For Biyonca Jennings, who has children at T.J. Harris Upper and Lower elementary schools in Meridian, education is not something that stops in classrooms and corridors.

“You have to do it at home, as well,” Jennings said.

Jennings is among parents anticipating this school year’s first round of parent-teacher conferences in area school districts, slated to take place in the coming weeks. She’s eager to talk with teachers to find out how her children are doing with reading, writing and the rest of their subjects.

For educators, the whole concept of parental involvement is something they explore throughout their training, explained Kimberly Hall, interim division head of education for Mississippi State University-Meridian. Education students, she said, consider parental involvement in wide-sweeping ways.

“It’s not only about helping kids with homework,” she said. “It’s about helping kids with social issues, emotional issues and basically that big umbrella of parental involvement in a child’s life.”

Hall noted the importance of parental involvement — and also the importance of understanding how it can be difficult in some ways.

“Sometimes our parents did not have a good experience in school themselves, so the educational environment is intimidating,” Hall said. “We speak a lot about that in the counseling program … about how you change the culture or the climate of the school to show them this is an inviting place to come.”

Homework help, Hall said, can also be challenging to parents.

“Math is probably the typical one that parents struggle with,” she said. “The way (students learn) math is different than the rote memorization where you just memorize all of your multiplication facts. Now, students will solve a multiplication problem in different ways, and parents may not understand how the child is learning.”

But there are approaches, Hall said, that can help parents to engage more successfully with their children’s school work. Simply asking children how they’re taught to approach problems, she suggested, can open up good discussions.

“A lot of times you can pick up, by listening to your child, the steps they need to follow,” she said. “Typically as a parent, you know how to solve the problem — the strategy is just different.”

Those are among the topics parents may be discussing with teachers in the coming weeks.

At the Meridian Public School District, parent-teacher conferences are slated at all district schools from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday.

“Teachers contact parents to set up times,” said LaVonda Germany, principal of Poplar Springs Elementary School.

Germany said she wants parents to feel free to ask questions — and those questions might touch upon topics such as student performance, things a parent can do to help children at home and ways a parent might support a teacher in the classroom.

“It’s a total partnership between the schools and parents,” Germany said. “Parents can’t do it all on their own, and the schools can’t do it all on their own, either.”

That’s a point also expressed by Cheryl Thomas, Lauderdale County School District’s curriculum director for grades 5 through 12 and the district’s director of professional development.

“Parents’ collaboration is extremely important to us,” Thomas said. “It’s two-way. We need information from the parent, questions from them that can help us know how we can help with their child.”

Lauderdale County School District’s parent-teacher conferences are scheduled for Oct. 19, with times varying according to school. Thomas said longer conferences are scheduled for later in the year, in March, and both officials stressed that parents can schedule meetings at any time during the year — particularly if they’re not able to make the scheduled conferences.

The conferences also provide forums for teachers to explain data gathered from student assessments, along with ways parents can gain access to student grades.

Depending on the children’s needs, parents and teachers might also discuss ways parents can sit down and help students with their homework — something that, as Hall noted, can be challenging when new problem-solving methods are involved.

For Biyonca Jennings, the parent with children at T.J. Harris Upper and Lower elementary schools, a little time on YouTube was needed to help her learn new math-teaching methods. She said the methods teachers use to teach math today involve moving through more steps than when she was in school.

“They break it down in so many different steps — and when we learned how to do it, it was quick and simple,” said Jennings, who also serves as the young adult and adult program coordinator for the Meridian-Lauderdale County Public Library.

The difference between old and new ways of solving math problems sparked a conversation between Jennings and her 11-year-old son. Her son explained the way he’s been taught to solve a particular math problem, and they ended up working on the same problem together — but using different methods.

“We both got the same answer,” she said.

Resources on the Net

• Parent resources are available on school districts’ websites, and parent Biyonca Jennings offered one of her own, as well: www.starfall.com/

• Also on the Net:

www.mpsd.k12.ms.us/

www.lauderdale.k12.ms.us/

Parent-Teacher Conference Schedules:

• Meridian Public School District:

10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 10 for all schools

• Lauderdale County School District:

Thursday, Oct. 19:

Clarkdale Elementary: 3:30 to 6 p.m.

Clarkdale Middle: 3:30 to 6 p.m.

Clarkdale High: 3:30 to 6 p.m.

Northeast Elementary: 3 to 6 p.m.

Northeast Middle: 3 to 5:30 p.m.

Northeast High: 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.

Southeast Elementary: 3:30 to 6 p.m.

Southeast Middle: 3 to 6 p.m.

Southeast High: 3:30 to 6 p.m.

West Lauderdale Elementary: Kindergarten and Grade 4: 1:30 to 5:30 p.m.; Grades 1, 2, 3: 2:30 to 5:30 p.m.

West Lauderdale Middle: 3:30 to 6 p.m.

West Lauderdale High: 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.

LCSD Educational Skills Center: 2 to 4 p.m.