Effective Parent-Teacher Meetings

What you will learn

• Identify skills and behaviors that will enhance the parent/teacher meeting dynamic.
• Recognize techniques that can be used pre-meeting, during and post-meeting to reinforce a positive experience for both the parent and teacher.
• Evaluate methods to maintain a positive tone in the meeting as well as address difficult conversations.
• Identify follow up actions that can encourage ongoing communication.

Course outline

1. 1

   Lesson 1: Constructive Communication

   • Within parent-teacher meetings, as in life, positive communication skills can play a large role in building and maintaining good relationships. In this lesson, many of these skills will be discussed within the text and in the accompanying resources.
2. 2

   Lesson 2: Elements of a Positive Parent-Teacher Meeting

   • Now lets look at the different components of the parent-teacher meeting. What can teachers do throughout the year to make the parent-teacher meeting more productive? How should a teacher prepare and what should be covered? These questions and more will be answered in this lesson.
3. 3

   Lesson 3: Addressing Difficult Topics

   • While the parent-teacher meeting is a place to discuss all of the positives of a student's academic life, it may also be the time for teachers to discuss with parents areas for improvement or negative behaviors. This lesson includes strategies teachers can use to address these topics while managing the conversation in a productive way.
4. 4

   Lesson 4: After the Meeting: Follow Up

   • In lesson 4, proper follow up procedures will be presented that will assist in maintaining a positive and engaging relationship with the parent. Additionally, the appendices will be reviewed in again in total to provide an all encompassing view of how these resources can be used as follow up documents.