Most meetings you'll be involved in will be administrative meetings or parent meetings. Administrative meetings are where you meet with other teachers, your department chairs, or administrators at your school. Parent meetings, of course, are telephone or face-to face meetings with parents. How You Appear: In either case, you must remember the rules of professionalism and always represent yourself as a competent, attentive, interested, involved professional. Your reputation will be made by how you perform at your job and how you are perceived by others. Even when you are around a group of people you know and it seems like an informal setting, remember that this is a situation related to your job and you are being subtly evaluated by others. Opinions are being formed by how you present yourself, what you say, how you look, and what you do. If you represent yourself as sloppy, gossipy, apathetic, or bored, it will not go unnoticed. What You Say: Particularly when you are new to your environment, take care about what you say. Sitting back and listening is usually a good strategy in new environments. Allow yourself some time to learn about the people and the culture. Schools, like most places in the world, have at least some political element. Your comments reflect you and give weight, good or bad, to how others view you. Abraham Lincoln once said, "It is better to remain quiet and be thought a fool, than to speak and confirm it." This is still good advice today. Don't be afraid to speak up when you have something important to contribute, but take care with your words. When You Arrive: Finally, always be on time. The mark of a professional is not to show disrespect for others by wasting their time. When you make others wait for you, you send the message that your time is more valuable than theirs. Also, it is never a good feeling to walk into a room where a meeting has already started and have all eyes turn to you, recognizing your tardiness. How do you feel when you have been in a situation and seen this happen to someone else? It is disruptive to the speaker. Even if there is an excellent reason for being late, the signal it sends is that you are disorganized and/or disrespectful. If you are late, offer a general apology for being late and get settled as unobtrusively as possible. After the meeting, explain and apologize privately to the meeting leader or coordinator.