Juana Martinez

Parent/teacher Conference Reflection

I attended student/teacher conferences on Thursday from 10am to 11am. Unfortunately,

only one parent attended within this time frame. It was really nice to see how much effort the

school and faculty put into the process. The cafeteria was cleared and tables were set up in a way

that made it easy for parents to go to each department. Tables were set around the perimeter of

the cafeteria and grouped by department. Teachers sat around the outside of the tables and

students and parents along the inside. Although I really enjoyed the convenience of the physical

setup, I think the duration of the process was unnecessary for the amount of parents that

attended. I was a little surprised about the turn out. The art department only had a total of 6

parents attend between the two days. Of course, parent attendance is a factor that is out of the

schools control.

The specific conference I observed was in regards to an AVID student. The AVID teacher

did not use a script to direct the meeting and just let it unfold naturally and I think that worked

very well. She began with discussing his progress in the class. A couple things that were

mentioned were the students organization and communication skills. The AVID instructor

suggested the student use their planner more regularly to help with being more organized. They

also mentioned being more consistent with emails. I was surprised to see how involved the

parents were. He did a great job reassuring the instructor about things like discipline and

reaching out. For example, confiscating the students phone and not hesitating to contact them

immediately if any behavior issues arise. Although I would have loved to observe more

parent/teacher meetings, this experience was very insightful.