Clarke Central High School staff members greet parents upon entering the school for fall parent-teacher conferences on Oct. 13. The conferences occur during the week of Oct. 10-14 and provide an opportunity for parents and students to be informed about where a student’s grades stand. “I’m amazed by especially ninth graders who are generally kind of clueless (about their grades),” Robins said. “I went over their schedules with them and it was painful for some.”
By JOHANNA HALL – Broadcast Executive Producer
Fall parent-teacher conferences are scheduled to take place on Oct. 12-14. For freshmen, these are the first conferences of their high school careers.
Parent-teacher conferences provide a time for parents to become aware of a student’s grades through a progress report. Curriculum Assistance Program for Students (CAPS) department teacher Lee Ann Robins, who has freshman advisees, believes the end of the first nine weeks of school is a crucial time for these meetings to occur.
“I think it’s good to have conferences pretty early and I think it might make differences in the long run. If they know Oct. 12 that they can pass the class instead of waiting until spring break and saying, ‘Oh, how am I going to pull up the 14 that I have in Biology?’, that makes a difference,” Robins said.
According to Robins, these conferences are especially important for freshmen.
“(The purpose of the conferences is) to ensure that the child is going to succeed, especially in ninth grade. I’ve been teaching seniors for a long time and if I had a dollar for every time one of them said, ‘Oh, I wish I hadn’t messed around in ninth grade,’ I could retire right now. It’s a crucial grade,” Robins said.
Parent-teacher conferences can act as a wake-up call for struggling students.
“(Students) are kind of in denial, they know they are doing poorly but they don’t realize they have a 32,” Robins said. “They need to have a plan and some sort of a realization of, ‘This is what is takes to pass.’”
While he has never attended a parent-teacher conference at Clarke Central, freshman Theron Camp sees possible advantages.
“I imagine they could be beneficial if parents and teachers had something to talk about that they needed to talk about in person,” Camp said. “(Conferences) give them an opportunity to do that.”
Robins agrees. She believes the conferences provide an outlet for parents, students and advisers to speak about a student’s performance, which is reflected in a Google Document composed by teachers.
“I actually love this document where I go and enter notes about students. I think that is awesome, because I don’t teach my advisees, but I can pull up that chart,” Robins said. “It gives me knowledge of how they’re doing in the classes that I would not have. I can pull up the grade average and the assignments, but I like that document where I can see the teachers’ more subjective comments, so it’s very informative.”
After the conference takes place, Robins says that teachers continue to work with students to ensure they are maintaining their grades.
“I went over their schedules with them and it was painful for some,” Robins said. “(A conference) gives them the opportunity to change (their grade), it’s not so set in stone (…) I don’t think any teacher just gives up on kids. I think we still try.”
