Parent Teacher Conference - Kelly's style

Today was parent teacher conference (ptc) day. So from 7am to 4pm, students and their parents were invited into school to meet with the teachers. There were no classes scheduled for the whole day.

I had a fairly good day. I only had one interview which was tough.

I thought I'd share my philosophy on handling ptc days with you. I get bored saying the same old stuff to parents. So I avoid making appointments with the parents of those students I don't have any concerns about. Now this does mean that I really only have interviews that start off rocky, because the students and their parents do not necessarily want to hear what I have to say... but it also means that I only had 6 appointments today!

What did I do with all my time? I got all my Year 11 projects marked ready to hand back tomorrow. Now I probably could have used my time more effectively, but I also spent some time hanging out with my colleagues in between appointments.

I had a few drop-in parents who wanted to talk to me, and they were somewhat surprised by my '(insert child's name) is doing very well, you shouldn't have any concerns. I will contact you directly if that should change.'

Okay, I'll admit, I'm not that brief! If a parent makes the effort of sitting down to speak with me, I talk to them about their child. But, not making the appointments in the first place means I can focus all of my energies on the students who need parental support to achieve.

I had some very successful conversations with parents today and I hope the 6 students that have been causing me some concern will pull themselves together.

6 out of the more than 100 I teach is pretty good odds, don't you think? You gotta love teaching abroad. International school kids are a delight to teach.