we are trying to complete assignments, but he is very creative and often is distracted by his creative thinking and inquisitive nature, lets talk about ways we can help Johnny to use his creative thinking and also have him complete his assignments.
Doing something like this often helps adults to be on board in a whole new way because its approached as a team and not as a problem entirely, but an observation and a way we can find solutions for a child. I use a grows and glows form for each parent meeting so adults can see things their child needs support in as well as things their child is growing in. I try to list an equal number of grows and glows, while this isn't alway possible I do try to make sure there isn't an obvious one sided section because all students have strengths and all students need improvements.
6. Record.
Record and keep records of talking to families, when you talk to them, what form of communication you've had with them and what you discussed so you know and can refer back to it later if you need to and also so you can keep track of how often you are interacting with families. I aways have parents sign in when they arrive at Conferences so I have record of who came, how many adults attended and can make sure that after conferences I can catch up with any of my students special adults that weren't able to attend via phone, email, or meetings at a different time. Keeping these records are so helpful for so many reasons.
7. Organize.
Yes, I know as teachers we are told to organize all the time and organization is different for each of us but it is key to be organized with student work samples, assessments and progress monitoring if you keep student work portfolios. Remember Data is the key to show student growth and student struggles and work samples and portfolios are a great way to do this on top of your students grades and assessment scores. I also like to make sure students special adults have signage at conferences so they know where they need to be, if I have a little waiting area outside my classroom door in case I am still asking with another adult I make sure to have signs telling adults where to sit, when to knock and to look around and see student work on bulletin boards and in the hallway until I am able to meet with them. I also include my sign in sheet at this little waiting area so they can do that as soon as they arrive. If you want a copy of the sign in sheet, signage, and students inventory I have to help have students feeling present at conferences/meetings even if they aren't there click below to see the conference and parent meeting resource pack on my teachers pay teachers store.
Remember whatever conference and parent meetings bring you are on the same team as students special adults, you both want what is best for the student to grow academically, socially, emotionally, and as a human. Best of luck with all of your upcoming interactions with students families!
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