What is the Importance of Parents-Teacher Meetings and How to Improve It?

Parent and teacher engagement is not beneficial only for the kids but for parents and teachers themselves. Knowledge of a kid’s family life can also help teachers in preparing lessons that better fit with children’s needs or interact more efficiently with families and since students receive more support from their parents they perform better in school. Everyone wins when parents and teachers team up. Parent engagement also helps in decreasing chronic absenteeism or missing school more than twenty days a year. For example, when teachers visit students’ homes to engage with parents the students’ absences drop by 20%. Students whose parents engage with teachers report fewer days of school missed overall. Especially, the preschools need to make this a habit.

There are several ways to enhance engagement. Below listed are some of them

Make sure parents and teachers both feel listened to

Teachers must take the lead and be flexible and approachable to parents. They should sit down with the parents and have a serious and productive conversation with them. Teachers should be willing to listen to the parents too. No technology can replace this traditional face-to-face parent-teacher talk. This should be focused on the children and their behavior at home and at school should be exchanged with each other. This helps both teachers and parents to understand the missing factor in the child’s growth. It is the school’s responsibility to organize this parents-teachers meeting.

Teachers should send Postcards to Students Home

When the students achieve something good in school or do a good piece of work, teachers can send a stamped postcard to the kid’s home. This old-fashioned touch will keep reminding them of their good work and parents will also get to know about their kids’ accomplishments. The students will try to keep doing good work to receive more and more postcards. Preschools are known for such smart activities.

Parents and Teachers should exchange feedbacks

Parents often give feedback and helpful ideas to the teachers about their children’s behavior at home and they want the teachers to take care of their behavioral issues but many times the teachers listen to them but do not close the feedback loop and nor take their ideas on board. They should act upon their feedback and ideas and respond to them positively. This way both teachers and parents can together take care of children’s behavior at home and school.

Teachers should guide Parents to assist kids in their homework

Most parents are keen to assist their kids in doing homework but do not understand the techniques to get the homework done. Teachers can help the parents with guidelines to help the kids with their homework. When the parents would know what has to be done by the kids, they can make the kids do the same. Teachers can describe the homework clearly in the kid’s diaries or broadcast it as text messages to the parents directly. With modern technology, schools send emails and messages to the parents.

Use Social media to engage 

This way, without individually conversing with anybody, teachers and parents can communicate at once. Teachers can keep an eye on their student’s activities on social media and engage with parents as well.

Invite Parents to Speak at School

School Management often invites distinguished personalities at schools to speak in the assembly to motivate the kids. Why can’t they invite parents to speak for the kids? There must be so many parents who might be doing very well in their respective fields. Teachers can ask them to volunteer and address the kids and management as well. Every parent has some story to share and teachers should encourage them to tell it to the school. This increases parents’ engagement in school and also motivates the kids. A decent preschool always organizes such activities.

Don’t Hesitate to Ask for Help

The teachers have to educate the student but it is the parents’ responsibility to raise the child. Both are interdependent and need each other’s help. So, teachers and parents should not refrain from asking for help from each other. It is a mutual process and hence both should come together to let the children blossom fully.