Parents are always concerned about their children. Even when kids are learning from home, parents want to know how their remote learning is going. Most parents and guardians want details about the quality of education their kids are getting.
It has been shown that GoGuardian Video Conferencing enables teachers to provide individualized support to students in a remote learning context, with 78 percent of video calls being 1:1 conversations between teachers and students. And with the latest video-conferencing technology, teachers and parents can easily communicate and establish a healthy relationship that makes it easier to nurture students. A direct line of communication through video conferencing is essential for any school that looks forward to establishing a healthy academic relationship between parents, teachers, and students.
Every situation has its unique etiquette, and when it comes to classroom video conferencing between parents and teachers, it’s best to stick to the rules. In this article, we discuss some ways you can use video conferencing for beneficial parent-teacher meetings and what etiquette should be expected during such meetings.
1. Choose the Right Location
When it comes to holding a teacher-parents video conference, how you choose your classroom location plays a big role. That means you should opt for a place that has minimal distractions and is not that busy. When there is too much noise in the background, it’s not easy to communicate, making your video conference less successful.
You can host your video conference in a more casual setting like your living room or an empty classroom, somewhere quiet and free of any movements. Additionally, you can cut down on background noise by wearing headsets when communicating.
In the event you’re presenting to a group, make sure the presentation app runs smoothly and the share screen feature is working properly.
2. Invite Your Students to the Live Meeting
Once you choose an appropriate location for the video conference, you can invite your students to join the meeting. When you bring in the students for the live meeting, they can feel included in the conversation and parent-teacher welfare.
Students can easily sharpen their problem-solving skills when they listen to communication between teachers and parents. Whether it’s praise-giving or solving issues in the class, the students will feel appreciated when involved in the process.
It is also hassle-free to include your students in the video conference because more than one person can come on the screen and keep the conversation going for online meetings.
3. Create a Sign-Up Schedule
Besides sending online invitation cards for parents to attend the video-conference, you could also create a sign-up schedule for them. This lets parents sign up for a time that works best with their schedules.
Give parents advance instructions for the online meeting so that they know what to expect. Hopefully, you will receive many sign-ups so that these meetings can help make your classes more successful. Online conversations between teachers and parents are helpful if you look forward to involving parents in your students' academic growth. With GoGuardian’s video conferencing, you can set up a classroom session to host the meeting and add participants to that classroom session. Parents and students only need to log on with the student’s school account during the session, and the teacher can begin a group call with all participants. No links or special invitations are required.
4. Involve an Administrator As Needed
If you find it a bit hectic to organize online meetings on your own, you can involve an administrator. Sometimes you may find yourself overwhelmed with finding parents' email addresses and phone contacts. An administrator can help you with these tasks so that you can instead focus on other aspects of the meeting, like what you will discuss with parents.
An administrator has the right skills and expertise to organize classroom video conferences and help teachers establish good relations with parents during and after the online meeting. They can give you peace of mind during the online meeting by managing the conference tone, providing useful insights into solutions, and commenting on student data when parents ask for that.
5. Remain Positive in Your Communication
During an online teacher-parent video conference, mind your tone. Ensure you choose the right words when communicating with parents about your students. Some words may sound offensive to parents, and you must choose them wisely.
Language plays a vital role in conveying the right message, and once you say the wrong thing, it can cause a breakdown in effective communication. For instance, instead of saying the student “failed,” you can reconstruct that to “the student could perform better with time." Your words make a difference to parents and students.
How to Prepare Parents for an Online Parent-Teacher Video Conference
Like in a normal meeting where you send the parent an invitation letter, you should also invite parents for the online parent-teacher conference. Here is what you should do before the classroom video conference to make your meeting successful.
- Prepare a student performance datasheet: Parents are likely to ask about student performance, and you want to ensure you have all that data with you. Therefore, to make the meeting productive, you should create a data sheet with up-to-date information about each student's behavior in class, skills, and academic progress.
- Inform parents about student issues before the meeting: An email to the parents before the meeting can help prepare them for the video conference. You can share the student data sheet with parents through their emails.
- Keep parents posted: Let parents know what issues and challenges your class is currently facing. Inform them about the agenda of the meeting, then stick to it during the video conference.
- Involve parents in creating a meeting agenda: Ask parents in advance if there’s anything they would like to discuss during the meeting. This way, you can easily adjust your meeting agenda and make it inclusive for all attendants.
- Involve a moderator or administrator: Inform parents that you will be inviting an administrator to moderate the meeting. Some parents are more comfortable attending a meeting with someone sitting in.
- Prepare parents for the online meeting: Send parents a pre-recorded video using the video-conferencing platform at least three days before the actual meeting. This way, you prepare them for the meeting since some of them might not be as tech-savvy as their kids.
Final Thoughts
Hosting a productive teacher-parents video conference is never a walk in the park. It involves many preparations and informing parents on what they are likely to expect during the meeting. The most important factor you must consider when you plan a teacher-parents conference is what video-conference platform you will use.
Use the latest video-conferencing tool from GoGuardian to host your online meeting. This video conferencing feature is available on the GoGuardian Teacher tool and suitable for students, parents, and teachers. GoGuardian video conferencing is also designed to support privacy components in a school setting, making it a safer and more secure choice so that parents don't have to worry about outsiders joining in.
