I didn't expect to be nervous for my 5-year-old daughter's first-ever parent-teacher conference. I knew she was doing well in school from the smiley face- and check-mark-filled work her kindergarten teacher sent home almost every day. She was eager to get to class every morning, despite our daily 6:30 a.m. wake-up struggle. She'd made new friends and developed a bond with her teacher, and she was regularly impressing me with her newfound reading skills. Nothing to worry about, right?
But still, walking in with my husband to meet her teacher, I found myself feeling the same kind of anxiety I had before I used to get my own report cards, oh so long ago. After all, my daughter now spends more of her waking hours at school than at home, and I can barely get a "good" out of her when I ask about her day. I wanted the intel, I was worried that she might be as dramatic and averse to listening at school as she is at home, and most of all, I wanted to make sure her dad and I were doing everything we could to help her succeed as a student.
The conference, which lasted almost an hour, ended up being great. I learned about the kind of student my daughter is, a lot of which surprised her dad and me. (Who knew she's "very confident" in her math skills and prefers reading nonfiction at the library? Not me.)
Make sure your parent-teacher conference is equally successful by following these six simple tips.