Conference Observations

I hope you are all getting a chance to observe some conferences as I did today. I realized that I've been a parent at conferences over 40 times, but I certainly see them through new eyes now.

Teacher A, schedules 20 minute blocks, and sent out a pre-conference form. She appeared relaxed today, and planned on starting the conference with whatever issues the parent's had listed on the form. She has sent home all assessments for parent signature, sends artwork home when it's done and the report card went home with student's last week, so she'll use her 20 minutes to discuss what the parent wants to talk about rather than reviewing work or the report card, which the parent should have already seen.
Teacher B schedules 1 hour blocks for each conference. She reviews the report card with the parents at that time and goes thru each subject area, in depth, including assessments. Each subject area was in it's own color coded folder, with a pre-printed label. She explained all the items on the report card and asked for any questions at the end. She explained that she doesn't write any comments on the 1st report card, as it's all about assessments in different areas. She will have comments in the spring.
The good news is that in both cases the parents seemed to leave satisfied, and the conference seemed to fit the temperament of the teacher. Looking back to my parent conference days, I hoped there are were no surprises at the conference, and I hoped to see some evidence that the teacher "knew" my child.

I'm interested to hear your conference experiences.