Sage Advice: Staying Connected to Parents
What's the best way to stay connected with busy parents?
Email and school Web portals. Giving parents live online access to student grades, attendance, and assignments has been a great communication booster. They feel involved and can easily email with questions or suggestions. Playing phone tag is over.
Bob Elenbaas
Teacher
Lake Orion High School
Lake Orion, Michigan
Sharing conferences with other teachers. By having another of a student's teachers with us, parents and students can get updated and teachers can talk about learning styles and behavior issues in more than one class. The group gets a more complete picture of how a student is doing academically and can work together on possible solutions.
Marcie Wombold
Humanities Instructor
Aviation High School
Seattle, Washington
I keep a blog called The Principal's Office -- tagline: "Not as bad a place to be as you remember" -- linked from the school's home page. I talk about what's going on in school, upcoming events, school philosophy, adolescent health tips, and so on, while offering discussion forums, an image gallery, a calendar, and, in the near future, a link to an online bookstore.
Norman Maynard
Principal
Thornton Friends Upper School
Silver Spring, Maryland
Tell them they and their child control nearly 80 percent of what makes a learner successful; the school contributes only 20 percent. If they want success, they, as well as the school and its teachers, need to be accountable.
Tom King
Adjunct Professor of Education
University of St. Thomas
Minneapolis, Minnesota
A Web site, of course! But it must be an online portal that contains student work samples, learning objectives for the week and the school year, state standards, online/PDF resources, teacher-communication links, monthly classroom news, and polls and surveys for student and parent feedback.
Miles Roe
Sixth-grade Teacher
Mill Creek Elementary School
Doylestown, Pennsylvania
We have established a parent listserv, which we use to send out a "Weekly Message." It is great for last-minute reminders of upcoming events in school as well as in the community.
Communicating with parents
Submitted by C Lee (not verified) on May 4, 2008 - 22:32.
I share with the parents in the beginning of the school year that I will be using a homework assignment sheet every week. I preprint the homework assignments on the front, where parents need to check and sign each night. I initial it if the student didn't complete and/or turn in the assignment(s) the next day. On the other side I have reminders typed such as tests or special events for the week. Also, I have a spot for me to write quick notes and another spot for parents to write quick notes. I collect this every week and keep it on file.
When I send individual notes my students tend to lose it and I'm constantly asking for the note. But with this assignment sheet, all the parents know about it the beginning of the year and so the students are less likely to lose it because both the parents and I ask for it every day.
Communication with parents.
Submitted by Lana Reed (not verified) on February 14, 2008 - 12:16.
As a middle school teacher, I find it difficult to find time to stay in contact with all my student's parents. I don't like the idea of only getting in touch with them when I have bad news, so I make a point of phoning or emailing each of them at the beginning of the year (before any trouble begins) with a nice hello. During this time, I let them know how things are going so far and the best ways to contact me throughout the school year.
At different times during the school year, I try to give parents additional positive contacts. Often, they are surprised when they realize I just called to say something nice about their child. It makes them happy, it makes me feel good, and it encourages the student to keep up the good work.
Establishing this type of relationship with the parents makes communicating with them easier when there are problems in the classroom.
A Parent's Page
Submitted by The Maze (not verified) on November 24, 2007 - 00:02.
I keep parent's advised of what is going on in my classes and important information through a "Parents Page" on my school website. I also provide video podcasts of items I think I need to show them. Parent's can always count on the fact that I have a special place for them on the school site to advise them of important information! It works!
BEE Binders
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on October 23, 2007 - 16:32.
This is an interesting idea. We have tried many ways to keep students organized, such as folders and spiral notebooks, expandible file folders and folders and notebook paper. Nothing seems to work well for the majority. How big are the binders? Do you use divider tabs? I will be looking for more feedback and information.
Communication between
Submitted by Patti (not verified) on September 30, 2007 - 17:44.
Communication between teachers and parents is so critical in the success of students. When parents and teachers are on board the same train, the students feel safe and ready for their journey. My school uses a website called homeworknow.com, and each teacher posts daily agendas, upcoming events, tests, projects, homework, etc. We have also adopted a Thursday mail policy. Anything that needs to be signed and returned goes home with the students on Thursdays. In addition, the school posts an email every Friday called the McConnell Minute. Parents who have furnished us with an active email address get a copy each week. Yet another way that we stay connected with parents is our 24 hour policy. Teachers are required to respond to parent inquiries within 24 hours. Most of our teachers email progress reports home weekly as well. All of these tools have a tremdously positive impact on our communication with parents.
In our community, internet
Submitted by Kimberly Taylor (not verified) on September 30, 2007 - 16:31.
In our community, internet access is not a given so I use the old fashion person to person methods. I call parents with good and bad news. I have even made home visits.
Parents want to hear good
Submitted by Elizabeth Bure (not verified) on September 18, 2007 - 21:23.
Parents want to hear good things about their kids. They are going to be more receptive and more willing to cooperate with the teacher if they trust that the teacher is on their kids' side. I try to make more positive than criticizing contacts with parents. When I do need to contact parents about something negative, I make sure to let them know that my motivation is to alleviate the obstacle so that their child has a more positive experience in school. And the positive follow-up phonecall to a previous negative one is always warmly received. We all want to be proud of our kids.
I have a simple, low tech
Submitted by Joy (not verified) on July 14, 2007 - 19:00.
I have a simple, low tech way of keeping in touch with parents. Each of my students has a three ring binder that we call B.E.E. Binders. (Bring Everything Everyday) I got the idea from a teacher's website.
http://www.teachingheart.net/moosebooks.html
In the binder there is a section for the typical things you would find in a student binder - math notes, reading notes, etc. The difference with these binders is the first section is for parent communication (it has filler paper that is just for parent/teacher commmunication), and the second section is for our school calendar and schoolwide and classroom newsletters. The third section holds homework assignments, so parents can check up on this, as well. Everything is in a central location that is brought home and returned to school every day.
My parents love this, and I get positive feedback all the time about how nice it is to finally have a teacher that communicates with them.
I like the idea of a three
Submitted by Julie (not verified) on January 28, 2008 - 16:13.
I like the idea of a three ring binder. I have a Friday Folder for my Kindergarten students that I send home each weekend. In it is letters from the office, a weekly classroom newsletter with upcoming events and important dates, notes about student progress, etc. I have gained a lot of positive feedback about the Friday Folders. Parents don't have to worry about missing notes sent home during the week(sometimes during the week Kindergarten students misplace things! LOL).
You can imagine what students' folders look like by January! The binder would last all year! Thank you, great idea!
Comunication binder
Submitted by Sue (not verified) on October 2, 2007 - 17:17.
Joy,
what age students do you use this binder with?
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