Shortly after school begins, many teachers face their biggest challenge — parent-teacher conferences. A lot of us chose education because we love working with kids, and not necessarily adults. But seriously, conferences provide an opportunity for you to discover the concerns and priorities of your new students' parents. Meeting their parents will also give you some insight as to what makes your students tick.

Get early feedback

Preparing for the conference is crucial. If you are poorly prepared, you will feel uncomfortable and anxious, and parents will notice. A few weeks before conferences, send a letter to parents that asks for some early feedback. The feedback will give you not only a heads-up about some of their questions but also a hint of any of their potential concerns. If you are prepared, you will not be caught off-guard.

The following is some sample text that you can adapt for your letter:

If students also fill out a preconference questionnaire, you can use their feedback to approach the conference by focusing on the student's perspective of their progress.

The following is some sample text that you can adapt for your student preconference questionnaire:

Getting this feedback allows a student's, sometimes quiet, voice to be heard. Often, these feedback notes reveal unexpected insights or compliments. Feedback can be funny, too. For instance, you find out that what the students would really like is to have the principal serve them lunch. These questionnaires can be a good icebreaker at the beginning of a conference, or they can be a way to defuse a little tension at the close of a difficult one. Read through the questionnaires before the conference to fully prepare for the discussion.

Run a good conference

Providing a comfortable, professional atmosphere for the conference is vital. Make sure that you post your conference schedule outside of your office during conferences to reduce the risk of a disruption. Place chairs outside of your room for waiting parents and provide them with materials showcasing your class's work. If your class has completed some work that you've bound as a book, set the book out on a desk beside your door for waiting parents to look through. If the class has completed a technology project, set up a computer to continuously play student Microsoft Office PowerPoint® 2003 presentations. Some teachers even set up a table with a potted plant and a dish of candy. Food is a comfort item that can make some people feel more at ease, but you might want to provide sugarless treats for your students.

Make sure that extra chairs are available to add to your conference table, in case unexpected family members come along. Although the conference will be more focused on your students if parents leave their other children at home, this isn't always possible. Keep a stack of coloring books or activities with crayons and pencils nearby to keep young children occupied and reduce interruptions that can delay a 30-minute conference.

Involve the student

Many school districts have a standard conference in which parents review their child's work and then go over the report card. However, some districts are now employing student-led conferences, where the focus is the student's collected work, instead of the report card. Student-led conferences shift a lot of the responsibility onto students' shoulders. The students share their schoolwork, explain why they chose each piece, tell what they'd like the parent to notice in the piece, and discuss where they feel that they could use additional assistance. Evaluating their own schoolwork is an invaluable aid in the learning process for students, as well as for you and their parents.

Make it work for you

Most school districts hold conferences twice a year. Sure, they require a little more time and work, but by being prepared and allowing the parents and students a voice beforehand, your conferences can be comfortable, insightful, and productive.