APS: DHMS parent teacher conferences

[Anonymous]

What are parent teacher conferences like in middle school, specifically for Dorothy Hamm?

[Anonymous]

Completely pointless. They make your kid give a discussion on what they have done during the year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Completely pointless. They make your kid give a discussion on what they have done during the year.

Really? They expect the child to go with you and tell them what they've been doing? That seems... super unhelpful.

[Anonymous]

It’s very helpful in my opinion. I like my kid being required to attend. They “lead” but it’s very parent/teacher driven. It’s helpful for my kid to begin to learn how to reflect, set goals, hear feedback, and more generally become an advocate for their own educational experience. They aren’t in elementary school anymore + there aren’t conferences in HS, so this is a reasonable transition.

[Anonymous]

I thought the first one was an opportunity to meet with individual teachers. I think you get in line. Our kid was doing well so we skipped. It seemed too early for the teachers to know our kid well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought the first one was an opportunity to meet with individual teachers. I think you get in line. Our kid was doing well so we skipped. It seemed too early for the teachers to know our kid well.

They do the conferences in the gym and you walk from table to table to talk individually with your kid’s teachers.

They also have the kid lead one with the TA - just at the end of the year, I think. Maybe also one at the beginning?

I’ve been happy with both formats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought the first one was an opportunity to meet with individual teachers. I think you get in line. Our kid was doing well so we skipped. It seemed too early for the teachers to know our kid well.

It depends on the year— up to last year the fall conference was student led, and the spring conference was optional. They switched it last year so the spring conference was student led. The student conferences are hit or miss— depends on the kid and ta. My older extremely studious girl had productive conferences for two years, but her last conference was a waste of time all around (ta didn’t give them a template, so we just sat around for half an hour). My middle son has had very unproductive conferences all along. My younger son was a waste of time too.

[Anonymous]

Do you know what time of day the conferences are, or does it vary? I'm wondering if it's worth planning around them for that weekend or not.

[Anonymous]

There's the fall conference: in the gyms and you wait in line to talk to a teacher. I think it's probably best if you have a specific question for a specific teacher, rather than "how's my kid doing." Not all of the teachers attend or attend on time or stay the whole time, so, like me, you could take the time off and just have two teachers there. That said, most of my now 7th grader's teachers have moved on from DHMS, so maybe it is better this year?

The spring conference: your student works on a presentation that they give to you. My young scholar slapped together some bullshirt and spit it back out at us. But his teacher thought he did great.

Neither spring nor fall were helpful. What was helpful: emailing a teacher directly with a direct question about a specific issue. The science teacher didn't respond to parents, but he appears to have moved on. Otherwise, the other teachers did respond and that was helpful.

Truly, the 6th graders this year have a lot of new to DHMS teachers, they have a more established counselor, maybe that helps a bit, but otherwise, the most helpful feedback I received was truly listening to my kid and their friends. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's the fall conference: in the gyms and you wait in line to talk to a teacher. I think it's probably best if you have a specific question for a specific teacher, rather than "how's my kid doing." Not all of the teachers attend or attend on time or stay the whole time, so, like me, you could take the time off and just have two teachers there. That said, most of my now 7th grader's teachers have moved on from DHMS, so maybe it is better this year?

The spring conference: your student works on a presentation that they give to you. My young scholar slapped together some bullshirt and spit it back out at us. But his teacher thought he did great.

Neither spring nor fall were helpful. What was helpful: emailing a teacher directly with a direct question about a specific issue. The science teacher didn't respond to parents, but he appears to have moved on. Otherwise, the other teachers did respond and that was helpful.

Truly, the 6th graders this year have a lot of new to DHMS teachers, they have a more established counselor, maybe that helps a bit, but otherwise, the most helpful feedback I received was truly listening to my kid and their friends. Good luck!

Thank you, this is really helpful! Sounds like it's not worth planning around. If we're here, fine to go, but otherwise just consider it a long weekend and don't stick around for it specifically.