Twelve Tips To Connect With Teachers At Conference Time

Twelve Tips To Connect With Teachers At Conference Time

Parent-teacher conferences are coming. Excited? Confused? It takes teamwork to raise kids. Connecting with teachers can help bring out the best in your kids. Here are twelve tips to make conference time a productive, team building experience.
1. Talk with your child before conferences. “What would be most helpful for me to know before meeting your teacher?” 2. Identify feelings and needs. Look at the situation with empathy for everyone’s needs, (your child’s, the teacher’s, and your own.) Rather than creating tension for the teacher and waiting parents, set up a follow-up phone call or meeting.
4. Solve problems by focusing on solutions. If you’re dealing with an ongoing problem, follow these steps: a. Listen to the teachers concerns. If possible, include your child in the problem solving session. It’s easier for a teacher to be helpful, when you are specific about your child’s needs. Suppose you are angry over a teacher’s actions.
Instead of attacking the teacher, attack the problem. At conferences I described the problem without attacking the teacher. I was relieved to see how eager his teacher was to be helpful. Conferences can be frantic, especially in the higher grades when you meet with multiple teachers. Jot down teacher contact information, and any suggestions.

I waited in line to talk with my son’s high school math teacher who said, “You son is a stellar student. Next, I met the science teacher. You’ll suck the teacher down with you and your child will suffer.
Give the teacher insights into your child’s passions or interests. Instead of expecting perfection, point your child in a positive direction, by focusing on what’s going right. Encourage your child’s teacher to do the same.
10. Teachers are people. Rather than criticizing one teacher for being less spontaneous or more reserved, than another, consider the value your child gains from learning to interact with each teacher’s unique qualities. Clarity relieves confusion.


Teaching Children the Lessons of a Lifetime

I've been teaching martial arts to children for a decade and a half and I've discovered something amazing about children - they want to learn what is expected of them. Unfortunately, I've also discovered that many of the parents who bring their children to our programs live by two deep-seated desires. "Is your child in school?", I ask.
To guide, provide opportunities and to give our children what they need, even if it's not what they want."
The actress Bette Davis was quoted as saying, "If you have never been hated by your child you have never been a parent." If I don't, then who will? We, as parents and teachers are teaching your children regardless of whether we open our mouths and say the words in the lesson or not.
If we're to teach our children to do what's important, not just what feels good...
...if we're to teach them to not be quitters in the game of life...
How else can we possibly teach, and have our children practice, things like commitment if we never provide the opportunities for them to commit or allow them to quit because something's not fun? After a decade and a half of watching and helping parents to help their children, I don't know if he's right but I do know that, the parents who are most committed to their child's development, regardless of the daily whims of the child - this entity who is changing so rapidly that they don't want the same things from moment-to-moment, let alone from year-to-year - usually have much more successful adults to be proud of when their children grow up.