Conferences
Last night I spent 3.5 hours after school in my room for parent teacher conferences, and it was a record breaking night. I only had two conferences last night, a new low record for me. Usually the spring parent teacher conferences are slower, but I have never had a single digit number before, let alone two.
I understand that people are busy and it is quite possible that many parents just had other stuff going on and were not able to stop in. Previous engagements or work related issue are completely understandable.
At 7:45 as I was leaving the school, I was shocked when I got to my truck. The parking lot was overfilling and more cars were still ariving by the minute. I checked my watch quick to see if maybe I left early and this was the late rush. Nope, conferences had been over for 15 minutes. So what was the deal?
I put my laptop in the truck and went to see where the stream of community members (parents included) were going. It turns out some were at the baseball game which was located on the school grounds, but a vast majority were heading to a community concert that started at 8:00.
So what did I learn from this (because learning never stops)? Sports and entertainment can be more important that a child’s success, and that just depresses me. I have seen time and time again that when parent(s) are active in their child’s education, that child tends to be more successful.
As I was driving home last night, I kept trying to think of ways to get parents to be more involved with their child’s success. Random ideas ranging from required conferences, to rewards for students/parents, to home visits ran through my head. Each of these ideas had good points and negative points, as I never really came to any realistic solutions.
Does anybody out there have any ideas or theories that they have tried and had success with? I would love some input if anybody is willing to share.
Thanks in advance!
Have a great weekend.
