Communicating with Parents Early and Often

Setting up clear lines of communication with parents or guardians is to your advantage as a teacher.  Quite frankly, good communication with parents will just make your life easier.  The more you communicate, keep them abreast of classroom happenings and school news they will feel more like part of the team.  The result are parents that are more supportive, more understanding, and less likely to have a negative conclusion when something comes up with their child (Mariconda, 2003).

I want to quickly note here that I am using the term parents and guardians interchangeably.  It goes without saying that families are infinitely diverse in their makeup and details.  One large barrier to communication is when teachers use their own cultural and belief-based lenses while interacting with culturally and linguistically diverse guardians (Graham-Clay, 2005).  As hard as it seems, those lenses must be set aside or at least acknowledged to open lines of communication.  Holding onto these lenses is, at best, unintentionally disinviting and, at worst, intentionally so (Purkey & Novak, 2015).  So when I use the term parent or guardian, I mean to say any person(s) that meet the three major goals of parenting as laid out by the American Psychological Association (n.d.):

1. Ensuring a child’s health and safety (basic needs).

2. Preparing children for life as productive adults.

3. Transmitting values.

Whoever is taking on these important tasks or parenting, research points to the fact that the more parents and teachers communicate relevant information about a student the better both are at supporting the student’s achievement (American Federation of Teachers, 2007).  You can follow some simple guidelines in connecting with parents provided by the American Federation of Teachers (2007):

• Initiation.  You should contact parents in one form or another as soon as you know who is going to be in your class.  This sets the precedent that you are open to two-way communications and establishes expectations.

• Timeliness. You should make contact as soon as possible if a problem occurs.  New frustrations and problems can come from waiting or ignoring the problem.

• Consistency and Frequency.  Most parents want ongoing honest feedback about their students and their growth or sticking points.

• Follow Through. “Parents and teachers each want to see that the other will actually do what they say they will do” (para. 14). 

• Clarity and Usefulness.  Both parents and teachers need information that helps the student in a form that is easy to use and understand.

By making the effort to communicate with parents early and often you will be making gainful strides to the success of your students.  From the minute call about a good day to the dreaded call about an issue, if the lines of communication are open and honest from the start, everyone involved will be better served.   

References

American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Parenting. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/topics/parenting

American Federation of Teachers. (2007). Building Parent-Teacher Relationships. Reading Rockets. Retrieved from https://www.readingrockets.org/article/building-parent-teacher-relationships

Graham-Clay, S. (2005). Communicating with Parents: Strategies for Teachers. School Community Journal, 15, 1st ser., 117-129. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ794819.pdf.

Mariconda, B. (2003). Five Keys to Successful Parent-Teacher Communication. Scholastic. Retrieved from https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/five-keys-successful-parent-teacher-communication/?eml=SSO/aff/20180319/96525/txtl/GenericLink///////&affiliate_id=96525&clickId=3182665199

Purkey, W. W., & Novak, J. M. (2015). An Introduction to Invitational Theory (Rep.). Retrieved from https://www.invitationaleducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/art_intro_to_invitational_theory-1.pdf.

Who was your favorite teacher?

I have had many teachers that made an impact in my life, ranging from elementary school all the way up to my current masters program.  Each one has added something to how I learned, not necessarily what I learned.  Since I am planning on teaching in an elementary school setting I thought that I would talk about my favorite elementary school teacher, Mr. Walsh, my sixth grade teacher.

My elementary school in Wyoming was a Kindergarten through sixth grade school so I have always thought of the sixth grade as elementary level.  Here in Colorado, the sixth grade is part of middle school, but my fond memories of Mr. Walsh as an elementary teacher remains for me.  Mr. Walsh was a short, grumpy sort of man that always talked in a gravelly voice and would hold up a finger at you until he was ready to answer your question.  Sounds sweet doesn’t he.  So why, might you ask, was he my favorite teacher?  Because when he was ready he really listened.  You could ask your question and he would answer it, sometimes with another leading question.  Something I remember so vividly about Mr. Walsh was his skill as an amazing listener.  I always felt like he truly heard me, not just the questions, but any time.  

He was also a master of giving us choices in our learning.  One specific project I remember was our “We Didn’t Start the Fire” research project.  He often played music in our class, but his favorite song without a doubt was We didn’t Start the Fire by Billy Joel.  He even had the lyrics up on the wall.  For one research project we had to choose a lyric from the song to research.  If you haven’t heard the song, it recaps major historical events in a catchy succession.  You can check out the video below  Looking back, it was a brilliant assignment.  He also gave us choices on what math assignments to do and let us go ahead if we were able.  I know now that he was great at differentiation, something that made a big impact on me.  He made me feel like I was in control of my learning and motivated to learn.

I have often thought back to that class and have modeled some of how I teach on Mr. Walsh.  I may not have the gravel voice or love that song quite as much, but I plan on giving my students the opportunity to choose and above all else be the person listening when they need it.