Believe it or not, a successful parent teacher conference begins long BEFORE the actual conference. It begins on the FIRST day of school for the child.
How you communicate (and what) with a parent on that first day is important. Do you have the child’s cubby labeled and ready? Is the child’s name on a jacket hook, chair (if you label them, I don’t), etc…?
Do you have the child’s information and sign in sheet for the parent? Are you ready to show that child an interesting activity that will get him/her involved immediately?
Are you there, empathizing with that parent who is sad to leave her child? Assure her that every thing will be okay and that you will call her on your break to let her know how things are going. Yes, CALL HER on YOU BREAK! That will go further than you can imagine!
EVERY SINGLE DAY (I don’t care how tired or cranky your are) when that parent walks in you better great the child and the parent by name!
Then, when you sit down at that conference, guess what? Things will be so smooth you’ll wonder how time flew by so fast!
Is it always that smooth? No, but if you do all these things, even the bumpiest road gets smoother!
1 comment:
That is so true. Building a relationship with a family is just like building any other relationship - it happens over time, and its all in the little details and courtesies. If you are communicating well with parents throughout the term, then nothing at the parent / teacher conference should come as a great surprise. And all the things you talked about help families to feel embraced by the centre, and that they and their child are important to you.
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