20 minutes parent-teacher conferences?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

I do all of the above and still got a bomb dropped on me.

What happened??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If need be...wasn't my idea to have 1/2 day Mondays that are mostly responsible for the long school year!!

Mondays are not half days, they are early dismissal days. The time has been added to Tuesday through Friday, so those days would become shorter if the time were added back to Monday.

[Anonymous]

Not PP, but DC is in FCPS and never gets anything returned. There would be no way that a parent would know what is going on besides word of mouth from their student or talking to the teacher prior to conferences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If need be...wasn't my idea to have 1/2 day Mondays that are mostly responsible for the long school year!!

The students are in school 183 days. That's pretty standard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If need be...wasn't my idea to have 1/2 day Mondays that are mostly responsible for the long school year!!

Mondays are not half days, they are early dismissal days. The time has been added to Tuesday through Friday, so those days would become shorter if the time were added back to Monday.

True and true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not PP, but DC is in FCPS and never gets anything returned. There would be no way that a parent would know what is going on besides word of mouth from their student or talking to the teacher prior to conferences.

+1000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What can you even do in 3 minutes? Seriously? You're supposed to leave work and haul back to school, your kid is missing a few days of school, you pay for daycare or miss an entire work day, all for.... <drum roll> 3 minutes face-to-face? It's insulting.

This is not a conference, it's a roll call!

Even speed dating has a 5 minute get-to-know-you window!

I now officially retire my original question about 20 minutes. Shaking my head incredulously.

PS_ One of the school districts had a shout-out on NPR last year, saying that the biggest challenge for lagging students is that parents don't show up for these conferences. Now I know why.

Yeah, why can't the schools more reasonably accommodate working parents? Oh, I forgot that teachers are working parents too!

[Anonymous]

What stops you from e-mailing the teacher and requesting an appointment if you need more time?

[Anonymous]

Catholic school 15 min conf. Public school 30min conf. No issues or bombs dropped.