March frequently finds parents sitting nervously on benches in the school foyer, and teachers smoothing out the damage a morning with children has done to their carefully selected outfits. Conferences can bring anxiety to everyone involved, yet it doesn’t need to be that way. A teamwork mindset dispels the feelings adults may have of being pitted against one another with the child stuck in the middle.
Everyone wants the child to be successful! Parents want their children to excel in school, knowing that education is a pathway to success in life. Teachers became educators so they could help children learn and grow. Children themselves want to please the adults in their lives, and would certainly prefer to do well rather than to fail in school. Recognizing the common goal of success for the child turns people with little in common into a team primed to find a path to meet that goal.
In teams, different team members fulfill different roles. No one expects the parent to do all the instruction, nor do they expect the teacher to remind a child to put his or her completed homework into the backpack so it can be turned in the following day. Realizing that each party need only do their best in the role assigned to them can decrease stress and reset expectations. When a problem arises, parents and teachers each play a different, yet coordinated role in finding a solution.
Just as team members have different roles, they also have different information to share with other team members. Sharing knowledge helps to clarify situations and refine the search for an ideal solution. Both parents and teachers need to feel free to share what they know respectfully and honestly so everyone can move forward armed with all the facts.
Parents and teachers shoulder different aspects of the solution to student struggles. Coming together in conferences to brainstorm how a student’s struggle will be handled can build a spirit of collaboration instead of the feeling of being told what to do without any input. Both parents and teachers can walk out of collaborative conferences with a to-do list they understand how to accomplish. They can feel assured that the other team member will pull their weight too.
A teamwork mindset is vital to the work it takes on everyone’s part to help students who are struggling. For more details on how you as a teacher or you as a parent can prepare for a conference at school, check out this month’s freebie, Parent/Teacher Conference Checklists. There is a version of the checklist intended for parents, and one intended for teachers.