Elementary teachers and parents!

[joenali]

How long does It take you to prep for conferences? What do you give parents to take home as far as student work or handouts? I'm on about hour ten. I'm almost done. We have conferences starting tomorrow. I'm always so dang nervous! Blech!

Parents: what do you expect at conferences? How long are yours?

[nsl]

Our conferences are 15 minutes long. I want to know my kid's reading level, discuss some samples of their work, talk about areas that need improvement, and get some concrete suggestions for how to handle any concerns the teacher has.

[Patsy Stone]

Parent here ours was 15 minutes. I all I really expected was to hear how my child was doing and any areas she needed to improve on. I was given her report card and a couple of pieces of artwork.

[joenali]

Ours are 25 minutes.

[stephm0188]

We didn't bring anything home.

He's in 2nd. I wanted to hear about his specific reading level, his overall performance in all subject areas, how he was interacting socially with the rest of the class, and if she had any concerns. She showed us writing samples to see how he was progressing since the beginning of the year.

He also has an IEP for speech and OT, so my standard question is wanting to know how he's doing in class with working toward his goals. His his speech clear? His writing looks great, but how long is it taking him?

We were done in 10 minutes. He's a pretty easy kid with no academic or behavior issues.

[cinco]

The conference for my second grader was 5 minutes, the one for my fourth grader 20 minutes. I had more questions for the 2nd grade teacher, but she answered them all quickly. I had no questions for the 4th grade teacher, but he talks a lot. Both went well.

[eb777888]

It was a ten minute conference and she gave me nothing. David isn't having any issues and we didn't even have to do the conference but I had a few specific questions for her. I'm not crazy about his teacher this year, to be honest. That's another issue.

Last year, David's teacher gave me paperwork similar to a report card to show where he was at (but this was much earlier in the year, it was about 4 or 5 weeks into the year). She went over his strengths, his weaknesses, answered my questions. She was an AMAZING, organized teacher. She also gave me a lot of insight on David's behavior/demeanor at school and mentioned his anxiety and perfectionism. She was just awesome, she picked up on so many things about him and discussed them and ways we can work together to help him. God, I miss her.

[joenali]

I have reading levels and reading goals, writing work with goals, math work with student made goals, student behavior self-assessment, science notebook self-reflection and a conference sheet with comments that parents can take home.

[eb777888]

Nov 22, 2015 10:39:14 GMT -5 joenali said:

I have reading levels and reading goals, writing work with goals, math work with student made goals, student behavior self-assessment, science notebook self-reflection and a conference sheet with comments that parents can take home.

Well, that sounds extremely thorough. I'd be very happy with all of that.

[gummybear]

Nov 22, 2015 10:24:58 GMT -5 nsl said:

Our conferences are 15 minutes long. I want to know my kid's reading level, discuss some samples of their work, talk about areas that need improvement, and get some concrete suggestions for how to handle any concerns the teacher has.

This, pretty much word for word

[Dumbledork]

Ours were 15 minutes for our kid in first.

We didn't bring anything home. We went over her first quarter report card, her first quarter foreign language assessment, concerns I had about her anxiety levels in class, and positive traits she sees in our kid.

We were also allowed to flip through her math notebook, Chinese notebook, and portfolio to get a better idea of what type of work she's doing in class.

[joenali]

Nov 22, 2015 10:40:23 GMT -5 eb777888 said:

Nov 22, 2015 10:39:14 GMT -5 joenali said:

I have reading levels and reading goals, writing work with goals, math work with student made goals, student behavior self-assessment, science notebook self-reflection and a conference sheet with comments that parents can take home.

Well, that sounds extremely thorough. I'd be very happy with all of that.

Yay! It takes me forever. I have 24 students.

[InBetweenDays]

Our kids are 1st and 4th and conferences are 30 minutes (same district as you ). Basically go over how they're doing academically, review their math work, writing and science notebooks, reading scores, etc. And talk about how they're doing behaviorally. We don't usually have anything that we bring home with us unless there are MAP scores, etc.

I agree with the PP. I can pretty much tell how my kids are doing academically so I'm more interested in how they interact with other students, are they respectful to the teacher, etc.

[UMaineTeach]

I scheduled 30 min blocks, but they only took about 15 (but I had 1/2 the kids as other teachers, as I was 1/2 time, but expected to be there the entire conference time, so I had to look busy).

I would open with parent concerns and questions, go over child's report card, discuss progress and next steps, give them a couple individualized ideas to help with those next steps, and then give them the report card expectations for the next trimester, so they know where we are heading.

Since 90% of the kids had the same next steps and there was only reading, math, motor, and social-emotional skills on the report card, the prep was short, an hour or two (+ report card assessment took a week)

[livinitup]

My DD is in 2nd, so we have had 3 conferences with 3 different teachers. I have liked them all. Each were scheduled every 30 minutes, so I didn't feel rushed, although I know some parents only stayed for 10-15 minutes. All gave us copies of the begining of the year testing and explained the test, where DD fell in the score. She's doing well, so it is a very nice/positive conversation. Then they all describe the classroom, their schedule for the day and all did a good job giving me a feel for the room and school. I was very impressed that they all seemed very well prepared for our conversation. I expected it and it was very re-assuring to feel like they took our conference seriously and were well prepared. They gave me specifics in her study habits, behavior and how she was doing socially. We talked about common core, she answered questions.

DD's 1st grade teacher had a little awkward moment I'll share. I could tell she was "done" after about 10 minutes. She kinda ended with "DD is great and doing well. The end." I got the feeling that for a teacher, problems took longer to talk about, needed more detail or descriptions. I kinda looked at her and mumbled "Can you tell me a little more about that. How you see her doing well in class." As a mom, I really wanted to hear about her in the class, as much as possible.

[mslhb]

Nov 22, 2015 10:24:58 GMT -5 nsl said:

Our conferences are 15 minutes long. I want to know my kid's reading level, discuss some samples of their work, talk about areas that need improvement, and get some concrete suggestions for how to handle any concerns the teacher has.

This for us as well.

[erbear]

All I really want to know is that they are on track academically and that they are doing ok socially. Anything beyond that is gravy - I just want to know that the teacher knows and likes my kid.

I see conferences as a chance for parents to bring up questions they have more than the teacher reporting

[eddy]

We have 20 minutes.

We get a couple examples of work and we talk about them. She showed us some of his tests and explained how he was doing. We talked about his behavior, which if we are being honest is the part we are always concerned with.

I am just expecting a conversation. I don't care about goals or whatever. I want to hear from her perspective and I am happy.

Sidenote, this is the first year we have gotten a good report on Jack. He has matured so much this year.His behavior is so much better. He is killing it with his school work. For once we walked out not feeling like asshole parents lol.