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Show Conferences beneficial to parentsteachers It may not be a mere coincidence that Parent Teacher Conferences in the local schools have been scheduled sche-duled during American Education Edu-cation Week, November 13-19. 13-19. Throughout the nation as well as locally, the spotlight will be on schools and education educa-tion next week. The theme of American Education Week is Working Together For Education. Parent Par-ent Teacher Conferences give parents as well as teachers an opportunity to do just that. A group of local teachers have compiled a list of suggestions to help parents get the most out of parent teacher conferences. confer-ences. Teachers usually devote a 1 significant amount of time preparing for meeting with parents. Parents should come to conferences well prepared, too. Before meeting with the teachers, parents should make a list of questions and comments they want to make. Check with the child, too. Ask him if there is anything he wants his parent to discuss with the teacher. Ideally, both parents should attend the conference. When both parents attend together, the child knows that both parents are interested in their school program. Misunderstandings Misunder-standings are less likely to occur when both parents hear what the teacher has to say. In addition to answering parents' questions, the teacher teach-er may want to ask some, too, about the child's health, what he likes and dislikes, what he is most interested in, and how he feels about school or a particular class. Such information informa-tion is valuable to the teacher in motivating the child to learn, in protecting his health , and safety, and helping him to ; develop into a balanced, pro-; pro-; ductive person. ; Parents should feel free to ; mention the strengths as well ; as the weaknesses that they I see in their child. Ask the I teacher for suggestions for ! solving school-related prob-lems. prob-lems. If there have been I problems with the child at i home, it is unrealistic to think that the teacher can alone solve the same problem in a 1 few hours each day at school. J If parents commit themselves ! to a project designed to help j their child in school, following t through with their side of the ! bargain is very important. t Some conferences are not as useful as they might be if I the teacher senses that par-l par-l ents are overly sensitive and I emotional about their child-l child-l ren. If parents want an honest I and straightforward confer- ence, they should listen as unemotionally and carefully as possible to both the good and the bad. Conferences are tightly scheduled, and punctuality is greatly appreciated. If the parents feel that the allotted time is not sufficient to discuss dis-cuss their concerns, they may ask for another conference or follow-up with a telephone call. The local schools encourage encour-age parents to make "on the scene" visits to schools-experiences which will provide parents par-ents with a broader understanding under-standing of curriculum, programs, pro-grams, philosophy, discipline, and an appreciation for the teacher's role in the educational educa-tional process. After the conference, it is a good idea for parents to jot down the things they discussed discuss-ed with the teacher. These notes will help in discussing the conference with the child and will remind them to check back with the teacher in a few weeks to find out how the child has progressed since the conference. Recognizing the need for more frequent parent-teacher contacts, the local administration has scheduled the second parent-teacher conferences in January, at the close of the first semester. As parents talk with a teacher they will discover how seriously he or she takes the responsibility of motivating motivat-ing children to learn. Teachers Teach-ers do not consider themselves them-selves effective if they merely give out information, check homework, or supervise a reading group. They are concerned con-cerned for what is happening to each student. They respect young people for their capacity capa-city to learn, and they want the help of parents to bring about that learning. |