Developing positive relationships with parents

Published February 26, 2018 by Nick

Schools have many ways of communicating with parents thanks to social media and applications designed to engage parents with their child’s learning, think Facebook, Class Dojo, See Saw and Edmodo. These applications do a great job of keeping parents informed about how their child is going with learning and providing an insight into their child’s classroom.

Communicating positive behaviours

For the most part teachers and schools communicate with individual families for two reasons:

Unacceptable behaviour
Sharing information about learning (positive and negative).

What is communicated less (for some students never) is when students demonstrate positive behaviours. Things like showing initiative, communicating well, being a good friend, helping others and demonstrating leadership etc. While parents enjoy and appreciate being able to see and hear what their child is learning they appreciate even more feedback about their child’s positive behaviours (being a good ‘human being’).

Schools and teachers are required to report about learning and we have to communicate when poor behaviour reaches a certain level. What we don’t have to report to parents is when their child behaves in a positive way or does something out of the ordinary to help others. Yet it is often this feedback that makes a parent most proud and can help mend or build relationships between the school and families whose only connection with the school may be because their child is always in trouble.

Below is a real example of a message home and the resulting message back to the teacher from the parent. The positive conversations generated by this message at home and the resulting perception of the school/teacher noticing their child in a positive light can only result in a strengthened relationship between the school and family.

It is not possible to continually communicate with parents but when we have the chance we should try to take it. Especially with those students who often don’t display the best behaviour. Try to catch them doing something good and let their parents know it could help you and the school in the long run.

Communicating with parents

Published August 25, 2014 by Nick

Communicating with parents is an important part of teaching. When students don’t complete homework, miss due dates or are not using class time effectively we will usually approach parents to inform them and discuss solutions. Often we do this after the problem has occurred. Implementing effective regular communication processes with parents may help avoid or minimise these problems.

The benefits of communicating regularly with parents are:

It allows for parents, students and teachers to be on the same page. Students will struggle with the, “I have no homework” statement when parents know what has been set for homework or when the next due date is coming up. Making expectations clear to parents is a way of avoiding potential future conflict between students, parents and teachers.
Parents want to know what is happening in their child’s classroom and appreciate the time and effort made to keep them informed.
Increased communication is more likely to see the teacher receive support from the parent if an issue arises with their child.

It is up to teachers to implement communication processes that are workable for both the teacher and the parents over the long term. Processes need to be sustainable and work simply and easily once in place.

Examples of traditional methods for communicating with parents include:

Notes home in diaries/communication books.
Formal letters
Phone calls
Face to face meetings

Examples of less common methods for communicating with parents include:

Emails (email groups)
Messaging (create parent group contacts on your phone)
Edmodo (teacher creates a class group and invites parents using a code)
Twitter (create a class hashtag)
Facebook (create a Group and invite parents to join)
Blog (use Edublogs to create a class blog)

My belief is that there is a place for all of the above forms of communication and depends entirely on the situation faced by the teacher. Having said that I cannot go past the second list for ease of of use to regularly (daily/weekly) communicate with parents (and students). Most teachers have used the methods on the first list to communicate with parents but these are time consuming and not as efficient for daily or weekly communication.

The four that I think are the most effective for constant regular communication are group emails, group txt messaging, Facebook and blogs.

1. Group email – Collecting everyones email may take some time and effort but once set up is an easy way to communicate important information quickly and easily. Attach images, documents and links.

2. Group txt messaging – Like emails, collecting phone numbers may take a little time and effort (although the school should have almost all parent mobile numbers). Set up a group contact for use at any time (our phones are always with us). This is a bonus as we often think of things we should have reminded students/parents when we are away from our work spaces or a computer.

3. Facebook – Setting up a Facebook Group that is open to all students/parents in your class or maybe a separate group for parents and students is an effective way to communicate. The benefit of Facebook is that most parents use it. Post information regularly about upcoming due dates, events, images, links and documents.

Below is a post and parent reply to my Facebook Group “PBAS HPE 7-10 Course Information”. This group is open to students and parents and currently has 28 members.

4. Blogs – Set up a blog if you want to give parents a window into your classroom. This is a little more time consuming than Facebook/emails/messaging but can have a big impact on parents perception of you and what you do with their children at school.

Click on the image below to visit my Junior PE blog.

With any form of communication that allows you to post information about children (blogs) or could considered intrusive by parents (sending txt messages, emails or Facebook Groups) it is important to send an explanation letter allowing parents to consider the pros and cons of the proposed system. They can then give their permission (or not) to be a part of the process. I still see great value in a Facebook or email group even without 100% participation by parents. Those that opt in will reap the benefits as will the teacher.

Communicating with Parents

Published April 2, 2012April 2, 2012 by Nick

Is this the only time we communicate with parents?

How do we connect parents to our classrooms? It is often difficult to connect parents with their child’s classroom in a consistently meaningful way. At what level do we share with parents, is it superficial and only really scratching the surface or do we share in a more deep way that educates parents about our programs, our expectations and how they can help their child at home? Do we make ourselves accessible to parents? Can parents easily and regularly view their students work?

Creating positive links with parents is no doubt more work than not. However the potential benefits are high for the teacher, parent and the student.

Students whose parents are connected with school are more likely to get consistent messages from home and school. Parents are more likely to work and talk with their children about school if they know what is happening in the classroom and have suggestions from the teacher about how to help their child. Students are more likely to feel good about school (and their teacher) if their parents are receiving positive communication from their teachers which is in turn fed back to them via their parents. The Keys to Success postcards are a great (and probably underused) tool for this.

Parents who understand the way in which a teacher teaches and the methods they use and the beliefs they have will feel a lot more comfortable helping their own child knowing they are supporting the teacher. Parents who have a clearer picture of what is happening in the classroom are more likely to strike up a conversation about school with their child and their child’s teacher(s). Hopefully well connected parents are less likely to see the school and the teacher in an intimidating light.

Teachers can build up strong positive relationships with parents through sharing all the good work they do. Strong positive relationships are very beneficial when those times arise that are not so positive. Teachers can help to get parents on board with home work expectations, deadlines for assignments and methods of learning that will assist students like letter formation, tips when reading with a child etc….

Below are some links to ideas used by other teachers.

Student-Led Conferences: How they work in my classroom.

Why my 6 year old students have digital portfolios

Using email to communicate with families

My blog sharing Reception, Year 1 and 2 HPE with parents