“Can you hear me?” - “You are frozen.” - “Why can’t you see me?” - “I will leave the room now!”
Surprisingly this is not an excerpt from a play. No, these are bits and pieces of conversations many of us heard last week.
Parent-teacher-conferences are key opportunities to talk about progress, celebrate achievements and identify challenges. The first round of PTCs this year were confusing though. Families with children in multiple sections were surprised about the different formats and here is why.
For the exam years, Grades 10 and 12, the face-to-face planned conferences could not happen because of the school closure for a tropical storm. We postponed it by a week and because of the short notice, we made it a remote event. For the same day, the German Secondary Section had already their PTC scheduled, successfully running online for years.
The confusion was created by using different scheduling tools and online platforms. Untis plus teams or google plus zoom – timed slots or hanging out in a waiting room.
As teachers, we hope to hold more PTCs on campus, the next opportunity will be for English Secondary Grades 6-9 and Grades 11 on November 13th. While the timing on campus might be less perfect and waiting might be frustrating at times, we overall value personal interactions for building a home-school relationship and to talk about progress in more nuances.
The English Primary School with the PYP has yet another approach to strengthening the home-school partnership, the SLC or student-led conferences. Here, students prepare work/ portfolios to present to their parents, while teachers stay in the background as observers.
For all of us in education it is clear: we need the support of the parents to support learning, no matter the age of the students. And we hope to hear more sentences like these “Now, I can see you” - “I hear you and understand what you mean” - “Good to meet you.”
German European School Manila is the only international school in Manila promoting European languages, cultures, and traditions. For more details, book a visit or schedule a call with our admissions team.
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