Parents of students in Albert Lea Area Schools &045; give yourselves a hand!

We all know the phrase &uot;It takes a whole village to raise a child&uot; and it’s true.

Most recently, parents certainly were trying to do their share of that job by attending fall conferences.

Conferences are one of the best ways parents can show their children how important they are and how important school is.

Among the four elementary schools, about 95 percent of all parents were able to attend their child’s conference.

To reach this goal means parents had to coordinate their schedules.

They may have had to ask their employer for time off work. They had to arrange childcare for other children, etc.

It is something to celebrate that all the community works together to give students, parents, and teachers this precious piece of time together.

Not only were elementary students highly supported by their parents. At Southwest conferences, 61 percent of seventh-grade parents and 68 percent of eighth-grade parents were able to attend first-quarter conferences.

At the high school, 68 percent of parents among ninth through twelfth grade came to fall midterm conferences.

One of our challenges to each other as community members is to help encourage parents to make time to attend every conference for their child all through high school.

Our community’s children not only need support in elementary school; they need support and continued guidance by the important adults in their lives for a great finish &045; graduation!

As a community, we can do it.

Why are conferences so helpful?

Elementary conferences were moved from after the end of the grading period to midway through it so teachers could talk about their students’ progress and suggest ways that parent and child can work together to make more progress between now and the end of the trimester. Southwest and ALHS parents have had midterm conferences for several years now.

Parents can ask questions about whats happening in class and find out what they can do at home to support the lessons in the classroom.

Both teacher and parent can plan together how to help a child catch up on missed work or how to help a child work to achieve her/his potential.

If the student is able to attend the conference also as they were at Southwest, at ALHS, at the Area Learning Center and at Lakeview’s sixth-grade student-led conferences, the partnership is even more enhanced.

Schools and teachers try to do everything they can to help parents attend conferences.

Conference dates are announced on the yearly calendars.

Newsletters and schedules are sent home. Elementary secretaries schedule appointments and coordinate similar times for all the children in a family when possible.

Secondary staff hosts conferences midway through every quarter and offer walk-in availability for the whole evening for parents convenience.

This year the high schools fall conferences even combined with another event at the high school that night which saved parents a trip.

Teachers came in early, they stayed late, they rescheduled missed conference appointments, interpreters are hired if needed, they kept grade books updated, and they prepared materials to display what their students have learned.

Some even involved parents and students in a joint assignment so the parent could show the teacher what the student has taught them by saying something in Spanish or sharing a fact from history or a concert or something else.

Conferences are important, but they aren’t the only way parents and teachers can communicate.

Parents can contact their childs teacher any time.

Teachers have classroom phones and email addresses. Its a great partnership for success when parents call with questions they have or to share successes theyve seen.

Many teachers maintain WebPages that provide information about assignments, spelling words, upcoming events, etc.

We didn’t reach 100 percent attendance; we know some parents’ schedules just couldn’t be changed, but we hope all parents can start working on making the next round of conferences, which at Southwest, ALHS, and the Area Learning Center will occur in early December.

The next elementary conferences will be in February.

As parents, we believe conferences are crucial to student success.

Studies have shown that when parents are involved with the school, their children do better.

Some parents are room parents, some are field trip chaperones, and some find time to visit a classroom or have lunch with their child.

Some parents help with fund-raisers, some with booster clubs.

Many parents attend concerts or sporting events.

Community members can help parents with all of these kinds of support in raising the community’s children.

If you as a parent don’t have time to be actively involved in these ways, just modeling a desire to learn and showing an interest in and expectation of a student’s learning can make a huge difference.

Most importantly, a parent’s attendance at conferences

tells your child that you care and value their education!

Celebrate all that we are doing to support our community’s children as students.

(Terri Wichmann is a member of the Together Education Achieves More (TEAM) committee.)