This year’s Meet the Teacher Night was not like the others – it was much more personal. Brentwood High School held Meet the Teacher Night on Wednesday, Oct. 25, from 6:00-8:30 p.m.
Instead of having a classroom full of parents, teachers met with parents one-on-one. This allowed parents to receive more information about their child’s individual strengths and weaknesses.
This year’s Meet the Teacher Night was set up differently from previous years. The school district sent out a message on Parent Square informing parents to make appointments for back-to-school-night the week before. Because the appointments brought parents and teachers face-to-face to meet, they were more personal.
“I had 26 appointments for the evening, including walk-ins who did not pre-register with the Parent Square sign-up,” said Mrs. Orechovsky, English teacher.
The guardians of the students were able to obtain more information about their child’s education. The guardians also could discuss any concerns they had relating to their child’s performance at school.
“I think having appointments with parents is extremely useful because I can speak directly to the parents about their students’ success in my class and what still needs to be worked on in my class,” said Mrs. Stratmann, English teacher. “My course outline has the information they need about my curriculum. It gives me that one-on-one time to make a connection with the parent and opens communication.
“Some parents were not able to attend the event, even the ones with appointments. The teachers I interviewed told me that they either used Parent Square or had a conversation on the phone with the parents and communicated about the students’ success in class.”
According to the blog post “Why Are Parent Teacher Conferences Important? 5 Reasons to Consider” from Parent Square, “…teachers can share photos and videos with families from the classroom. This feature has many benefits and can help parents/guardians who many not have the opportunity to volunteer or attend school day events…”
Some parents of students speak another language and cannot speak or understand English. To bridge the communication gap, teachers asked students to be their helpers for the evening and translate for both teachers and parents. The students were able to earn community service hours for their time.
“We had students earning community service hours sitting outside the door to greet the parents and provide translation during the meeting,” Mrs. Stratmann said.
Some teachers preferred this year’s version of Meet the Teacher Night because it was more significant for the parents. Teachers felt that the older version made the night drag on and got bored of it.
“I loved the idea of parents following a student’s schedule and seeing the difficulties a student faces getting around the buildings and understanding the stress of it all,” Mrs. Stratmann said.
“With that said, it is more meaningful for the parents to have that short one-on-one time to ask their questions and share their concerns. If a student is struggling that is not something a parent wants shared in front of a group of parents. It provides a better opportunity to provide direct feedback getting a student back on track, so the short answer is I prefer the new version.”
Parents can contact teachers anytime about any concerns through Parent Square. The first quarter report cards were released Wednesday, Nov. 15, at 10:30 a.m.
