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Be prepared.
- Build professional rapport.
- Bring a list of questions you would like to ask your child’s teacher.
- Be prepared for the meeting by gathering information about the school and what it offers, including any policies or procedures for requesting a meeting, such as how many days in advance should parents request it and what happens if there is no response within that period? If possible, talk with other parents whose children are in your child’s class. They may be able to share tips on what works well at parent-teacher meetings as well as give you an idea of what kinds of things might come up during discussions with teachers.
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Talk about the positives first.
This should be easy, but it can be hard. When you get a chance to communicate with your child’s teacher, try not to start with complaints. Instead, start with something positive before moving on to the issues you want to discuss.
This is important because if you begin by talking about what isn’t working well at home or school, the teacher may feel defensive and become defensive themselves. As a result, they will be less likely to hear what you are saying and more likely to get defensive about things that aren’t your fault (which happens more often than people think).
The most successful parent-teacher meetings involve both parents and teachers in an open dialogue where everyone feels heard without being blamed for someone else’s problems!
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Build professional rapport.
- Build professional rapport.
- Bring a list of questions you would like to ask your child’s teacher.
- Be prepared for the meeting by gathering information about the school and what it offers, including any policies or procedures for requesting a meeting, such as how many days in advance should parents request it and what happens if there is no response within that period? If possible, talk with other parents whose children are in your child’s class. They may be able to share tips on what works well at parent-teacher meetings as well as give you an idea of what kinds of things might come up during discussions with teachers.
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Decide how to handle homework and discipline problems.
After you’ve discussed what you’re working on and how your child is doing in school, you’ve got to decide how to handle any homework problems. Your kids may have forgotten what they learned in class or have trouble with a particular subject. Or maybe they are having problems at home or getting into trouble at school. You and the teacher need to figure out a solution so that your kid can keep up with his or her classwork, which will make them feel like they’re hitting their goals and learning something new every day.
The next step is going over discipline issues—this includes everything from chewing gum during class time (a big no-no) to swearing at teachers or other students (also frowned upon). If your child has been having disciplinary problems lately, this meeting should give you an idea of how serious it can get for him or her—and if there’s anything that he/she needs help with right now that could change those behaviors for good! Finally, make sure both parties know the date of their next meeting so there’s no confusion about when they’ll see each other again!
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Have a clear goal in mind before you head into the meeting.
Having a clear goal in mind for your meeting with your child’s teacher will help you stay on topic and be more constructive. It also makes the conversation easier to navigate. You’ll have a better idea of how to act, and you can have a better strategy for asking questions.
Before the meeting even starts, decide what information you’d like from your child’s teacher or principal. This should be based on something that has happened at home that has made an impact on your child (or perhaps something about their behavior). For example, if one day after coming home from school my daughter says “I hate homework!” then I know what my goal is going into the parent-teacher meeting: I want them to understand why she feels this way so they can help her resolve her problem with homework or come up with other solutions that don’t involve hating it so much!
Keep these 5 tips in mind before your next parent-teacher meeting so that you can be best prepared to present a discussion on how to better care for your child.
- Bring examples of your child’s progress.
- Start with the positives first and then open the floor to questions or concerns.
- Build rapport with the teacher by asking questions about her career path, anything she enjoys doing in her free time, or what made her choose this profession as a career path (if she’s new). These small talk questions can help put both parties at ease before diving into more serious topics like homework and discipline problems later on in the conversation.
- Decide how to handle homework and discipline problems beforehand so you’re comfortable talking about them in front of others if necessary—and also so there aren’t any surprises when it comes time for everyone else involved in these conversations during their meetings each month! It can be helpful here too if everyone has clear expectations going into each session because then everyone knows where they stand without having to guess beforehand based only on what information might be provided beforehand (which could lead some people feeling more anxiety than necessary).
