How To Prepare For A Meeting With Your Child’s Teacher
Being called to a meeting with your child’s teacher can cause nervousness or a feeling of uncertainty. However, it’s important for you to know that you both share the same goal. The teacher’s mission is not to judge or criticize you, on the contrary.
If there is a situation that is distressing for parents, it is being called to a meeting at school. When that happens, the first thing we ask ourselves is what we did wrong so that our child got poor grades or, worse, misbehaved.
However, this should not be the case. The teacher’s or tutor’s mission is to collaborate with the child’s development. In your case, being firm in the learning process. The fact of being called into a conversation is not always linked to negative things, it could be the other way around.
When everything is going well with children at school, it is the ideal time to encourage them to take on new challenges or enhance their skills. So, don’t be afraid and don’t imagine the worst.
Why Teacher Meetings Are Important
It is indisputable that the function of the school is to teach, since education itself
begins
at home. However, there is a point where these two institutions necessarily connect.
At some point in learning, it will be extremely positive that those most responsible for the child’s moral and intellectual formation become allies in coordinating efforts and comparing results . Each of them will analyze the child in different contexts. This will make it possible to observe their adaptation and their response in different environments.
In this way, it will be possible to detect in time possible signs of learning problems, behavioral problems, symptoms that indicate a future probability of failure or school dropout or many other problems.
Therefore, the more people keep an eye on the child in order to guide him through this process, the better the results will be obtained.
Most frequent topics in meetings with the teacher
In general, this type of meeting addresses the following topics:
- Child behavior.
- Notes: can be
casualties
or, on the contrary, stand out.
- Behavior different from usual, considering the child’s personality or age.
- Relationship with classmates.
- Family environment: in this case, the time devoted to homework and home study can be analyzed, and practices to favor the performance of activities can be detailed
extracurriculars
.
- Attitude and motivation that demonstrates at class time and respect for colleagues and school authorities.
Advice for a meeting with your child’s teacher
While it’s not recommended to worry in advance without knowing what’s going on, it’s also not good to “go and see what’s going on”. You can discuss with your spouse in advance what the problem may have been, what topic you need support from a professional, or how to help nurture certain abilities in your child.
Furthermore, it is essential that you abandon the defensive attitude from the beginning. Remember that the purpose of the teacher meeting is not to accuse you of being a bad parent or not being dedicated to your child. In this sense, if there is any recommendation about a possible correction in your relationship with the child, take into account that the objective is to improve their learning process.
And, if you have an idea of what might be going on, it would be advisable for you to speak (by phone or by email) with the teacher before the meeting so that you can gather the necessary information. In this way, you will also be able to offer thoughtful and customized solutions.
Some Advisable Questions
As we mentioned before, you can take some notes with the topics that you would like to receive an orientation from the teacher. Let’s introduce three common questions that often arise in a meeting with your child’s teacher:
1. Do you think the child reflects the transmission of
values
do we try to teach at home?
2. What behaviors, attitudes, or capabilities do you suggest I improve or strengthen?
3. Is my child’s income as expected or is there a need to help?
In turn, the teacher may have prepared suggestions on how to approach the process of
formation
of your child that will be of great use. 
How often should these meetings be held?
The amount of time between a meeting with your child’s teacher will be determined by many factors. Some of them may be the type of educational institution your child is enrolled in, the teaching model proposed by the principals, the teacher’s personality and commitment, and, not least, the child’s performance and behavior.
Generally, there are two meetings: one at the beginning of the school year, which can be used to set priorities and objectives, and another at the end, to assess the results. This does not stop there being others throughout the year.
In short, we can highlight that this interaction will only leave one main beneficiary, which will be the child. THE
alliance
between parents and teachers is essential for everything to be simpler in the education journey.
