7 Best Practices for Parent-Teacher Meetings

Parent-Teacher meetings are unfortunately underutilized in schools. As I have learned from fifteen years in education as both an administrator and classroom teacher, there is no better way to communicate a student’s strengths, weaknesses, and needs than face to face. Parents are our biggest allies as educators. Tapping into the resource that they represent is not always easy, or comfortable for that matter, but educators are nonetheless better served having had a chance to meet with their students’ guardians versus not knowing who is on the other side of a student’s life.

Educators are not trained, while in their teacher education programs, to have effective parent-teacher conferences. Mostly they learn this skill from a master teacher or trial by fire, so to speak. After hundreds of meetings with parents, I have synthesized seven effective strategies that will ensure you have a great conference, even if your guest parent or guardian comes ready to unload on you over a misunderstanding. Here they are:

1. Anticipate what a parent or guardian will want to know. Review email communications, notes you may have made in a telephone log, concerns they may have voiced to other educators while you sat listening in a more involved meeting, such as those for special education students, etc. By thinking ahead of what a parent or guardian might want to know, you are minimizing the surprise and looking unprepared factor.
2. Greet them when they come inside as if they are important people, and you are honored to have them visit you. Stand up from your desk, go to them, and shake their hands. Show them where they can sit. Have something fun to do for their small children, like coloring workbooks or picture books.

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