So I'm sitting in my classroom from 4-7 tonight for parent/teacher conferences. What a drag! I'm a high school teacher, so we don't get too many parents coming in to talk to us. I've been at it for 1 hour and 17 minutes and have met three parents! The worst part is...the parents that don't need to come in, do, and the ones that need to come in, don't. This is my first year teaching so I was all prepped and ready to go. My fellow teachers said I would be lucky to get 8 parents! haha They also said you'll receive less and less throughout the year! Less than 2??? Oh my!

Sorry...had to vent.

That always happens. The parents that don't have a great interest in their child's education show it, while the parents that do have a great interest also show it.

Happens at all High Schools.

enjoy your time to get a lot of shit done

I had 2 in three hours.

6 minutes left! I think I had 6 total.

nice.

Welcome to being a high school teacher!

I'm in my last year of attending parent/teacher conferences (my youngest child of four is a senior).

We always attend the PT conferences after the 1st grading period to meet the teachers and to see if they have any suggestions to help our children. Generally, they all say the same thing - they are doing fine. It's funny because we have Edline & we keep track of how our children are doing & we are usually the ones who bring up issues ... not the teacher.

My only suggestion to you as a teacher is if you do have a student who is struggling - try calling or e-mailing the parents. If they did not come in for parent/teacher conferences, then at least you have gone one step further to try to contact them.

Good luck.

I don't attend unless the grade card indicates that I should or my child is showing me papers that indicate there is a problem. when my child is bringing home A's and B's I feel that all is good. anything below a B and I am calling wanting to talk with the teacher to find out why.

At the middle school and the elementary I teach at i had a line of parents. At the high school I had six parents over four hours.

At least one of my parents attended every single parent/teacher conference for each of their four kids throughout all of school. I don't think any of us really needed it, but my parents made clear that it was a priority to them.

This is my first year teaching high school aswell. I had a line of about 25 parents. Of course they were the parents that i did not need to talk to.

I have been teaching for a long, long time and the parental involvement has gotten less and less. Our school sends out progress reports if a student is having problems and the grade isn't what it should be. Many of us are in E - Mail contact with parents. Parents can get into their kids grade record online any time they wish, and we still have parents who can't understand why their student is having problems when the parent teacher conferences are held. At the last conferences, which we divide over a day and a half, I had 3 total parents. That would be 3.
There were considerably more that I would have really enjoyed meeting with. They were not there. They did not call, and the only time we will see them is one or two weeks before the school year ends when they will wonder what we (meaning the teachers) can do to enable their kid to pass. Responsibility begins at home and while I have many excellent students who have the luxury of tremendous parental involvement, it is becoming more and more unusual to find concerned parents who want their children to 1) Be respponsible for their own situation and 2) only pass if they have worked for it and made the necessary effort to complete the course work required.