Conducting a Parent/Teacher Conference

Yesterday I had to conduct a Parent/Teacher Conference. We have over 2000 students at our school and only 3 counselors. The counselors are just swamped. So the Homeroom teachers are having to hold the conferences in their classrooms. The counseling office provided a form for me to fill out. I had to record (take minutes) of what was said and discussed. The mother, the student, and 5 or 6 teachers showed up. The 6th teacher had another meeting at the same time and emailed me the student's grade and gave me a report to relay to the mother. The student had 80 averages across the board, except for the 6th teacher's math class. The student is failing with a 49. And, of course, this was the main teacher the mother wanted to talk too.

So I had to write up the report and relay the information to the counselors that the mother is requesting a meeting with the math teacher to discuss the failing grade and what could be done to help bring the grade up, or maybe change the student to another math class. (All classes are pretty full and I doubt that the student will be changed to another class.)

Anyway, this was interesting. The meeting was at 8am in my classroom. The bell rings at 8:20 for the student's to be released from the commons area and go to their lockers and to their first period class. First period starts at 8:30. It's VERY LOUD in the hallway, the students are stampeding, and I am trying to usher mother out the door so she can get back to the front of the building safely. I felt like we were rushing and mother didn't really get to talk as much as she would have liked.

I'm not sure that this is the best way to handle Parent/Teacher conferences. We did the best we could but I don't know if mother was satisfied with this conference.

I hate that we don't have enough counselors. I feel sorry for the 3 we do have. They are working themselves to death to try and get everything done. Three counselors for over 2000 students is just not enough!