Let's Panic about Conferences

It is time, time for all of our hard Fall work to be reported out to the natural caretakers of our students.

And I'm in a quandary. (Oh fine, I'm always in a quandary.)

I have 20 minutes with each family to discuss their child's progress, their goals, their report cards, their behavior, their citizenship, their homework, their obsession with cutting erasers... ;)

And at my school, we hand deliver the report card at this time, which means the conference becomes a share-out of the report card.  I try to make the meeting personal, but the extensive, standards-based format leaves little time for sunshine.  And I love sunshine!!

I really do love my students and want to make sure that the parents understand that I know their child and value their child.  And short, line-item conferences aren't a good eharmony.com-compatible match for that!

But the other day, a teammate shared with us about her experience as a parent at her child's conference (her kiddo is a Kinder).

The magic? They just talked.

...crickets...

Seems like an interesting thought to me!  So I'm trying it out.  I do know that I need some kind of agenda during the conference to manage the time, so I made this handy notes page!

You could use this even if you have your own way of managing conferences, too!

Here's a PDF link with a graphic (graphic courtesy of Scrappin' Doodles):


 If you want an editable version (without the graphic due to copyright), you can grab that here (or by clicking the picture below). 



So, hopefully you can make use of this freebie! I know I will!

What do you think about this type of conference?  How are your conferences formatted?



4 comments

  1. I like the conference notes idea. My school is the same, however, we have 15 minutes to talk about the child and give the report card. I require that my students come to the conference and share their strengths and goals. I also share areas that I'm proud of and areas that the student can improve. Then I send the student away for the last 5 minutes (just in case the parents have something private they wish to discuss, which has never happened yet)and pretty much just hand the parents the report card and say that this reflects what we just discussed. I also have work samples out for the parents to review too. So far, this has worked great and I did not have to sit there during the conference and point to the report card. It makes the meting a lot more personal. Good luck with conferences!

    The REAL Teachers of Orange County

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  2. Cute idea!! I totally just happened upon your blog, and realized your blog name is very similar to mine : ) cute!

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  3. Gotta love the sparkles!! :) Thanks for stopping by, Jamie!

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  4. I always use a checklist/handy notes page during conferences. It is a great way to highlight things you don't want to forget to talk about. I also make a copy for the parents so they can go home with what we discussed in writing and talk about it with the child and other parent if only one parent attended the conference. Good Luck!
    -Jaime
    Bright Concepts 4 Teachers

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