WHY DON’T PARENTS ATTEND PARENT – TEACHERS MEETINGS

So last week I had to do a FaceTime meeting on the phone with my son’s teacher. 

I don’t know about you, I don’t like attending parent-teachers meetings, even though I’m a teacher myself 😃

One of the reasons I dislike those meetings may be the fact that I rarely received any good reports about my son’s behaviour at school. (As parents we take this personal, we don’t like anyone criticizing our children 😊) 

However, during this last meeting, I was surprised to hear that he is actually behaving well at school and his focus has improved. 

One of his teachers mentioned how intuned and matured he has become. (These comments made my day 😃)

His head of school told me about his inability to communicate well when it comes to presenting his work in class. 

He advised me to support him at home on how to improve his communication skills because he needs it for his future career.

I understand what he meant by that. My son is an introvert and he doesn’t like talking too much 😃

So we have started working on his communication skills at home.  

And today I would like to share some tips with you just in case you have a teenager that is shy 😃

In addition, If you are a parent of school aged children like me and this is the first time you’ve ever been to a meet and greet, don’t be intimidated by it. You and the teacher have a lot in common, you both want what’s best for your child!

Don’t be afraid of asking the teacher questions. I think, especially if you are new to the school and teachers, it can sometimes be intimidating.

If the teacher says there are problems with something, be it sitting and listening or reading and writing, ask what they intend to do to help. And, of course, agree to try similar strategies at home.

However, If you’re a parent of a teenager and they don’t like speaking in public, below are some tips to help them communicate better. 

5 TIPS FOR COMMUNICATING EFFECTIVELY FOR TEENAGERS 

1. Slow down / if you slow down when you speak you will find that you are less nervous, less anxious and you will be able to communicate well with people. (Don’t rush to say things, just to 
2. Start conversation- Don’t be afraid to start a conversation with someone. One of the easiest ways to do that is to ask questions. (Most people like to talk about themselves 😃) 
3. Search information – when you hear something that you don’t know the answer to, make a point to look it up. For example ; If you hear somebody talking about an interest that they have, and you don’t know anything about it, look it up. Do your own research and keep learning about new stuff. What you find is that the kind of information that you’ve researched will start coming out in conversation with people and you will be able to add more to every conversation. And that will make you a more confident communicator. (Google is your friend, use it) 
4. Seek out opportunities to speak – invite your friends out for a get together and just hang out and talk with them about stuff. Join a debate club at school. Things like that get you communicating with people makes you a better communicator. Nothing would really improve in your lives without practice. 
5. Silence –  You hear more, when you stay quiet during your conversation with someone. If you speak over someone when they’re talking to you, you won’t be able to hear anything. When someone says something, pause, and wait for them to finish what they have to say before you respond. This gives you time to reflect on what they say. So staying quiet and not interrupting others during conversation is a great skill to have as an effective communicator. (I need to work on this myself 😊)

My final thought

Dear parents, if you have a teenager you can screenshot the above tips to them to read.

 Also, if you have young children, you can teach them these skills too. 

But remember the best way children learn is by copying adults. 

So the question is 👇

Are you a good communicator yourself?

If your answer is no, then maybe you can start practicing and maybe use some of today’s tips to improve your own communication skills too.

By the way, do you like attending parent-teachers meetings 👇👇👇👇

Thanks 

Olu

Have a lovely day

#teenagers

#communicationskills

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#beintentional

#parentingtipstuesday

#positiveparentingwitholu 

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