Observations at parent/teacher meeting

In our last district they tried three different ways at the Middle School. The first time the core teachers were in a classroom and parents waited outside. The meeting was with 4 teachers at once. This was my favorite way but was probably most time consuming.

The second time, the four core teachers were in a large classroom, but you met with each separately and had to wait in line for each of them.

The third time it was all the teachers in the Gym and you queued up at their table. We were taking to DS's teacher at one end of the table and could see the kid at the other end of the table crying as he was getting chewed out by his dad for something. I thought it was a horrible way to do the conferences.

Here, after Elementary school they don't hold formal conferences and just make a time you can schedule a meeting if you want to. They do meet the parent night but we found that to be almost useless as there was about 10 minutes in each class with 20 parents trying to meet the teacher, no good information was shared.

I understand the logistics can be difficult and it is very time consuming but I wish they could come up with a better way.

Personally, I would not like your conference format, food, pets, etc. In my experience at every grade level (preschool - 6th so far), conferences are private 20 minute meetings scheduled on a designated day with the individual teacher (preschool, K-3 gr) or teaching teams (once students change classes at grades 4+) in the classroom. Parents wait for the teacher(s) in a lobby, not the hallway to maximize privacy.


Although no idea why pets or food were welcome, barefoot parents may have been asked to remove their shoes in consideration of the gym floors.

Congratulations to your daughter on her academic success this year!

Maybe she asked the question BEFORE making any assumptions? Overly sensitive?