Parent Teacher Conference

My host teacher is extremely organized and actually created a binder for ALL of her 27 students
which were color-coordinated by subject! This was PTC on steroids!
The students had been compiling their work over the last several weeks: in math, by chapter; in
LA by writing assignments; in literature, by the books that they are reading and the reports that
they had created.
The first page in the binder is a Table of Contents the breaks the binder down into sections:
Math (yellow), Spelling (green), Reading (blue), Writing (purple), and Assessment (orange). The
table of contents was followed by an Annual Student Report that displayed all test scores in
reading, math, language, and writing and included both MAPS as well as AIMESWEB Fall test
scores. This report will be added to each subsequent PTC as a means of tracking student
progress.
The next section (in yellow) was math scores of the three chapters that students had covered
over the last nine weeks. This section included an overview of student scores and showed
student work in all sections. This was followed by spelling (in green) that again showed an
overview of scores, then broke the scores down by week and spelling list. Mrs. Beck allows
students to create their own spelling lists based on the books that they are reading. If she
notices that students’ lists are not challenging enough, or too challenging, then she’ll step in
and provide a list to them. Of 27 students, she provides the list to maybe one or two! The next
section (in blue) is student reading and shows their individual reading lists and their reading
reports. Many of her assessments for reading are in art form – students create a ‘picture’ book
report if you will, that highlights the theme, author’s intent, setting, etc. Student writing (in
purple), is complete with self and peer-edited samples and concludes with the finished product
– a narrative essay for this quarter. Attached to the final product is Mrs. Beck’s assessment of
the essay that includes organization and content, language structure and style, and language
conventions. Each section, math, spelling, reading, and writing have an orange section that
includes all of the assessments for that subject over the course of the last nine weeks.
I have seen Mrs. Beck work for weeks at compiling this thorough piece of work. As a parent, I
have never seen such organization or forethought go into a PTC binder!
At the PTC itself, Mrs. Beck started out with an ‘all business’ attitude. She welcomed each
parent in, introduced herself if they haven’t met, and the directs them to take a seat. She sets a
timer on the Smartboard for 20 minutes and starts her conference. At this point, she took out
her ‘magical’ binder and started going over test scores, how the student was doing in each
subject and she backs each statement up with student work examples that she gives to the
parents to look over as she talks. She explains her grading system with a 4 being above grade
level and a 3 being at grade level but does not indicate what a 2 or a 1 is, and this particular
student had several 2’s. The parents don’t ask for clarification, so it’s difficult to determine if
they caught this or not. In this particular conference, it seemed like Mrs. Beck was a bit
nervous, maybe because she has not had the opportunity to speak with them very much over
the course of the quarter. She communicates her points very well, though I see that she does
not pause or encourage parent participation very much. As a stole a quick peek, the mom was
sitting at the edge of her seat, hanging onto Mrs. Becks’ every word, whereas the father was
relaxed in the back of his chair, with a bit of a distant look on his face. His body language was
difficult to read as he might be a shy person who projects that air of being distanced when
really, he’s only uncomfortable. She discussed with the parents their child’s lack of confidence
and poor attitude during certain lessons, namely math. This elicits a chuckle from the dad, and
he agrees that it would be math. At this point, Mrs. Beck really opens up and adopts a more
social way of speaking, as though they are long-lost friends. She talks about how their child
LOVES to read, and if not dealing with math, she is a positive thoughtful child that will often
draw pictures for Mrs. Beck and leave inspirational notes on her desk. She worries that her
attitude is affecting the way that she learns, at which point she asks the parents for help. Do
they have any suggestions on what they are doing at home that might work better than what
she’s doing at school? They don’t, and she emphasizes that they’re in this together and her
goal is to help their child succeed, but the fact is they have to work together so that what Mrs.
Beck is doing at school is reinforced at home, and vice versa. They all agree and Mrs. Beck
encourages them the communicate with her via her Bloomz app.
I believe that this PTC incorporated many of the PTA’s national standards for family-school
partnerships. Mrs. Beck was welcoming to this family (Standard 1). Her classroom has a very
‘homey’ feel to it with many lamps and light strings that provide soft lighting, versus the harsh
glare of fluorescent bulbs. She smiles and shakes their hands as they enter.
She communicated very effectively (Standard 2) and supported her statements with student
data and work. Taylor and Nolan note that not only is it important to show where a student is
academically, but also show where we are going throughout the school year (Taylor & Nolan,
2008). Mrs. Beck did an excellent job showing these parents where their child was at this point
but did not indicate what future goals were, except for briefly describing what was coming up in
the next math chapter.
Mrs. Beck showed that she is dedicated to the student’s success and is willing to go above and
beyond to help this student (Standard 3). She was very positive about this student’s overall
demeanor but did interject that we have work to do as far as attitude, but that she was willing
to do whatever needed to be done to see progress there as well.
She might have been a bit weak in Standard 5, sharing power, as a majority of this conference
was Mrs. Beck speaking, but this improved as she relaxed and was able to relate more to these
parents. Another thing to consider is that time is of the essence. She had only twenty minutes
to share A LOT of information, and this might account for the lack of two-way communication.
Again, because there wasn’t much back and forth in conversation, many of the seven key
questions were not addressed (PTA National Standards for Family Involvement) . Mrs. Beck did note
that she had asked what this student wanted to be when she grew up, and she responded that
she wanted to be a first-grade teacher so that she wouldn’t have to deal with hard math, which
both parents found quite amusing. Mrs. Beck did not ask about this student’s history and
whether this negative mindset had been an ongoing issue and whether or not her other
teachers might have developed strategies for helping her to overcome this.
Taylor and Nolan note that communication is key before, during, and after Parent Teacher
Conferences. Mrs. Beck has implemented an app called Bloomz in her parent communication.
Here she is able to post reminders, inform parents about behavioral problems, and encourage
students’ participation through a rewards system. In fact, during our conference, one of the
parents noted that her child’s ‘red flags’ seemed to happen during math. At first Mrs. Beck did
not know what she was talking about, and the parent clarified, in Bloomz, to which Mrs. Beck
noted, the red flags were ‘only in math’! This indicated that these parents were keeping track
of their student, even if they were not communicating about it with Mrs. Beck. Over the course
of the year, Mrs. Beck also creates four opportunities for parents to interact with their students
besides the PTC’s. She plans four ‘exhibits’ of student work where parents are encouraged to
come and spend an hour with their child going over a quarter-based project that they
completed. Most take advantage, some do not, or more likely cannot, do to work obligations.
I think that Mrs. Beck held an excellent conference. It was informative, personable, and she
eventually was able to find common ground with these parents. I really liked her method of
organization and will employ something similar in my classroom. If there were any weaknesses
it was in encouraging more parental involvement and explicitly explaining future goals (Taylor &
Nolan, 2008). I think that my weakness will be (as in many of my lessons) time management. I
believe it will be so difficult to discuss all of the talking points that I would like to cover in
twenty minutes, which makes communication OUTSIDE of PTC’s all the more vital. I plan to
communicate with my students’ parents as often as I can with phone calls, a classroom app,
and via email. From a parent’s perspective, the only time I hear from my children’s teachers is
when there is a problem and getting a hold of them is difficult and not efficient at all. Having
three children in the school system and seeing from a parent’s point of view what does and
does not work during these sessions, helps provide me with the added perspective of what’s
going on on the other side of that table during PTC’s. Overall, I thought Mrs. Beck’s conference
was effective and respectful of everyone’s time!
 References
National Standards – National PTA. (n.d.). PTA’s National Standards for Family-School Partnerships.
Retrieved from https://www.pta.org/docs/default-source/files/programs/national-standards-
for-family-school-partnerships/national_standards.pdf

PTA National Standards for Family Involvement. (n.d.). Conducting Positive, Effective, and Collaborative
Family-Teacher Conferences. Retrieved from http://family-teacherconferencetips.weebly.com/-
how-to-approach-a-familyndashteacher-conference.html

Taylor, C.S., Nolan, S.B. (2006). Classroom Assessment supporting teaching and learning in real
classrooms. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.