It's Simply Elementary

Organize · Simplify · Teach

Parent Teacher Conferences

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parent teacher conferences, conference forms, conferences, conference reminders, conference freebie
Parent teacher conferences can be overwhelming and stressful, but they can also be organized and rewarding if you are prepared!
Fall can be SUCH a crazy time of year.  Between report cards, Halloween, conferences, ETC, it reminds me of the CRAZY that the beginning of the year is!
With that being said, I know you don’t have much free time to spend reading this post, but I promise you this, I’ll keep it short and to the point and give you THREE QUICK IDEAS {a freebie, too!!} to help your parent teacher conferences run as smoothly as possible!
ONE: SEND REMINDERS!
-click the image below to snag the these are from!-
As I mentioned, this time of year is CRAZY TOWN.  It’s not only crazy for us as teachers, but it’s busy for our students’ parents, too.  Again, props to those of you that hold the DUAL job of teacher AND parent. #myhero #nocluehowyoudoit
SOOOO with that being said, do yourself AND your students’ parents a favor and get yourselves mentally prepared, set, and organized for conferences with a CONFERENCE REMINDER!  Above, you can see a simple, QUICK reminder that I send out in the weeks before conferences.  Sending out reminders helps me get into the mind frame of preparing for conferences (ours are spread across three different nights over two weeks of school),  and we know the parents appreciate the heads up of the reminder, too!   If you’re interested in these reminders, they are a part of my Editable Parent Teacher Conference forms pack.
TWO: PREPARE AN AGENDA!
I literally used to jot down on a sticky note a SUPER simple list of what I wanted to talk about for each student during the short 15 minute conference that I had lined up with each parent.  It included something like: recent math test, recent reading scores, fact fluency, writing samples, report cards, and overall comments.  Then, using the kiddos’ portfolios, I would walk through each of those bullets for each student.  Truly, that worked for a while.  But what I do now works even better!
As you see in the images above and below, I basically create an agenda to chat about in the form of a cover sheet for each student with highlights/grades/scores/comments/ETC.  I say that it’s a cover sheet, because then, behind each student’s cover sheet, I have work samples, grade cards, writing samples, test scores, etc to show that coordinate or explain more about the notes, scores, and comments on the cover sheet.

 

These take time to complete, yes, BUT once they’re done, I put them in the order of my conferences, add the kiddos’ work samples behind each, and my single stack of cover sheets and work samples is organized and at my finger tips to keep the conversation on topic, on track, and moving {15 minutes go SO fast!}!
 I love running my conferences this way because it keeps the conversation focused on the bullets on the coversheet and by the end of each conference, when I say “do you have any questions?”, the parents always say, “NOPE, YOU COVERED IT ALL!” WIN WIN!!
If you’re interested in these cover sheets and editing a set to meet your needs for your own parent teacher conferences, you can snag these sheets in my Editable Parent Teacher Conference forms pack.

 

 
THREE: COMPLIMENT GALORE!
 

We’ve all heard the reminders of sandwiching our conference meat and potatoes between two compliments, but I decided to take that one step further this year!  The kids are SO motivated to earn their brag tags in our classroom for doing neat work, for getting started right away, for helping a friend, etc, and they have changed my classroom management completely!  I just KNEW I wanted to tie in my brag tags to conferences this year! SOOOOOO the “conference compliment” was born!

I made a BRAG TAG FREEBIE that you can snag in my store or by clicking HERE.  I added a specific compliment for each kiddo on the back of each brag tag, I will be talking about those specific compliments with the parents at conferences, and then I will be asking the parents to add those brag tags to the kiddos’ brag tag chains.  I’ve told the kids that they will have a SECRET, special delivery of a brag tag coming soon, and they are SO eager to find out what it is!!   I can’t wait for them to be delivered by their own parents!

 

Even if you don’t use brag tags in your classrooms, you could still give out these little “tags” as a compliment as a mini reward/award at conferences.  I think the parents and students both will LOVE them!  Snag them for free {HERE}.
 I hope these ideas help yours to run as smoothly as possible this year!!
If you want to remember any of these resources or ideas for later, feel free to pin the image below!
parent teacher conferences, conference forms, conference freebie, freebie


Comments

  1. 1

    Danielle Allison says

    I LOVE the idea of the compliment brag tag! What a fun and special way for the parents to be involved in the kids' brag tags!!! I'm sure the kids will love it! It also shows your parents how much you endeavor to support and encourage each student in a specific way!!! Awesome idea, Ashley!!!

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