<p>Our high school has a meet the teacher night - 15 minutes per classroom. You can just about say “Hi I"m ___'s Mom” and find out if they remember your kid or not. It’s really just a chance to see if your impressions jive with whatever reporting you are getting from the kid and get an overview of the planned curriculum for the year. Our kids had a few teachers I wished I had had! Also most teachers junior year are good about mentioning applicable SAT subject tests - good for the parents to get that info since the kids aren’t always paying attention. That said, teachers will meet with parents if requested, or respond to e-mail. I never felt the need. The last conference I had with teachers was with my younger son’s 504 team, but he decided to drop it for high school.</p>
<p>Parent-Teacher conferences? HA! Twenty years ago they were 20 minutes. Ten years ago you met your child’s teachers in a group setting for 15 minutes. Now you need an invite! (Well, when 90% of every class is on the Honor Roll or High Honor Roll I guess there’s just no point it “talking things out.”) I’m appalled … as you can probably tell.</p>
<p>By the time my kids got to high school I expected them to confer with teachers on their own. They didn’t need me any more.</p>
<p>Our kiddo’s boarding school does eight minutes (and a bell) with teachers arranged in rows by subject in the gym–and I travel cross-country on Parents Weekend for that “privilege”. For $50K a year, I was hoping for better, but the teachers and advisors are always happy to e-mail and chat on the phone, so I use the eight minutes to put a face with a name/voice, introduce myself, and enable the teacher to get a better sense of where this student comes from. Fortunately, over Parents Weekend, I also get to shadow my son through a day of his classes, so I actually see him and each teacher in action which enables me to take back a mental picture of his daily experience. If I observe anything during classes that I’d like to understand better or explore further, I can follow up with my son and/or his teachers later via e-mail or phone.</p>
<p>Parent teacher conferences in highschool? Really? To talk about what? </p>
<p>I can’t imagine being the teacher having to talk to a hundred plus parents for five minutes about the same thing!!! </p>
<p>There was maybe two teachers I felt the need to talk to at my daughters highschool in a one on one situation. That two girls with all different teachers in four years.</p>
<p>I never did actually have a meeting, daughters handled it.</p>
<p>This isn’t grade school. Sitting chatting with me about how amazing my daughters were wasn’t needed. And if there was an issue, well, it would show up. It wasn’t like there was no communication, there was, but doing a speed dating thing was not necessary.</p>
<p>Also, I never felt the need to personally know each and every teacher in high school. What is the point of that?</p>
<p>Didn’t have regular conferences here, although since D had a 504 we met with the teachers as needed, much longer than five min for some.</p>
<p>I wanted to add that I really enjoyed spending time at their schools and getting to know the kids and the teachers a little through tutoring that I was doing with ESL students, as well as driving on field trips, special projects etc.
Teachers really can’t do it all themselves and the reason why both of their highschool are so successful with nationally recognized programs has a lot to do with parent involvement.</p>
<p>Conferences are not needed for the top kids, most of the time, but they can be very valuable for middle of the road kids. Parents of kids who are struggling should probably meet at a separate time with individual teachers. The biggest problem I see is a disconnect betweeen how much parental involvement the teachers expect, and what the parents expect. Up until this year, we did not have an online grade book, so the only way you had of knowing your child was struggling was if the child said something, or the teacher contacted you. Some teachers don’t contact parents because they believe that’s the student’s job, even in 9th grade.</p>
<p>Our school schedules conferences in 15 minute blocks, and does a pretty good job of not spreading them out (and even tries to sequence them so you’re not running back and forth through the school, if possible). Email and phone are great for some things, but it’s helpful to be able to talk face to face with the teachers. It doesn’t just help me put a face to the teacher, but for the teacher to put a face to the parents, which I think is just as important. We meet them at open house, with 10-15 minute sessions following the kids’ schedules, so we already have a sense of who they are.</p>
<p>Student dropping in here. At my school parent teacher conference are required if you want your report. however u can just leave. But parents should take the time to meet their child’s teacher. After all it better than not knowing what the teachers are like.
also there is no time limit on conference. Why should there be a time limit to be honest?
Sent from my LG-VM696 using CC</p>
<p>Our HS does an Open House the second week of school where you follow your kids schedule & the teacher gives an overview of the year in about 7 minutes (preceded by 1/2 hour in the auditorium with the principal(s) and others speaking.) Various groups (boosters, clubs & PTO) have tables set up with info to buy this or pay the fee for that. I’ve only ever missed one, but I admit to showing up just in time to follow the kiddos schedule and miss the dog & pony show in the auditorium. There is a HUGE parent turnout for this, in most cases with both parents attending. Public school in a community where people move in because of the reputation of the school system. </p>
<p>Conferences are held in the fall & spring, with the caveat that the spring ones are suggested only for those who are having issues. This is the first year I’ve missed the fall conferences and my youngest is a senior (she’s had 4 of the 6 teachers already so we know each other.) As Steve mentioned, it’s a good way to put a face with a name, and to let the teacher know that parents are interested in how their kiddos are doing in school. Ours are scheduled for 15 minutes. This year they went to an online scheduling system, instead of having to call the office & go through your kids schedule teacher by teacher.</p>
<p>Is this a true conference or meet the teacher night? Five minutes is enough for meet the teacher night but a true conference takes longer.</p>
<p>When I was working as a teacher parents could request a conference with any teacher or group of teachers and the conference was held in a private room before or after school. At the private school where my kids attend there are conference days and parents can request a conference during those days. If parents need to meet with teachers on non conference days they can request a meeting after school. The teachers do not have to comply but they usually do as they are there after school anyway.</p>
<p>This was a true conference night. Meet the teachers/open house was at the beginning of the year. This is optional and I had to request certain teachers. Also, I wouldn’t have requested a conference if I thought my student was doing just fine. Do people go to conferences to hear how wonderful their students are doing? Maybe you’re the ones who say 5 minutes is enough.</p>
<p>The way our middle school and high school used to do things made sense, in my opinion. They’d have the open house night where you follow your child’s schedule, meet the teachers, and get an overview of each class. Conferences were designed for parents of students who were struggling. Each child would bring home a letter and if any teacher checked off the square next to their name, then they were requesting a meeting with the parent at their convenience on a walk-in basis during the designated times. Otherwise, you didn’t show up unless you were the fawning, schmoozing type of parent.</p>
<p>Now there’s the speed dating style. All the teachers sit in a large room at tables and you wait in a row chairs a few feet back for your turn to approach the table. This style would have been fine with my older kids, but not my younger. For one thing, when the Child Study Team noticed your turn at a table approach, they’d come to the table to listen in. So everyone and their brother in the auditorium now would know your kid was a special education student. Ugh. Also, they began to place “like” teachers together, like the literature teacher with the language teacher (since they sometimes collaborate), and the math teacher with the science teacher. I also dislike this, because I see no reason why, when D is acing Mr. Smith’s class, for Mr. Smith to hear about the geometry test D just failed in Mrs. Jones’ class. And if I have an issue with Mr. Smith, I don’t feel free to discuss it in front of Mrs. Jones. Also, the other parents are sitting within earshot, so everyone can hear most of what if being said if they want to listen. That is wrong.</p>
<p>And while theoretically parents are free to set up private appointments, in practice that is discouraged. Teacher make it clear that there was a time set aside for conferences and all but the super serious things should be taken care of then. Also, the teachers are paid for the organized conferences in their contract. They aren’t paid for a random Thursday at 4 PM. and some resent having to do it then.</p>
<p>The local hs had the arrangement where the teachers had small tables, arranged alphabetically in the gymnasium and the cafeteria, which had a connecting door. There was no bell ringing, but the “conferences” tended to be pretty short. I would guess that they were 5 minutes on average. There were long lines for some of the teachers, but one could generally find one of the teachers whose line was not too long, and then circle back to the others. The hs conferences were offered on 3 different nights, within a 2-week period. Unexpectedly to me, as a lifelong member of the Guild of Procrastinators, most people came one of the first two nights, and the third night had little attendance.</p>
<p>I went for several reasons. For one, “parental involvement,” as assessed by the % of parents showing up for the conferences, was one of the measures used in rating the schools in our state. It was pretty clearly important to the administrators to have the parents show up. For a second, some of the conferences were interesting, in terms of the discussion. For a third, one could gain a sense of the fit between the teacher’s personality and the student’s personality, as well as the teacher’s view of the student. Fourth, in schools such as ours, where it is not possible to see any of the college recommendations, I think it is possible to form some opinions on good recommenders vs. weaker choices, by getting a sense of the level of enthusiasm for the student.</p>
<p>I don’t fawn very effectively, and I keep confusing schmoozing with snoring.</p>
<p>One other difference or two, and a concurrence with TheGFG’s post: No chairs were available at our conferences; everyone stood in line. Since the teachers were alphabetical, and there was no teaming at hs level, I never encountered the situation where teacher X was close enough to overhear the conference with teacher Y.</p>
<p>In agreement with TheGFG, there was no privacy at all. I think the conferences probably constituted a FERPA violation, due to this arrangement. </p>
<p>Personal guess: The lack of privacy was intentionally designed to keep the parents in line. Parents were never going to be critical of the instructional methods in a setting like that, nor would they express other complaints. [Cue the Gilbert & Sullivan chorus: “What, never?” “Well hardly ever.”]</p>
<p>In most cases, I was very happy with the teaching, and QMP was doing fine. However, I would really have liked to have a greater level of privacy. And it was extremely awkward to pretend to be looking all around the auditorium while the work of a student who did have academic problems was being discussed about a yard in front of me. I think it would be quite hard for the parents of a special ed student.</p>
<p>Mostly older Ds school had social events for parents.Lots of parent/teacher potlucks - around the perimeter of the room the teachers would be situated with info from their classes ( books, posters, etc), & you could ask them questions while drinking wine!
( its a small private school)
But I don’t remember actually going into all of her classrooms the way I did during the open houses at her sisters school. First, to the auditorium to hear the principal introduce staff, then we followed our Ds schedule to her classrooms, spending about 15 minutes in each with just a few minutes for passing. Senior year her classes were * third floor- first floor- third floor- second floor- third floor*:p</p>
<p>That was bad, but it didnt take me as long as when she was a freshman, and one of her classes was on the third floor that you only could get to from a certain stairway, but I wasn’t the only one who was lost.
I miss that building. They’ve remodeled extensively, not most of the exterior, but the interior has lost its extensive charm IMO. ( my mother also attended the same high school)</p>
<p>Oh I just remembered- older D did have parents going around to their child’s classrooms ( which is also a great way to meet other parents), I just had a vision of the father of one of her friends ( who is a local engineering/medical prof) come bursting in the room about 5 min late when the room was quiet as we were listening to the teachers explanation of what they were doing in class. He exclaimed " It’s not my fault!", & from the look on the teachers face, I got the idea his son used that excuse a lot!
:o
& I just remembered another teacher at the same school( who also has taught at the War College) verifying my daughters report that he " bowls" kittens!</p>
<p>Our high school does not offer structured conferences. I am very happy with electronic grade book/ course communication- School Loop. The high school has a Back To School Night about a week after the term starts to meet the teachers and form an impression of them.</p>
<p>I am an elementary school teacher and our district has eliminated conference time. If I choose to schedule conferences with parents, I must carve out my own time to get them done. E-mail has become my primary communication tool as both a teacher and a parent.</p>
<p>DH and I have had to advocate for our children from day one so attending conferences has always been high on our list.</p>
<p>Just had conferences a few weeks ago at DD’s school. I like to meet the teachers and get a feel for the interaction between student and teacher (the school encourages the student to attend with parents). </p>
<p>This has been very instructive. Last year I discovered that DD’s french teacher didn’t know my daughter’s name (despite she is the only one in her class of 25 with a french name) and thought DD was in her spanish class! And DD is one of the top students in her class.
Shortly after the conference, the teacher learned DD’s name and their interactions became far more frequent. </p>
<p>I also like to chat with the teachers about their syllabus’ and plans for future classes. Most are happy to talk and are glad a parent is interested.</p>
<p>This DOES sound more like a meet the teacher. You can’t really have a meaningful conference where resolutions are reached in 5 minutes. I would email the teacher, and if need be, set an appointment to come in privately. Our teachers have conference hours every day for meeting with parents privately. And that’s a public school.</p>
<p>I’d already had a long 504 meeting with my son’s teachers in September. I figured this set of conferences was just to get a quick read on how he’s doing. Surprisingly well! One teacher said, “He is the politest person I’ve ever met.” I refrained from saying, “Are you KIDDING ME???”</p>
<p>Half an hour to meet with the advisor. We got a copy of every subject teachers’ write up of our kid. If we wanted to we could set up a meeting with those suject teachers.</p>