How to Handle Meeting Your Child's Teacher

Starting the school year off right, you want to make sure that first meeting with your child’s teacher goes smoothly.

You will be working closely together to ensure that your child has a successful school year.

So you want to make sure that first meeting with your child’s teacher is a good one, as it will set the tone for the rest of the year.

Here are some tips for making you have a successful first meeting with your child’s teacher.



How to Handle Meeting Your Child’s Teacher

1. Build a rapport.

Starting out the meeting with a compliment to the teacher will start things out on a good note.

So find something to say about for example how he or she has helped your child with reading, or notes written to your child.

If your child has talked about the teacher’s interests then be sure to bring that up.



2. Avoid small talk.

You likely won’t have a really long time to talk to the teacher about things, so don’t do too much small talk.

Ask the really important questions first.

It might even lead to an answer to your smaller questions.

However, if you do find that you need more time, be sure to ask for more opportunity to talk.




3. How to handle problems.

If you are meeting the teacher for the first time (or any time really) because of some problems, then you’ll want to keep some things in mind:
  • Don’t get angry or overly apologetic. Ask for examples of your child’s behaviour.
  • Ask what strategies the school/teacher are putting in place to address these problems.
  • Find out how you can help to continue implementing the school’s strategies in the home setting.
  • Schedule a follow up to discuss your child’s progress in turning his or her behaviour around.



4. Create an action plan.

Creating an action plan with the teacher is a good idea if you discover that your child is struggling behaviourally or academically.

If you are unclear on what the teacher is suggesting, then speak up and say that you don’t understand. 

Decide with the teacher how you will communicate about your child’s progress - whether it’s email, notes home, phone, or actually meeting in person. Set this up with the teacher.

Let her know what things you want to hear about immediately so you can determine if you need to take any action at home.

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5. Keep calm.

It’s very important that you keep the lines of communication open with your child’s teacher.

No matter what your child says, things likely aren’t as bad as he has said they were.

So you don’t want to start out any meeting accusing the teacher of anything.

You aren’t going to get any answers that way, so make sure check your emotions and speak to your child’s teacher calmly and rationally.

It will make the year go so much better for you and, most importantly, your child.



6. End the meeting on a high note.

Review everything you have discussed and make sure everyone is clear what their job is going to be. 

Schedule your next meeting if it’s appropriate to do so.

As long as things are going fine with your child academically and behaviourally, then you probably won’t need to plan anything in advance, but make sure the teacher knows how to reach you if anything does come up.


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