The Auroran Today - charley- conferences

According to the letter sent home on behalf of Mr. Terry Hogenson, “We would like to invite all of our families to participate in our conferences. While we realize that many of you are in consistent contact with our teachers, it’s always good to have a moment where we solely focus on communication with our families about their child’s progress.”

Many of us can remember back to elementary school, and having parent teacher conferences. But, as we get older and more independent, are parent-teacher conferences even necessary?

Many students admit that both them and their parents do not even attend these conferences offered at the secondary level.

“To be honest, I don’t think either of my parents have been to parent-teacher conferences since like the 5th grade,” said Madyson Leza, 11.

Mady says that she is a student in good standing, she isn’t a troublemaker or disruption, both her parents have extremely busy schedules, so she doesn’t see why they need to attend.

“Why would I go? I have good grades, I don’t really find them necessary for me. If I was causing issues or a teacher was concerned, I think the school would contact my parents if it was that serious,” said Aristina Stabler, 11.

Like Aristina, many also think if there was a true issue the students' parents/guardians would know. If parent-teacher conferences were the only time families and teachers communicated, things would be run a lot differently. Why waste the time if you know your child is doing fine?

However some students dread them.

“I hate conferences, it gives me a tremendous amount of anxiety. Although I don’t cause issues, I still fear my parents being disappointed by my work.” said an Anonymous Freshman.

This is a common feeling that many students have.

“Although my mom is very understanding, I don’t want my teachers to say something about me. When I was in elementary school almost all my teachers always complained that I would talk way too much,” continued the Freshman.

Students aren’t the only ones who have to worry about conferences, there is also a lot of pressure on teachers.

“Many of my coworkers find that conferences can be stressful during conference week, having to prepare every student's reports and grades,” said Mr. Gerhert, ALC.

However, Mr. Gerhert doesn’t particularly dislike conferences either.

“My conferences look a bit different than other teachers,” he said.

Mr. Gerhert is one of our ALC teachers who helps with kids that are “At-Risk”. He has also noticed that the number of families that come to conferences has dropped significantly over the last few years.

He says that he only gets one to three students, which surprises him.

“You would think that since I am an At-Risk teacher, that I would see many families. Wondering if their child is growing as a human, or just what the person their child sees everyday looks like,” said Mr. Gerhert.

He then says that he is slightly grateful for it. His wife, a teacher at a middle school in Davenport, often has to cut parents off because there is a line out the door.

At MHS in his experience, parents do not attend like at his wife’s school and this could be a variety of reasons, and possibly because of changing perceptions of society and educators.

“I feel parents see us teachers as a bad person, wondering what their child is being taught, how we are influencing their child. But when conferences come, it’s crickets,” he said.

Schools could get creative in order to get more families through the door.

“I've been a teacher for a while. I truly feel though we must push our conference schedules very advanced, maybe an incentive, like a small meal. It can be hard having so many different schedules, we just have to express how important it is to the families,” Mr. Gerhert said.

Parent Teacher Conference Times:

Monday, February 13, Drop-in Conferences- 4:00 – 6:00 PM, Virtual- 6:00-7:30 PM

Wednesday, February 15, Drop-in Conferences- 4:00 – 7:30 PM, Virtual: 6:00- 7:30

Thursday, February 16, Drop-in Conferences- 4:00 – 7:30 PM, Virtual: 6:00- 7:30 PM