A question for teachers

fauxshelley

My DD's teacher (4th grade) sent home a note to schedule a parent teacher conference.  I chose a date and she was supposed to get back with me about the time.  I never heard back from her.  The date came and went, and really I forgot about it.  When I ran into her recently, she asked if we could reschedule the P/T conference and I said I would get back to her. 

My question is this, is every teacher supposed to schedule a conference with the parent, no matter how the child is doing in school?  Pumpkin makes straight A's and never gets in trouble, even at home.  I can't imagine what the teacher wants to talk to me about.  I can't afford to take time off work to meet with her to just shoot the crap.  My office harasses me when I have to leave for a dr appt, so I'm sure they would be calling the entire time.  In other words, if it's just to meet the teacher's quota, I'm not taking off work.  If it's important to my DD's education, I'll be there.

DandelionMom

Ask if you can have a phone conference.  She may want to talk to you about advanced placement opportunities or it might just be because she needs to check off a box on the report card.  I doubt it is to satisfy a quota if she's followed up with you about it. 

neverblushed

As a teacher, my school has scheduled conferences in December, to discuss the first grading period's report cards.

If I need to discuss something with a parent at any other time, I'll usually just send the parent an email.  I would not request a face to face conference or a phone conference with a parent without giving some indication of what I wanted to talk about. It's incredibly disorganized of the teacher to ask you to pick a date, then never get back to you with a time!

Your daughter's teacher's request to meet could be stemming from many different things.  Maybe she thinks DD is doing so well that she wants to talk about enrichment or g/t classes?  Maybe she wants to recommend DD as a safety patrol next year?  Maybe the school is pushing the teachers to be mindful that it's important for teachers to communicate good news to the parents as well as bad news?  (Having sat through a few pre-service meetings in my career about this topic, I'm betting on this.)

Anyway, if I were you, I'd just ask the teacher if it's something you could possibly discuss via phone instead of face to face and explain your work situation.  The teacher will probably accommodate.

stephsteph77

I'm guessing it depends on the district.  In my district we have the last week of October for conferences.  The students are dismissed at 12:45 instead of 3:30 every day that week, and we are expected to meet with every parent in the class.  If a parent does not show up, we have to attempt to reschedule, and if that doesn't work we do a phone conference.  It doesn not matter if the student is failing or excelling, we have to meet.  Every teacher has to turn in a form to the main district office documenting how many conference we had, how many parent no-shows, how many phone conferences, etc.

At the conference we discuss how the student has been doing, any social issues, upcoming projects, and "The Big State Test"  that is oh so important in 4th grade here in WA.

GinandTonic

I can't imagine blowing off a chance to talk to my kids' teachers face to face, be it good news or bad...

fauxshelley

There is a difference between blowing off a teacher and being a single parent who has to work, trying to avoid drama with the boss if I can help it.     

warriormomerin

I would explain to the teacher that you're a single parent with a limited schedule and I'm sure she will accommodate you either with a phone conference or a different time. I've had to do it both as a teacher and a single parent myself.

CubbyMama

stephsteph77:

I'm guessing it depends on the district.  In my district we have the last week of October for conferences.  The students are dismissed at 12:45 instead of 3:30 every day that week, and we are expected to meet with every parent in the class.  If a parent does not show up, we have to attempt to reschedule, and if that doesn't work we do a phone conference.  It doesn not matter if the student is failing or excelling, we have to meet.  Every teacher has to turn in a form to the main district office documenting how many conference we had, how many parent no-shows, how many phone conferences, etc.

At the conference we discuss how the student has been doing, any social issues, upcoming projects, and "The Big State Test"  that is oh so important in 4th grade here in WA.

Ditto pretty much all of this.  I think it's pretty standard for all teachers (in elementary, at least) to meet with all kids' parents when the first report card comes out.

st1025

I happen to know that in your area the teachers  had to schedule a conference with every parent, and show evidence of it by a certain date. That may be why;)

KaraJ26

I'm an elementary teacher, and we are required to contact every parent to schedule a conference.  If parents can't make the time, we are supposed to find an alternate time (hence why I have been going into school at 7am and staying late all week on non-official conference days to accommodate parents' schedules.)  I also have done phone conferences before to communicate the news good or bad.  The teacher probably does have to meet a quota of some sort or turn in a sign in sheet of which parents attended, but she probably has prepared a bunch of work samples, etc. to discuss with you.  If you can't do an in-person conference, ask her for one over the phone.