Parents and students from the lower, middle and upper school campuses will have the opportunity to meet with their respective teachers from March 30 to 31, the first two days of spring break, during the second parent-teacher conferences of this school year.

Students will not have school the two days of the conferences but are invited to accompany their their parents to the conferences in order to receive feedback about their performance during the school year.

Upper school English teacher Dr. Elizabeth Wahl wants her students to fill out reflection forms and take full control of the conference with their parents, as to essentially make herself a bystander of the conversation.

“I think having the student take charge of the conference is really helpful in addressing what the students’ needs are, or else it would be a conversation about the student and not with the student,” Wahl said. “I think especially high school students need to be coequals in their education and take ownership of what they’re doing.”

Many students are nervous about the upcoming conferences, fearing negative feedback from their teachers in front of parents especially before break when one is meant to recuperate from stressful school days.

“Last time I went to the conferences, but I probably won’t go this time because receiving teacher feedback could often be stressful, especially during a time when you want to relax,” Joshua Valluru (9) said.

Other students, such as Dolan Dworak (11), feel that parent-teacher conferences are a great opportunity to learn and reflect off of the progressing school year through teachers’ advice.

“I really enjoy the ability to gain an objective sense of my performance in any class,” Dolan said. “It’s always interesting to gain a perspective about a teacher that is invisible in the classroom.”

School will resume after spring break on April 10.

This piece was originally published in the pages of The Winged Post on March 28, 2017.