[Quatro]

Will conferences ever end? We had them one evening a week for the last month! Now after going through that, and signing people up since Labor Day, I still am getting frantic calls and emails. Most are from people who forgot they had an appointment. What about the note in the agenda that they sign nightly? Or the school auto call about the conferences or the board outside school, or the web page, or... Where have these people been?
One mom left an urgent message with the office for me to telephone. I left 5 messages all the time wondering what was so urgent. She finally three days later gets back to me and tell me in her message that I need to telephone after 6pm on Monday,Tuesday or I can call after 8pm on Wednesday or anytime Thursday or Friday. I called at 8am and got teen daughter who tells me mom wants a conference Friday. Why not tell the secretary or just call me back when she first called say what she wanted. Anyone else conferenced out? I am lucky someone wants to chat and I know that but a month later it is getting old.

[vika]

Actually, it was 2 strikes. When I worked in a middle school if a parent missed a conference they had one more chance. The teacher picked the time and day the second time around and if the parent didn't show up again we told the secretary not to schedule them again. We just communicated by phone and email. If the parent wasn't available by phone we left one message with the information we wanted to give them and that was it. There were over 100 kids on our team. We couldn't spend all of our time tracking parents down. There is only so much you can do. Document every effort even if you don't get in touch with the parent.

[teach smiles]

You can only do so much as a teacher. Parents are more and more demanding these days and you need to stand your ground. I really like the philosophy of 2 strikes. I think that's fair enough. If the parent forgets about the conference repeatedly, it shows their disinterest anyways, so why should you go out of your way for someone who ISN'T responsible?

Just say your schedule doesn't allow after the 2nd strike or only give a phone or email conference. If a parent doesn't like it, that's what they deserve for being irresponsible.

[2inspire]

We have one marathon evening with conferences scheduled back to back in 15 minute increments. I always leave exhausted but glad to have it done! And, of course, if a parent can't make it, we schedule a conference for another time that week. I can't imagine stretching them out for a month!

[anna]

I have done drop in conferencing for years. One letter was sent to every family and this letter explained the various available times I would be in my room and available for conferences. No reservations are allowed at all. I got sick of the phone tag and no shows. This works well with parents and there has never been a problem. They love the convenience of it and did not mind waiting if somebody was conferencing with me when they show up.