10 Things To Expect At Parent-Teacher Conferences
The following points are things that you might expect to experience at a PTC. Please note that every conference is different based on the school/grade level/subject, but knowing that the possibility of the following things may happen will only strengthen your preparedness!
- You may be paired with a set of parents and translate all of their child's conferences for them, then switch to the next set of parents.
- You will possibly receive a map of the school and a schedule with details of all the conferences you will be taking the parent(s) to (room number, teacher name, time, subject).
- Spanish-speaking students (and other family members) might attend the conferences with the parent(s).
- The students who do attend may choose to speak English the entire time with their teachers, so it will be your responsibility to translate as much as you can to the parent(s) and not rely on the student if you see this happening.
- If students do attend, they will likely lead the way to navigate through the school so you won't have to as much.
- You may have difficulty understanding a parent's accent, so you can always ask them to talk slower and use context clues.
- Even with your translating, the language barrier may make the parent(s) less inclined to ask the teacher questions after a certain point or at the end of the conference whether they have questions or not (look at "General Advice" for tips on how to make the best out of this situation).
- Teachers may or may not be conscious of your presence as a translator (i.e. allow breaks in what they're saying for you to translate). Check out "General Advice" if you'd like to know what you could do if they aren't.
- At the beginning, if the teacher talks and you simply ask the parent, "comprende?" at the end of the first point, the parent may say yes. To prevent this from being a solely polite answer by the parent, begin translating immediately and go from there depending on your specific situation.
- The teachers might begin feeling comfortable with only looking at you and talking to you since you are translating.