Genius Parent-Teacher Conference Idea - Individual lesson demonstrations

Genius Parent-Teacher Conference Idea

Mike Steffen ran across this cool idea for Parent-Teacher conferences on a band director discussion board. The post as written by Steve Nendza from Hille Middle School in Oak Forest, IL. Enjoy!

This year I went with one-on-one private lessons for conferences instead of the traditional format. They were amazing, I had more parents than ever sign up. One family even came back for a second lesson. It was great to see how into the conferences the parents were. We do three days of conferences and the first two days I was booked solid from 1pm-8pm (with a dinner break). I had sent out a SurveyMonkey to my band parents and the feedback has been great and they loved the new format.

Here is the format I used:

• It was an 8-minute conference (school set the time on these) in the band room
• Conference starts with an ultra-quick hi, and how the kid's behavior is
• We started by playing a call and response on the cycle of fourths with various rhythm and dynamics. Buzzing for brass. Some kids played some scales.
• Some worked on adding vibrato to their sound.
• Then we moved onto parts of their band music that the students wanted to work on.

Some things to think about:

• Space set up
• Time goes by so very fast
• Presenting it to your admin to support it
• Communicating with the parents about the new format
• Have kids set up their instrument outside the band room while they wait for their turn
• The lesson format is a great way to educate the parents on what the instrument should really sound like when we model them.