Parent Teacher Conference

Hello everyone and welcome to EnglishPod. My name is Marco.

My name is Catherine and today we're talking about a very, well, it's a pretty important part of your child's education.

That's right. Something that many schools do is they have a conference between the teacher and the parent.

So, you know, they can talk about how the child is doing.

That's right. So this is something very common in American schools and it's important to learn some of the words that you will hear.

So let's take a listen to our dialogue and when we come back we'll be talking about what some of these words and phrases mean.

Thank you for coming tonight, Mr. Weber.

As a teacher, it's great seeing the kids' parents assist our parent-teacher conference tonight.

Of course. I'm very interested to know how my child is doing and also get some insight from you as to how he can improve.

Well, Alan is a great student. He's a hard worker and very well behaved.

However, he does struggle a bit with math.

I guess he gets that from me. I never did well in math when I was a kid.

What can I do at home to complement what he is learning in the classroom?

Well, it's important that you sit with him and review his homework assignments and help him with math.

I would also recommend he stay after school twice a week for tutoring sessions. It will really help a lot.

Thanks a lot. I will definitely do that. Is there anything else?

Um, yes. Here's a notice from our financial department. Seems your child's tuition is overdue.

Oh, yes. I...

All right, we're back. So now let's take a look at some language takeaway.

Language takeaway.

First up in language takeaway, we have the key phrase here, which is parent-teacher conference.

That's right. So it's a parent-teacher conference, a parent-teacher conference.

And it's basically a meeting between the parent of the child and the teacher of the child.

And they talk about how well he is doing or she is doing or what she needs or he needs to improve.

That's right. So this is something that can happen maybe twice a year, maybe four times a year.

It depends on the school, but it's just a meeting between the parents or parent of the child and his or her teacher.

That's right. So it's very common with schools in order to make sure that the parent knows how the child is doing in school and can improve maybe.

And one of the goals is to provide the parent with insight into how to help the child learn more.

OK. So insight is kind of like a better understanding of things.

More clear picture. Yeah. So I could say, you know what, Marco, I just don't get that woman, Cindy.

Can you provide some insight into why she made that decision?

That's right. So you want some more information or some type of explanation as to why she made that decision.

Exactly. And so the teacher will then provide this insight by describing what he or she thinks about the student.

That's right. And while the teacher went on to say that Alan is a great student, hard worker, very well behaved.

So he is a hard worker. That means he is this is not an address.

This is now he is a hard worker. She is a hard worker. He is very well behaved.

Now, this is a way to describe him. He is not naughty. He is well behaved.

That means he doesn't start fights. He doesn't talk in class. He doesn't cheat.

OK, so what would be the opposite? You say a child or a person is well behaved. What would be the opposite?

I would say the the child who is not well behaved is naughty.

OK, so you say he is not well behaved or just he is naughty.

He's very naughty. He always starts fights in class.

OK, now the student is having a little bit of problems with math.

And so the parent asks what he can do to complement what he is learning in the classroom.

OK, so to complement, you might have heard this verb before, but here it means something special.

It means to add to. All right. So, OK, the boy, Alan, he's learning a lot in school,

but maybe he's not learning enough because his math scores just aren't good enough.

So the father wants to know what can he do in addition to school.

Right. You know, what can he do extra to help his boy so that will it will complement his studies.

That's right. So we have to complement someone as to say, oh, you look nice today

or this in this situation, this verb we are saying to provide more support or extra help to something.

That's right. So I feel really good about accounting, but I want to take an extra math class

to complement my accounting studies because I'm just not very confident in my math.

Very good. Exactly. All right. So and towards the end, well, we're talking about how the child's tuition is overdue.

The teacher says the child's tuition is overdue. What is tuition, Marco?

Well, the tuition is the fees that you have to pay for school.

OK, so maybe a private school will have a tuition. So a high school or an elementary school.

But you often hear this in regards to college or university. So college tuitions in America are very expensive.

That's right. And when a tuition is overdue, it means that it hasn't been paid yet.

And so the payment is late. The payment is late. Now, a lot of things can be overdue.

That means they've passed their due date. A bill can be overdue.

That's right. So you should have paid your bill already, but you haven't. So it's overdue.

OK, so a lot of vocab there. Why don't we listen to our dialogue again?

Thank you for coming tonight, Mr. Weber. As a teacher, it's great seeing the kids' parents

assist our parent-teacher conference night.

Of course. I am very interested to know how my child is doing and also get some insight from you as to how he can improve.

Well, Alan is a great student. He's a hard worker and very well behaved. However, he does struggle a bit with math.

I guess he gets that from me. I never did well in math when I was a kid.

What can I do at home to complement what he is learning in the classroom?

Well, it's important that you sit with him and review his homework assignments and help him with math.

I would also recommend he stay after school twice a week for tutoring sessions. It will really help a lot.

Thanks a lot. I will definitely do that. Is there anything else?

Um, yes. Here's a notice from our financial department. Seems your child's tuition is overdue.

Oh, yes.

I...

Alright, we're back. So now we've prepared three key phrases for you on Fluency Builder.

Fluency Builder

Alright, the first phrase here on Fluency Builder is to struggle with. So, Alan is a great student, but he does struggle with math.

That's right. So, to struggle with something means that you are having a hard time. It's difficult for you.

It is difficult. So, when I was a student in elementary school, I struggled with science. Is there anything you struggled with, Marco?

I struggled with... I struggled a little bit with history.

Interesting. So, for Marco, history was hard. For me, science was hard.

But you can also use it for your work, right? You can say, I'm struggling a little bit at work.

I'm struggling with my new schedule. I have too much to do.

Okay. So, after the teacher said that Alan is struggling with math, the parent actually said, I guess he gets that from me.

I never did well in math when I was a kid. So, what is the parent saying?

He gets that from me or she gets that from me. This means that the child has the same problems the parent has.

So, when the parent was little, he had a hard time with math. He struggled with math.

And now his child struggles with math. So, it's something that maybe he inherited or he got from his father.

Right.

He gets that from me.

Right. So, sometimes you will hear that maybe somebody is stubborn and you say, well, you know, I get that from my dad.

Yes. I'm very talkative. I get that from my mother. That means my mother is talkative and I have the same characteristic.

So, we're basically saying that you kind of genetically inherit the same characteristics.

Exactly.

All right. And the teacher said that, well, in order to improve, Alan should attend tutoring sessions.

Tutoring sessions. Now, this is important. You might have heard the word tutor before.

I have a math tutor. But a tutoring session is actually the time you spend together with your tutor practicing something or studying something.

Right. So, you don't have a class with your tutor. You have a tutoring session.

That's right. Class is for a teacher and many students. But a tutoring session is one-on-one.

It's two people together, a tutor and a student, a learner.

So, the word tutor can be a noun. You have a tutor, which is a person that helps you or you can tutor someone.

To tutor, which means to teach or to help.

That's right. So, in college, I had a tutoring session with a math tutor two times a week.

That means my math tutor helped me learn math outside of school, after school.

Very good. Alright. So, a lot of great stuff there. Let's listen to the dialogue one last time.

Thank you for coming tonight, Mr. Weber. As a teacher, it's great seeing the kids' parents assist our parent-teacher conference tonight.

Of course. I'm very interested to know how my child is doing and also get some insight from you as to how he can improve.

Well, Alan is a great student. He's a hard worker and very well behaved. However, he does struggle a bit with math.

I guess he gets that from me. I never did well in math when I was a kid.

What can I do at home to complement what he is learning in the classroom?

Well, it's important that you sit with him and review his homework assignments and help him with math.

I would also recommend he stay after school twice a week for tutoring sessions. It will really help a lot.

Thanks a lot. I will definitely do that. Is there anything else?

Um, yes. Here's a notice from our financial department. Seems your child's tuition is overdue.

Oh, yes. I...

Alright. So, parent-teacher conferences, a very common thing. A very common thing.

And I think sometimes even a little bit scary for the kid because, you know, your parent is going to go talk to your teacher

and maybe your teacher is not going to say great things about you.

Yeah, this is always very nerve-wracking for children because maybe you didn't tell your mom and dad

what you got on your test in science last week and then your teacher will tell your parents and your parents will be angry.

Right.

So, this is the time when the parents can be honest with the teacher and the teacher can be honest with the parents.

That's right because sometimes teachers will have a file with maybe your test scores and they will show them to your parents.

So, not only what you get on your report card but then you actually see the tests and it could be like you say a little nerve-wracking.

I've also heard though it can be nerve-wracking for the teacher because sometimes teachers have to tell parents things

that they don't really want to know about their kids.

Right.

If the teacher says, hey, your boy Alan, he's not very good at math, maybe Alan's dad gets angry.

Right.

And says, yo, no, that's not true. He's very good at math.

Right, right.

So, it can be hard for everyone but I think generally they're very positive. They really help the students.

Right.

Well, it's interesting and actually I haven't really seen parent-teacher conferences to be that common outside of the United States.

So, maybe if you're a parent, you have attended a parent-teacher conference or maybe when you were a kid, your parents went to your parent-teacher conference.

And if you don't have teacher conference, parent-teacher conferences in your country, what do you have?

How do parents and teachers talk?

Let us know. Our website is EnglishPod.com.

All right. We'll see you guys there.

Bye.

Music