I have been a teacher for 15 years, and I still get nervous about Parent teacher Conference. I always want to make sure I have adorable student work hanging up. This year, I had students create self-portraits. Underneath, they wrote their name and something they like. Parents can guess which one is their child and lift it up to see if they are right. Be sure to check out my IG @myfabulousclass to see a photo of this. I want my classroom to be clean and organized. And….most importantly…I want to be prepared and know what to say about every child. I want to make sure I am focusing on the their strengths, but provide areas to grow. All students have areas to grow, even if they are in the 98%. Trust me. I also want parents to know I have a plan for the rest of the year to support their child.
I created this simple, free form to use. Honestly, it took me less then 30 minutes to fill out 22 of these. Now, I know exactly what I want to say to parent. Even though the boxes are the same size, I did 3 glows and 1 grow…Yes, even for the students who need 5 grows! I picked the one I was most concerned about. For Next Steps, I wrote a few words for how I would continue to help them glow and grow. You can get this FREE here.
Are you unsure of what to say? I covered. I have one sheet of areas to glow and one sheet for grow. You can also use these statements for report card comments. I worked hard to include Glows for your most challenging students. I also did my bets to make the Grows positive. No parent wants to leave a conference thinking their child is horrible. I think it is important to be honest and let parents know that their child is struggling, but we also have to let the parents know we see all the positive strengths in their child as well.
Now that you know what to say, it is time to get organized. I like to use Sign Up Genius. I create a form with a few extra slots on it. I send it out via remind. Then it becomes a first come, first serve sign up. Honestly, I rarely have parents ask for different times. Then, I like to write down all of the times on the sheet above. I can then use that information to quickly fill out the reminder sheets.
Sign Up Genius will email parents reminders, but I always send out a hand written one the week before. That way parents can put it on their fridge or on their home calendar. Technology is great, but it is nice to have something in your hands, too.
I hope this helps you get prepared for you Parent Teacher Conferences. Be sure to get your FREE Printables here.
