What happens during a "parent-teacher conference"?
Parent teacher conferences are one of the few opportunities that parents get to really sit down and talk, one-on-one, with their child's teacher. And usually it's a time for the teacher to let the parent know how the child is progressing, often both in terms of academics and in terms of behavior, and settling into the classroom. And it's also a time when the parent gets to ask questions, whether it's about "I didn't understand this homework assignment or 'why isn't he learning to read when my cousin's kids are learning to read,' or 'what can we do over the summer to help him progress or do better in school next year.' The way parent teacher conferences run often varies by teacher and by parent. Almost every teacher will walk into a parent teacher conference ready to run it, they're not going to rely on a parent to run it. And sometimes it's to their detriment, because they'll come in and they've got a folder of work they want to show you, they've got all this information they want to give the parent, and sometimes the parent has questions, but the parent doesn't speak up because the teacher keeps talking, and the twenty minutes are up and the parent walks out feeling they didn't get their questions answered. And if parents are a little shy, these parent conferences go quickly, so I always encourage parents to go in, a) go in with questions, or whatever they want to know, and to b) indicate to the teacher that they do have questions that they want to ask, whether it's just by having a list out, or by saying, 'I do have a bunch of questions I want to ask you, please tell me what you want to tell me but I have a bunch of questions," just so the teacher doesn't feel that she has to fill up empty space, so that she can get done what she wants to get done and they can move on to the parent's questions.
