Parent Teacher Conferences (PTCs)

Parent-Teacher Conferences (PTCs) strengthen the home-school partnership by bringing parents and teachers together to support each child’s learning and development. Teachers share insights into academic progress, growth, strengths, and areas for improvement, while parents can ask questions, share perspectives, and suggest ways the school can better support their child. These conversations help families and teachers connect classroom learning with support at home.

How do I schedule a conference?

You can schedule a meeting with your child's teachers on October 30th by the designated booking link to the teacher's calendar. This information will be shared in the school newsletter on October 17th.

Important Note: You don't need to schedule a meeting with all of your child's teachers; schedule meetings only with the ones you want to meet with.

How do we have productive and honest dialogues at our next parent-teacher conference? Below I propose goals, questions, and strategies to make the most of your conference.

Focus on Progress.

Many times, we walk into a conference curious about how many kids in our child’s class got a particular grade. Or we’re compelled to ask the teacher how other students did compared to your child. This may stem from our need to gauge where our child stands and, for competitive parents, a need to feel validated. When we do this, we place unnecessary pressure on ourselves and our children, deviating from what we really should be focusing on: progress.

Instead, we can ask:

“Is my child performing at grade level?”

“In which areas has my child shown (or not shown) progress since you’ve known him/her?”

“How do you measure progress?”

“What might be holding my child back from progressing?” (i.e. knowledge, skill, confidence, motivation, self-discipline, focus)

“What does progress look like for my child?”

These questions will help you quickly understand how your child is doing and pinpoint areas of growth, needs, and barriers. Equipped with this insight, you can work with your child to celebrate recent successes, set specific and visible goals, and direct efforts toward individual growth.

Understand Your Child’s Performance Across Domains.

Kids develop at different paces and excel differently across various domains. Howard Gardner proposes evaluating intelligence (competence) by modality, such as musical, interpersonal, visual-spatial, and bodily-kinesthetic.

In parent-teacher conferences, conversations often isolate academic performance, which is related to the verbal-linguistic and logical-mathematical domains. However, your child’s teacher may also be able to offer insights on domains such as your child’s interpersonal and intrapersonal skills.

We can ask:

“How does my child do in social situations with peers?”

“How does my student contribute to the class atmosphere?”

“In what subject does my child struggle/excel?”

“In what kinds of activities has my child performed particularly well?”

“Does my child get easily frustrated? Can you give me an example of the context?”

Understanding your child’s academic, social, emotional, and behavioral tendencies will help everyone better understand how to relate to and motivate your child. Understanding which domain(s) your child excels in will also help you to address areas of weaknesses creatively with a strength-based approach. For example, if your child is highly musical, then he/she can practice language skills through singing and songwriting. Remember: our goal is to spark and preserve the joy of learning in our children.