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Supporting Parents and Families During Meetings

9/30/2012

2 Comments

 
Yet another sign that I am running on empty: I emailed this video to myself as a reminder and now I can't remember where it came from! If you wrote an article and highlighted this video, thank you for the inspiration! Oh, and if you find my brain, will you tell it to kindly find its way back to my head? Thanks so much! ;)

Anyway, this video is designed for parents and helps prep them for a big meeting at school. I think it's easy to forget how stressful these meetings can be for parents because we attend them all the time and, more importantly, it's not our child being academically and/or behaviorally "dissected," so to speak.
Imagine walking into a room filled with teachers and administrators...it's like an interview. You sit there, hoping you have good answers to their questions and that you understand everything that's being discussed. It's stressful, to say the least. We have to remember that parents come to these meetings as beginners most of the time; they are not sure what to expect. Our job is to help prepare them before they come to the meeting so that there can be a productive, team approach.

As school counselors, we are often in charge of scheduling meetings with parents. How do you help explain the meeting process? Any tips for other school counselors?
2 Comments
Rebecca Lallier link
9/30/2012 07:43:33 am

This is great, Marissa - wherever it came from - thanks! I'd love to share it with parents on my as-yet-to-be-created-but-on-my-to-do-list school website.

When a meeting is coming up I like to make sure that parents know that they can invite others if they wish, explain as much as possible about how the meeting will work (how much info sharing, brainstorming, identifying solutions, etc. there will be), and give a heads up about people who may come and go from the meeting because of schedule demands. I try to sit next to the parent whenever possible. I also ask a lot of clarifying questions, even when I know the answers, so that parents don't have to if they don't feel comfortable with doing so. I often do a de-brief with parents following the big meeting to see if they have further questions or concerns that didn't get raised in the larger meeting.

I think my brain must be off cavorting with yours, because it's certainly not where it belongs either! School counseling + family life + blogging = potential head explosion! And I don't even have community theater to add to that mix. I'm glad you're doing something so creative and fun, though! Never mind your brain - it will come back when it's hungry! Or so I keep telling myself . . .
Rebecca

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Marissa Rex link
9/30/2012 07:49:22 am

Thanks for this VERY helpful information, Rebecca! We are often thrown into this profession in a "sink or swim" fashion, so it helps to hear step-by-step procedures from school counselors who are seeing success.

Good luck finding your brain! I hope my comes home before Monday morning. ;)

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    My name is Marissa Rex and I am a 1st Grade teacher and an elementary school counselor from Ohio. I hope you enjoy my site!

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