 |
| Quote from Sarah Dessen |
When I was hired at my new school, I was told that we had parent conferences within the first few weeks of school. I was very confused how this would work since I would just be getting to know all of my students and wouldn’t have much to report on.
After asking around I quickly learned that I had nothing to worry about for these conferences. These intake conferences (that’s what we call them) are meetings where parents come in and tell the teacher all about their child. It would be my job to be an active listener and get to know my students from the people that know them best, their parents/guardians.
Parents/guardians could bring in artifacts that represent their child; pieces of old school work, pictures or just great stories to share. Of course I was a bit nervous before my first conference, as this would be the first time I was meeting many of these parents/guardians; however, once I sat down with the first parent I relaxed, sat back and listened and learned about the student.
Every conference was different and special in its own way, as every parent/guardian had a different story to share. I learned valuable information, not only relating to academics, but relating to each child as a whole.
Before coming to my new school, I had never heard of intake conferences, but I would highly recommend them to my colleagues in other schools. Parents/guardians are used to coming to conferences and listening to the teacher, but these conferences allow the parents/guardians to take the steering wheel and talk about their pride and joy. The teacher truly gets to sit back, listen, ask questions and learn a great deal of information about each child.
