Throughout my son’s school years, I attended meetings. Some of the meetings were with teachers, some with administrators, some with school psychologists or guidance counselors and some had everyone in attendance. The meetings began in the beginning of the school year and continued throughout. There were meetings at parent teacher conference times, meetings when accommodations didn’t seem to be helping, meetings at the end of the school year to prepare for the upcoming year.
In the beginning, I attended the meetings understanding that I was going to listen to what my son could not do well and how he was not organized or living up to his potential. As the years went on, I learned to prepare for the meetings and, in doing so, I learned to create conferences that were based on helping my son rather than on describing his faults.
Teachers have my utmost respect. They deal with many different children each day. They care about the children in their classroom and work diligently to make sure they learn. But teachers do not have the advantage that parents have. Teachers have not had years of living with your child, understanding what interests them and how they best learn. It is up to parents to help teachers understand our children better. It is up to parents to share knowledge about their children about what educational strategies have worked in the past, and which have not worked.
Begin your preparation by making a list of:
- Your child’s academic strengths and weaknesses
- Accommodations you have used in the past that have worked
- Accommodations that have not worked
- What academic successes your child has had
- What academic assistance your child most often needs
- Social skills
- Self-esteem issues
Rather than trying to write this information down in an orderly fashion, instead write down all of the ideas that you think of. Please be sure to include all the areas your child excels in as well as those areas that need additional work. Once this list is completed, you will begin to organize the information.
