Parent Interviews – How can we do them better?

I get the feeling that the majority of “good” parents see interviews as a way to merely meet the teacher, and if anything more than that to find out how they can support their son/daughter in their learning. I feel strongly that interviews shouldn’t be about these two things because they are much more easily accomplished via other means. Not only that but we are inefficiently doubling up our efforts by meeting parents in other academic specific events, e.g. course selection evenings, NCEA (national assessment) info evenings, for new students: meet the parents evenings, subject choice evenings, etc. General advice for how parents can support their children can easily be met in other ways if we/they feel this is lacking.

I can see the value in meeting parents of children who are slacking off unreasonably (there is reasonable slacking off I think – another story), but this could be accomplished much more easily, and effectively, through other means. These students often need longer that 5 minutes to discuss the issues with their parents anyway, which is why they get phone calls, emails, and letters home.

I would love to have all of my students’ parents attend a short presentation by me to share a little about what the class covers and how they can support the learning. A brief Q+A after the presentation would cover pretty much everything they need to know and for anyone who wants a more personal interaction they can arrange that at the end. Allocate 30 minutes per subject to allow enough time and then you have your new format interviews which are way better all round.

You could even have a multimedia presentation on the school website for each teacher to present them self, anything they want the parents of their students to know, and an email address (or online forum) for further contact.

This all seems much easier to me – am I alone in this?