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The schools need to communicate better, both with each other and with parents if they want better attendance.
OUr schools tend to all schedule conferences at the same time. I cannot possibly be at 2 high school conferences, 2 middle school conferences and 1 elementary school conference all at the same time. One of us is usually ties up with something else so we have one person to try to attend five conferences at the same time.
All too often I hear people complaint about lack of participation in various events. Then when they are told that they need to communicate better and more often to get better attendence, they get mad and say things like "I put it on the web page and in the bulliten (or newsletter) I cannot reaosnably be expected to do more than that." While it is probably true that it is unreasonable to expect more effort at communication, it is simply a fact. If you want greater participation, you need to make hucrclean efforts at communication. It does nto matter whether you "should" have to make such efforts, whether it is "fair" or reaosnable, nor whether the potentail participants should be more observant or proactive in finding out about the meeting or event. Regardless of whether it is conferences, a meeting for a charity, a church function, whatever, if you want good participation, you must undertake a massive communication and reminder effort. In my experience the most effective way is to sue the normal means of announcing something and then follow up with telephone calls the night before the event. That is a pain and a hassle and unreasonable to expect, but it is also the wya that you get participate if you want participation. They make message services that you can program in all of your students phone numbers, and with the touch of a button you can have the machine call everyone with a reminder message. Not persoanl, but still effective reminder.
A lot of the schools around here have gone on to using these machines. In fact I just got a call from one last night reminding me of the parent-teacher conference coming up for my Jr. High school kid. As soon as I hung up once the message was over, my Jr. High kid asked me why the school was calling so late, when I said it was to remind me of the confrences she said oh yeah that reminds me, I have something for you to look at in regards to the confrences. It was a sign up sheet for times that would work best for us to see one of her teachers. She is an accelerated reading teacher and loves to touch base with all of her students' parents so she purposely schedules times for the parents to come in and visit.
We just had conferences last night. Our whole district has adopted "student-lead" conferences, where the student shows you their best and worst work so far, why they feel that way and then you go over ISATs and report cards. One disappointing effect of this is that the parent has a minimal amount of time to actually ask the teacher for feedback and advice on the student if they actually need some help, since the appointments are only 15 minutes total. The good side of it is that it can be a launching point for a quick duscussion if the parent knows where theywant to direct the conversation.
The schools need to communicate better, both with each other and with parents if they want better attendance.
OUr schools tend to all schedule conferences at the same time. I cannot possibly be at 2 high school conferences, 2 middle school conferences and 1 elementary school conference all at the same time. One of us is usually ties up with something else so we have one person to try to attend five conferences at the same time.
All too often I hear people complaint about lack of participation in various events. Then when they are told that they need to communicate better and more often to get better attendence, they get mad and say things like "I put it on the web page and in the bulliten (or newsletter) I cannot reaosnably be expected to do more than that." While it is probably true that it is unreasonable to expect more effort at communication, it is simply a fact. If you want greater participation, you need to make hucrclean efforts at communication. It does nto matter whether you "should" have to make such efforts, whether it is "fair" or reaosnable, nor whether the potentail participants should be more observant or proactive in finding out about the meeting or event. Regardless of whether it is conferences, a meeting for a charity, a church function, whatever, if you want good participation, you must undertake a massive communication and reminder effort. In my experience the most effective way is to sue the normal means of announcing something and then follow up with telephone calls the night before the event. That is a pain and a hassle and unreasonable to expect, but it is also the wya that you get participate if you want participation. They make message services that you can program in all of your students phone numbers, and with the touch of a button you can have the machine call everyone with a reminder message. Not persoanl, but still effective reminder.
About the scheduling. My district had parents pick the time for elementary and pretty much no conferences for older than that, but they had a way to avoid most conflicts. The schools that fed into each other could not have open house, back to school night, or band and choir type things on the same nights. Most kids went to the same schools because of how densely populated the area was. It was only a problem if say your older kid transferred to a different high school, or one of your elementary kids was in GATE.
My dh and I have never missed a parent teacher conference for our dds (10 and 8). We see it as an opportunity to discuss our kids' strengths and weaknesses and to learn about any behavioral or social problems before they get out of hand.
The school also has an annual open house which is more of a dog and pony show, but we try to attend this as well.
Unfortunately, our school holds conferences during the day (on a day when kids don't have school or during a vacation week) instead of in the evening, which is a deterrent to many parents who want to attend but can't get off from work. My dh and I will usually request an early morning meeting so we can get to work on time.
We just had conferences last night. Our whole district has adopted "student-lead" conferences, where the student shows you their best and worst work so far, why they feel that way and then you go over ISATs and report cards. One disappointing effect of this is that the parent has a minimal amount of time to actually ask the teacher for feedback and advice on the student if they actually need some help, since the appointments are only 15 minutes total. The good side of it is that it can be a launching point for a quick duscussion if the parent knows where theywant to direct the conversation.
I HATE student lead conferences. We had these when the kids were in middle school. I can talk to my kid every night at home, when I go to conferences I want to talk to the TEACHERS. Since the teachers had to supervise their homeroom conferences, there was NO time to talk to any of them. I am glad we are done with them.
We all started off with grand plans and judgements.
You're not the first to invent your mindset.
We blazed that trail before you!
Again, I don't think that parenting is a competition. There are tons of kids who succeed despite their parents and plenty who grow up to be total losers even though their parent was involved in everything.
I just think the attitude of "what my kid is doing at school is a waste of time" is very bizarre. My life is busy too. I have to reschedule things all of the time and am constantly shuffling. My calendar at home is full of white out and arrows. I'm not sitting around crocheting or thinking of new and creative "family time" ideas we can all do around the dinner table. I understand what it means to be busy. I do however, know that in the grand scheme of things, an hour or so a year to go with my kid to school to see what it looks like inside the hallways or even where her locker is time well spent. Even if I don't hear one single thing that will apply to my child, at least she knows I took the time and was interested.
As for "we blazed the trail before you" comment, all I can say is that there are plenty of parents who attend these things and plenty of parents who take the time to still be involved with their kids school as they get older. I prefer their trail to the "I'm too busy and I don't need to hear how great my kids are from their teachers" mentality. It's not "cool" to be indifferent.
I don't really know where to start. I NEVER said parenting was a competition. I am not sure how you could possibly get that from my post.
It will be a different story when she is in high school.
You are being overly defensive and letting people who are indifferent towards their kids' education once they reach high school off the hook. Surely as a teacher yourself, you can see that there are lots of kids who end up on a totally different course than the one they started out on. Plenty of kids get lost in the shuffle, end up in the wrong crowd, etc. If attending a conference a few times a year will let my child know that I am still checking up on what she's doing, then every minute of that "waste of time" is worth it to me. That is not to say that the rest of the year isn't a constant, "how was school", "did you do your homework", etc conversation, but surely an hour or so every few months is nothing in the grand scheme of things.
I am not a parent, but I am a high school teacher and am looking for feedback. I posted this in the education forum, but I thought I would post it here to get some more input from a parent's perspective. Here's the original post:
Last night was our first round of parent teacher conferences. They went from 4-8 pm. Out of the 187 students I teach this semester, I had a grand total of 1parent show up!! Of course, this is a good student and she is currently receiving a B in my class. I spent the rest of the evening calling and emailing parents of the students failing my classes. (about 30)
I arrive at school this morning and I received no voice mails or emails responding to my concerns.
I am sitting here today on this Friday morning before work begins, dead tired, and wondering why parents are so disinterested..............
******************
So that was last Thursday night. I have gotten one response back from a parent. The rest haven't bothered to call or email me back, even though their child is failing. We have the last round of conferences tonight, and I am hoping some of them show up. But I'm not counting on it.
So parents of teenagers I ask you........do you attend parent teacher conferences? Why or why not? Does it make a difference what the subject is or if your child is failing?
I find that there is a cold war between parents and schools that do not rate very high.
In these cases the parents say the school is failing because of the budget and the teachers and the teachers say it is the parents.
I truly believe it to be a combo of both, but with a heavy and I mean heavy emphasis on the parents. Your case exemplfies that.
I think what happened in your case is typical of this kind of a school as the ones that have heavy parental involvement do much better than those that do not.
In those cases, like yours, the majority of the parents are minimally educated themselves, and expect others to do the job for them.
I would take what happened to you and talk to your neighbor or first selectmen about it. Have them make a public anouncement.
Remember when Obama was getting ready to speak about education and all of those parents were up in arms? They were probably the ones' that know they are not doing a good job and could not stand being called out on it.
This topic actually pisses me off. I am going to stop now because I am getting angry...
You are being overly defensive and letting people who are indifferent towards their kids' education once they reach high school off the hook. Surely as a teacher yourself, you can see that there are lots of kids who end up on a totally different course than the one they started out on. Plenty of kids get lost in the shuffle, end up in the wrong crowd, etc. If attending a conference a few times a year will let my child know that I am still checking up on what she's doing, then every minute of that "waste of time" is worth it to me. That is not to say that the rest of the year isn't a constant, "how was school", "did you do your homework", etc conversation, but surely an hour or so every few months is nothing in the grand scheme of things.
I guess if you think I am being defensive then I am (shrug).
Attending a massed conference where a teacher hasn't prepared anything for your child is not how you show your child you are interested in school.
You are being overly defensive and letting people who are indifferent towards their kids' education once they reach high school off the hook. Surely as a teacher yourself, you can see that there are lots of kids who end up on a totally different course than the one they started out on. Plenty of kids get lost in the shuffle, end up in the wrong crowd, etc. If attending a conference a few times a year will let my child know that I am still checking up on what she's doing, then every minute of that "waste of time" is worth it to me. That is not to say that the rest of the year isn't a constant, "how was school", "did you do your homework", etc conversation, but surely an hour or so every few months is nothing in the grand scheme of things.
Just because a parent doesn't attend the mass conferences doesn't mean they are indifferent.
I go online and check on my son's grades a couple times a week, we talk about them, talk about homework, email the teachers when necessary, etc.
If parents go to the mass conferences and come away with helpful info and found it to be a good use of time then great! And on the flip side, there are many, many parents who choose NOT to go that are just as plugged in and interested in what's going on with their high schooler.
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