Preparing for Parent Teacher Conferences

My daughters had their first round of Parent Teacher Conferences this past week and I was traveling on business. It was strange for me not to be the one preparing for the meetings, but I knew my husband could handle it. Here are some tips that I gave him to get ready for the conference.

1) This sounds basic, but know the teacher and what classes your child takes. Understand if they rotate to art, music, PE, etc. so that you can be sure to ask if there is anything you need to know about those areas in addition to regular class.

2) Look over any documents that have come home in the previous weeks very carefully. Look for any indication of what the teacher has planned for the conference and what the “rules” are. For example, we are not supposed to bring our kids with us.

3) Review the grades so far for the semester. See if there is any subject in particular that you need to talk to the teacher about or if there are any particular types of work that your child does not do well on. For example, do they seem to do worse on tests although their homework is fine?

4) Make a list of questions in advance so that you don’t forget when you get there. Conferences are generally very short and to the point. There isn’t a lot of time for chatter for you to think about questions. If you have them written down, it will ensure you do not forget anything important.

5) Be sure to ask if there is anything that you can be doing to help whether it is in the classroom or at home. Does the teacher need more volunteers? Should you be encouraging your child to read more on the weekends? What role are YOU playing in your child’s education.

Although I wasn’t at my daughter’s conference, I was able to listen in through the speaker on my husband’s cell phone. It wasn’t perfect but having given him the tips above, I felt good about the results.

My Coke Rewards Donations to Schools

As the co-president of my school’s PTO, I am always looking for new ways that we can raise money without having parents constantly pulling out their wallets. We call it “Painless Ways.” With our school getting less and less tax money, we are trying to be creative to ensure that our teachers still get what they need and our students have the resources they can use. Some of the things that we do include collecting Box Tops, recycling, and “trash for cash” (things like used printer cartridges).

Just this morning I learned that we could get our parents to donate My Coke Rewards points to the school and turn those points into things like balls for the playground and art supplies. I’ve never been one to collect the points because we just don’t drink enough pop in our house to save up. But imagine if everyone in our school was collecting the points and donating them in a huge chunk together?

I called up my PTO co-president and before I could even explain the whole program, she was excited. We went to the website and registered our school. A letter will be sent to our principal in the next 15 days confirming that the school wants to enroll. After that, we will add the link to My Coke Rewards from our PTO website and start publicizing it in our newsletter.

If you volunteer in a school, I really encourage to get creative in finding ways to raise money for your school. It’s not all about selling gift wrap door to door anymore. Engage your school community in fun and easy ways–taking advantage of corporate programs like My Coke Rewards whenever possible. I’m excited to get this up and running for Harrison Parkway Elementary!