Parent-Teacher Conferences and Partnerships: FREE Webinar

EdExchange Webinar Series:

Best Practices for Parent-Teacher Conferences and Partnerships

Tuesday, October 2, 2012 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM ET

20 magic minutes. That’s the time-span of a typical parent-teacher conference. Done well, parent-teacher conferences build trust and set the stage for cultivating positive long-term partnerships among teachers, parents and students. Done poorly, they’re a waste of everyone’s time -- or worse, they can spark conflict and mistrust among participants causing parents to lose confidence in their children, the teacher and the school as a whole.

Thanks to McGraw-Hill Education, we’ve put together an all-star panel of thought-leaders in the education, parent participation, and EdTech community to share Best Practices for Parent-Teacher Conferences and Building lasting Partnerships.

This one hour webinar for educators (and interested parents) will cover best practices, new media and helpful tips and tools for conducting powerful parent-teacher conferences.

Please join us and bring your questions and tips to share!

Register Now (click here)

Webinar Topics include:

Parent-Teacher Conference as the formal kickoff of the parent – teacher – student relationship to last the year and beyond
What’s new in conferences (using Skype, including students, etc.)
Tips for teacher prep before the conference
Tips for preparing parents
Sample Parent-Teacher conference game plan
Tips for engaging challenging parents
How to build the parent – teacher – student relationship moving forward
Free time-saver and coordination tool: parent-teacher conference scheduling by VolunteerSpot

Meet the Panelists:

Lisa Dabbs (@TeachingwthSoul)

Lisa is an educational consultant, blogger and speaker. She has served as an elementary school principal for fourteen years, a federal programs project director, English Language Arts consultant for Kaplan Educational Corporation, and adjunct professor for Concordia University. In her work as an educational coach and consultant, she supports new teachers and educational organizations utilizing leadership experience in the areas of curriculum and instruction, educational technology, English Language Learners, Early Childhood Education, and parent education. She is currently a Core Blogger at Edutopia.org and Edutopia’s New Teacher Connections Group Facilitator, blogger at KidsDiscover.com, and vice president of an award-winning literacy nonprofit in her community. Her personal blog is teachingwithsoul.com and Lisa is active in social media and is the leader of a weekly New Teacher Chat on twitter (#ntchat).

Pernille Ripp (@PernilleRipp)

Pernille is a 5th grade teacher in Middleton, Wisconsin, proud techy geek, and honest to a fault. Creator of the Global Read Aloud Project and believer in all children. “I have no awards or accolades except for the lightbulbs that go off in my students' heads every day.” Pernille is experienced in and a champion for student-led parent-teacher conferences. She blogs at mrspripp.blogspot.com.

Joe Mazza (@Joe_Mazza)

Joe is lead learner at Knapp Elementary School in Lansdale, Pennsylvania. He has spent his career working with students, teachers & families as a 3rd grade teacher, bilingual assistant principal, middle school vice-principal, an elementary principal, while serving as a TV studio producer, webmaster and technology integration coach in each setting. He will graduate the University of Pennsylvania with a doctoral degree in May 2013. Dissertation topic: Principals’ use of social media to strengthen home-school partnerships. Joe’s blog, eFACE Today, was created to share ways educators can use innovative tools to compliment face to face communications between home and school, and do this in a transparent and collaborative way. Joe leads a weekly Parent Teacher Chat on Twitter (#ptchat)

Greg Garner (@classroom_tech)

Greg is a change catalyst who is always looking for ways to challenge the status quo. He serves middle-level teachers in Austin, TX as an Educational Technologist and enthusiastically supports the use of student-led, technology infused learning environments. Greg is experienced with parent engagement using digital portfolios and SPED/504 applications.

Glenn Yetter (@coachyetter)

Glenn is in his 28^th year of education, predominantly as a sixth grade teacher in which he strives to instill a ‘Figure It Out For Yourself’ attitude into his students. He now serves a member of his district’s Digital Resources Committee and has been a soccer coach for 20 years! As a catalyst to initiate student-led conferences, he has trained teachers and students in this extremely effective format. Glenn also is a consultant for Educational Impact, an on-line professional development company. His blog can be read at bestyett.blogspot.com.

Karen Bantuveris (@VolunteerSpot & @VSpotMom)

Karen is the founder and CEO of VolunteerSpot.com, a free time-saving coordination tool and parent-teacher conference scheduler that makes it easy for anyone to get involved in their local schools and communities. Karen launched VolunteerSpot in 2009 to simplify the volunteer experience and it has quickly grown from mom-to-teacher-to-team-to-nonprofit, boosting turnout with more than 1.8 million users nationwide. Karen is a frequent conference speaker about increasing parent participation in schools, engaging parents to fund education technology, and using new media tools to inspire social action in the ‘real’ world. Karen lives in Austin, TX.