But, at the very first, what exactly a parent-teacher conference is?
Well, a parents-teacher conference is, as its own name indicates, when the student’s parents meet with the teacher or tutor of this, so they exchange opinions, ideas, views and also discuss the student’s academic achievement and all this involves, as for example the study habits, the performance and behavior in class, how is he or she doing at home…
In order to continue with the topic, we saw a video in which a mother-teacher conference was taking place. We start by enumerating what did they do and then to analyze it, if is positive or not and why do we consider so as an important thing to do in a conference.
After this firs video, we saw another one (this took place in Spain) and was the clear example of how a parent-teacher conference should not be. We did more or less the same things as we did to the previous video and said why is not an appropriate conference, saying also the things we would do to improve this situation.
To continue once the videos were finished, was enumerating the things that a good conference should have:- Welcome the parent. If possible, going to the entry and in a friendly way (smiling…)
- Talk about the achievements of the students, preferably start with the good ones and then the bad ones
- Have on hand the materials and all the necessary things we would like to show to the parents
- Improve the success of the student with homework
- Let the parents know what the materials their child usually uses are
- Bring a portfolio of the student’s work and achievement
- Know the objectives you have so you can transmit them to the parents
- State the purpose of the conference and the time for when it is going to take place
- Describe the child's progress in major areas, and ask how they feel and perceive his or her progress from home
- Set mutual goals by putting in common
- Summarize the whole conference, by thanking for coming for example
- Set communication for future conferences or the contact between the institution and the family
- Evaluate conference, if the doubts and objectives have been solved successfully
We performed some situations in the class by our-selves acting as if we were parents, students, teachers and counselors, with a problem which has to be solved.
Applying the points we considered necessary to make a good conference, we tried to make it as good as we could.
The last part of the class, although a little strange for me, showed us how important is to know transmitting information.
Very useful for our future profession.