10 Successful Strategies for Conducting a Positive Meeting with

What do counselors, teachers, and administrators have in common? They all conduct parent conferences. It’s true that most parent conferences are positive, but it is those that are not that stand out in educators’ memories.

Parents can be an educator’s best ally or worst enemy and since every parent is influential in a student’s life, it is the wise educator that makes every parental contact as positive as possible. The ten strategies in this book can make this happen. With this powerful resource in hand, you will learn the importance of:

• Making contact before the meeting
• Being prepared and on time
• Being polite by providing an inviting setting
• Separating the action from the actor
• Avoiding sibling comparisons
• Utilizing parents as resources
• Finding something positive
• Being professional at all costs
• Not getting caught up in someone else’s negativity
• Rehashing the meeting and wrapping it up

  Each strategy is introduced with a clever cartoon, identifies pitfalls to beware of, and gives important information on how to make the strategy work.

  Also included are several reproducible scenarios for educators to practice the strategies before an actual parent meeting.

  Educators new to the field and seasoned educators alike will find this book a valuable resource to guide them through both positive and negative parent conferences.