Powerful Parent Conferences

1
Powerful Parent Conferences

• What Every New
• Teacher Needs To Know

2
Outcomes

• Participants will explore answers to these
  questions
• What are the three goals of parent conferencing?
• What do parents want from teachers?
• What are effective conferencing techniques?
• What are problems associated with parent
  communication?
• What are effective listening strategies?
• What types of parent conferences are there?

3
Dream, Nightmare Cards

• Dream card-list positive feelings you have about
  parent conferences.
• Nightmare card-list negative feelings or fears
  you have about parent conferences.

4
Goals of Parent Conferencing

• To create a parent-teacher team with a shared
  agreement about the role of each partner in
  helping the student to succeed in school and in
  life.
• To provide a two-way communication opportunity
  that updates each partner on the team about the
  students learning and behavior characteristics
  and history.
• To establish a relationship that makes it easier
  for the teacher and parents to initiate contact
  later.

Source Barry Sweeney, Preparing for Parent
Conferences. www.teachermentors.com
5
What Does Parent Conferencing Look Like/Sound
Like?

• Each group is to take their assigned goal of
  parent conferencing and use words and pictures to
  describe what this goal will look like/sound like
  when it is in place.

6
What Do We All Want, Anyway?

• One half of the group is to answer the question,
  What is it that parents want to know about their
  child and school?
• The other half of the group is to answer the
  question, What is it that teachers think parents
  should know about their child?
• Record your answers on chart paper.

7
What is Really Being Communicated?

• Only 7 of what is communicated is in words.
• 53 of what is communicated comes from body
  language.
• 40 of what is communicated comes from the tone
  and feeling reflected in our voice, and how we
  say the words.

Source Sean Covey. The Seven Habits of Highly
Effective Teens. A Fireside Book, Simon and
Schuster, 1999. P.171.
8
To Really Listen.

• Listen with your eyes and your ears. Listen to
  the persons words, but also to what they are not
  saying.
• Stand in their shoes.
• Practice mirroring-a mirror reflects. Repeat
  back in your own words what the other person is
  saying and feeling.

Source Sean Covey. The Seven Habits of Highly
Effective Teens. A Fireside Book, Simon and
Schuster, 1999. P.171-173.
9
Mirroring Phrases

• As I get it,..
• So, as I see it,.
• I can see that you are feeling.
• So, what youre saying is.

Source Sean Covey. The Seven Habits of Highly
Effective Teens. A Fireside Book, Simon and
Schuster, 1999. P.175.
10
The Rapport Game

• Ones will think of a story to tell.
• Twos will listen.
• Threes will watch.
• Fours meet me in the hall.

11
SLANT for Strength

• Sit up straight
• Lean slightly forward
• Ask questions
• Nod to show interest
• Track the speaker

Source Dr. Allen Mendler, Working Successfully
with Difficult Students A Discipline with
Dignity Approach. Bureau of Education and
Research, 915 118th Street, PO Box 96068,
Bellevue WA 98009
12
Seven Steps for Success

• Invite the parent into your space.
• Introduce yourself and shake the parents hand.
• Say, thank you for coming.
• Use surnames instead of first names.
• Be sure the parent sits down immediately because
  we have the most resistance when we are standing.
  Seat them away from your desk. Arrange chairs
  at the same eye level, and close enough to convey
  warmth.

13
Eight Steps for Success

• Offer comfort.
• Offer a cup of coffee, glass of water, or soda.
• This can be a valuable prop. When you need to
  slow down the conversation, pause to take a sip
  of coffee or water. This can give you some
  valuable thinking time.
• Let the parents know that you are eager and
  willing to learn about their child.

14
Eight Steps for Success

• State the purpose of the conference.
• Share the agenda and information related to the
  conference.
• Offer documentation such a list of grades,
  samples of work, etc.
• Restate the problems and concerns on which both
  you and the parent can agree.
• Decide on a follow-up.
• At this point you and the parent are partners
  trying to decide what is best for the child.

15
Eight Steps for Success

• Touch base-communicate.
• Ask the parent what type of communication works
  best for them, an email, a phone call, a note,
  etc.
• Closure-
• Shake the parents hand and use his/her name.
• Thank the parent for coming, and remind him/her
  that you have another appointment.
• Remember that it is rude for you to rise while
  the parent is speaking. Stand up while you are
  talking.

Adapted from Discipline Strategies For the
Bored, Belligerent and Ballistic in Your
Classroom. Chapter 14, Painless Parent/Teacher
Conferences, pp. 148-154. Carol Fuery, Sanibel
SandDollar Publications, Inc. PO Box 461,
Captiva, FL. 33924, 1994.
16
Five Types of Poor Listening

• Pretend listening
• Spaced out listening
• Selective listening
• Word listening
• Self-centered listening

Source Sean Covey. The Seven Habits of Highly
Effective Teens. A Fireside Book, Simon and
Schuster, 1999. P.168.
17
Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood

• Your task is to take the poor listening style
  that your group has been assigned and to describe
  with words and pictures what this looks like and
  sounds like when a person is using it.

18
Articles about Parent Conferences

• Each group is to read the article you have been
  assigned.
• After reading the article, your group is to
  design a metaphor or visual on chart paper that
  reflects the content.
• After creating your metaphor, your group is to
  write a one-minute summary of your article.

19
Museum Walk with Parent Conferences

• Post your visual on the wall or chart stand.
  Everyone in your group needs to stand by the
  visual.
• Count off 1 to 5.
• Look closely at your home group.
• 1 will be the first spokesperson and stays with
  the visual.
• Everyone else in the group moves one visual over
  in a clockwise direction.

20
Five Must Answer Questions

• What skills and knowledge will my child be
  expected to master in your class?
• What kind of information will you use to assess
  my childs academic progress? How do you assign
  grades?
• What can I do to stay actively involved in my
  childs academic progress?
• How do you accommodate differences in learning?
• How do you plan to prepare my child for the next
  grade level?

Source The Parent-Teacher Conference Five
Must-Ask Questions, Cindy Bond.
www.familyeducation.com
21
Koosh Ball Review

• We will throw the Koosh Ball around. When you
  catch it, you will mention something that you
  have learned today about parent conferences.

22
Types of Parent Conferences

• Beginning of school meetings
• Behavior conferences
• Academic progress conferences
• Parent requested conferences
• What do we talk about when the child is doing
  well, but we have to have a conference conferences

23
Role play

• Find a partner.
• You will be given an envelope with different
  conference scenarios in it.
• Read over and select two scenarios to role play.
• Use techniques you have learned today to role
  play the scenario. After two minutes, reverse
  roles.

24
Two-Way Communication

• A key to successful home/school relations is
  regular, two-way communication. As a teacher,
  what can you do to make sure this happens?

25
Communication Troubleshooting

• Problem 1 Parent has no phone
• Problem 2 Mom works days, Dad works nights.
• Problem 3 Parent complains about everything
  the school and teacher does.
• Problem 4 The parent doesnt speak English.

26
E-mail Etiquette

• Always use the subject line.
• This will allow the person receiving the message
  to know immediately the content of the message.
• Never use uppercase letters, not even to make a
  point.
• In the online world, this is equated with
  yelling.
• Spell-check your e-mail.
• Resist the urge to flame.
• A flame is an angry e-mail message. If you are
  angry, resist the urge to send a response
  immediately. Cool off first.
• Dont retain entire messages when you reply.
• Just include enough of the original message to
  give the receiving person the context.

Adapted from Ragans Workplace Solutions,
Sample Issue
27
Ideas for Parents
28
Guidelines for Good Service

• Be proud.
• Parents see you as experts, ready and able to
  deliver solutions.
• Be professional.
• Always put the customer first.
• Be polite.
• Parents and students deserve your respect and
  consideration, no matter what kind of day you are
  having.
• Be prompt.
• Be personal.
• Parents and students want to be treated as
  individuals, not as the next person in line.

29
Geometric Closure

• What stopped you in your tracks today?
• What were some key points in the workshop today?
• What did you get squared away in your thinking?
• What will you get around to doing as a result of
  this workshop?