20 minutes parent-teacher conferences?
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Anonymous
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Ours are 20 minutes. That's plenty.
My question is, why does my son's middle school release early this Friday for conferences (Irving)? Why didn't they hold them on Monday or Tuesday? |
Anonymous
Kilmer has a three hour delayed opening on Monday instead. |
Anonymous
Bradley Cooper of course! |
Anonymous
This is probably because the teacher has so many lies to tell you. |
Anonymous
Ok. I'm just wondering why it couldn't have been done on Monday or Tuesday when the students were already out. |
Anonymous
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ES were on Monday and Tuesday. 1 of my DCs' teacher's talked with me for 50 minutes. I think I was the last parent meeting, and it was very informative. Never had such an in depth conversation with a teacher. Just great!!! FWIW, the other teacher's were 15-20 minutes and I was out the door.
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Anonymous
I think they do that so if you have a child at both levels (ES and MS) you don't have to worry about coordinating all of the times/missing one child's for the others. |
Anonymous
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Twenty minutes? Fifteen was the norm all through elementary for us. And someone said seven minutes in middle school -- we were told by the principal that our MS "conference" was actually a "stay in touch" thing where parents have "at most, two to three minutes" (her words) to ask questions -- and it's done with a line of other parents standing right there behind you waiting for their turn. Then you rotate to your child's other teachers. So the sympathy for the "shortness" of a 20-minute conference is rather lost on me.
Word of advice if you're a parent of an elementary kid: Go in PREPARED. Know what your kid has been doing for homework daily and how he or she has done on tests (junior had better be showing them to you) and whether he or she feels overwhelmed by projects or is doing OK with those, enjoys or dislikes certain subjects and why, etc. Know what worries your kid and what doesn't. Go in with specific, concrete questions -- which you can't do unless you know what your child is doing day to day in school. That makes these short meetings much more useful for both you and the teacher. Parents who go in without any clue of their own about where their kid is doing well and where he or she is struggling -- and who wait to be told all that by the teacher for the first time -- will find conferences frustrating and might feel some bombs got dropped on them because they weren't aware of some issues. |
Anonymous
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I just received an email about "Touching Bases" for middle school this upcoming Monday. It said you could meet your child's teacher for three minutes.
My child is doing well in school so I think this is a waste of time. I am glad they offer it but I am not going to go. Do most parents attend? |
Anonymous
| My D is in kindergarten at a Catholic school. Ours were 15 mins. And in lieu of, not in addition to, report cards. |
Anonymous
I do all of the above and still got a bomb dropped on me. |
Anonymous
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We have 2 per year - 20 min each - for elementary (APS). More than enough for us. We do keep in touch with our teacher though so we didn't have any surprises. Just a nice chance to reflect and plan with the teacher.
BTW, when our kids were in a private school in DC we also had 2x20 min conferences each year. |
Anonymous
| Think it's ridiculous that we don't have an official spring conference in FCPS at elementary level...I call my own in April with all of the teachers, but ludicrous that the schools feel one conference for 20 min once a year (at the beginning of the year no less) is all parents want or need! |
Anonymous
| ^^^^so you want to extend the school year another two days for conferences? |
Anonymous
| If need be...wasn't my idea to have 1/2 day Mondays that are mostly responsible for the long school year!! |