At the Parent Teacher Conferences in December, the school piloted an on-line sign up for the 7th grade parents.  We asked you what you thought by providing a quick survey.  Here are the results.  Thanks to those of you who provided feedback.

Online Survey:  What was your opinion of the online sign up tool used for 7^th grade parent/teacher conferences?

Summary:  Overwhelmingly, parents like the tool and want to use it again.  General thought is that 3 minutes per teacher was just too short.

Responses:  28

Did you sign up using the online tool? YES:  24; NO: 4

For those that did not use the tool, why?

·         Did not need to schedule a meeting

·         Was too late

·         Wasn’t easy to use

·         Did not like the idea

 

For those that did use the tool, we asked if they agreed or disagreed with four statements.

General Comments

·         I think the process was much better than last year. I loved using the tool to sign up and knowing what time I was meeting each teacher. However, I think three minutes is a very short amount of time.

·         Not specific to the on-line sign-up, which worked great, but 3 minutes is just not enough time, especially when many of us parents are not connected to the teachers and have few opportunities to speak and meet with them.   Even 5 minutes seems like a lot of time compared to three!

·         On-line scheduling worked fine. I think that the conferences should be scheduled for more than 3 minutes each (8 minutes would be more realistic).

·         I do think 3 minutes is too short of a time. Other schools provide a minimum of 5 minutes or vary it by grade.

·         It was great!!! Please continue to use this method in the future.

·         I loved the concept of the on-line sign-up and hope that it is a available for future scheduling

·         My very first appointment ran 20 minutes late which made me late for all the others.

·         I think that it must have been very successful. I am impressed by the process and think it would be a great tool going forward for all grades.  I did get to speak with all of my daughters teachers, even though I didn't sign up, after 7:30. Seems like everyone was less stressed, there were no endless lines because people showed up for specific appointments. Great job!

·         I did find the online signup process to be slow--it was time consuming to repeat the process for each individual teacher. Could it somehow be done on a grid for all teachers at the same time?

·         I thought things went rather smoothly. Although I would recommend extending the time. Three minutes was just not enough time.

·         I do not have any issues with the online sign ups. However, I thought the 3 minute interval was way too short. Most teachers were running behind which made the other scheduled appointments difficult.  How about at least 5 min intervals next year??

·         The system doesn't work. We had a teacher that was very late and it threw off the rest of the appointments we had. Instead of it being quick it ended up taking twice as long as it should have taken. Three minutes is also a waste of my time coming. What do these teachers expect to accomplish in 3 minutes? If they plan on using this system again, I will not do it online. I will wait in line, and will probably be much quicker and I won't have to stick to a 3 minute speed student review.

·         Great tool. This was my first experience with a 7th grader and I read the letter and only signed up for the homeroom teacher.

·         I thought it was great, timing was backed up a little, but it kept everyone moving.  Some people thought maybe 4 or 5 minutes would have been better.

·         Awesome idea !!! Everything moved sooo smoothly. We were done with all the teachers in such a short time !!!

·         Some teachers had timer/buzzers to make sure they stayed close to the sign up schedule times- I think this is a good and necessary idea. The teachers who did not have timers fell significantly behind the sign up schedule (20 to 30 minute delays).

·         The 6th grade team should have stuck with the 3 minute time that was set by the principle. If they needed 20 minutes to speak with a parent they should have made an appt another time. Thru off the whole time slot

·         3 minutes seemed very quick.....Teachers have to be on time....need to give a minute to get to next class....