I can admit it: as a newbie teacher, I dreaded and feared parent-teacher conferences. I think much of this fear was shaped by my experience as a first-year teacher, when I hadn't planned enough for what the conference would look like, and where I had several parents extremely dissatisfied with the things I was doing as a teacher. (In their defense, it was probably warranted. In my defense, I got better.)
As my teaching career progressed, I grew to grudgingly accept parent-teacher conferences. Though they still stressed me out beforehand (probably shell-shock from that first-year experience), by the end of those few nights every fall and spring, I often felt quite good about the opportunity to connect with parents and have candid conversations about successes and shortcomings--both for me and for their children.
In the last school I served as a middle school teacher, we had traditional parent-teacher conferences in the fall, but we invited (required) students to participate in the spring. In fact, we wanted these conferences to be led by the students themselves. We collected a folder of their work throughout the few weeks leading up to the conference nights, and then gave students some class time to organized that pile of papers into some semblance of order. Students also filled out a checklist about their work habits to share with the adults in attendance the night of the conference.
As you might suspect, the results were mixed. Most of my students dreaded this night as much as I dreaded conferences as a newbie teacher. 20 minutes flipping through papers with Mom and Dad, and the teacher hovering nearby? Or even worse: parents and teacher ganging up to point out where you are falling short? What 13-year-old looks forward to that kind of experience?
