Three weeks prior to conferences

  • 6 minutes

Let's get organized!

 Start getting organized three weeks before conferences.

Cartoon characters of Thriver, Coping, and Overwhelmed parents.

Consider times

Teacher-parent conferences are brief meetings, lasting from 10 to 30 minutes.

Make student progress accessible

Share student strengths and weaknesses.
Eliminate teacher talk, industry jargon, and acronyms.
Create a space for co-planning.

Create a plan

A teacher must be precise, clear, and informed.

Photograph of students working on a science experiment.

Guide access to student learning

According to KidsHealth.org, the main focus of teacher-parent conferences is to make a student’s learning as accessible as possible to the parents, families, and guardians who attend.

These guiding questions help direct your data collection efforts:

How can I show parents and guardians the strengths and weaknesses of their child’s progress in a simple way?

  • For example, a report card (A, B, C, D, F, 1, 2, 3, Outstanding, Satisfactory, Needs Improvement, or Unsatisfactory) will only show surface progress. Students aren't their grades (even if they're earning all As). It’s important for teachers to communicate the overall growth, classroom factors that might affect learning, and gain understanding of any home factors that might be impacting learning.

How can I eliminate teacher talk / industry talk from the conversation?

  • Family members will often not tell you when they don’t understand what you’re sharing. Teachers are often seen as having power and authority, and this may intimidate some guardians, specifically those who didn’t have the best school experiences or those who struggle linguistically.

How can I create a space for co-planning the next steps for learning with families?

  • Families have a wealth of knowledge they can bring to your classroom. It’s important to create a partnership with all parents, families, and guardians to help further their child's academic and social-emotional success. Remember, success is different for many families. This is a wonderful time to gain understanding of what the family considers as success.

Microsoft has a series of tools that help teachers organize and present student data in a holistic way.

Insights

Insights is an app within Microsoft Teams that provides real-time analytics of student progress and activity within a class Team. It provides visualizations for teachers to make informed decisions to ensure students’ emotional, social, and academic needs are being met.

More information on Microsoft Insights

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