Kaylie: Establishing Strong Communication with Thy Fathers and Mothers

Typing this post is testimony that I survived the first week of school. I’ll give a brief Sports Center rundown of the highlights:

• Thrilled that my returning students quickly settled back into the classroom routine.
• Met seven amazing, full-of-personality sixth graders.
• Was informed that I will likely receive another student in the upcoming weeks along with an individual assistant for that student.
• Discovered I have an IEP to write for a student I’ve known for approximately four days.
• Had one of my students accidently activate the fire alarm in the cafeteria during lunchtime. 

Needless to say, I did not set my alarm clock on Saturday! Oh, and on a personal note, I got engaged this weekend! I’ve definitely been blessed with an exciting week!

With the first days of school behind me, I am now determined to begin the year by making changes I felt were necessary based upon my reflection on last year. Near the top of that list of changes is increased communication with and involvement with parents/guardians. Last year, so much of my time was spent figuring out how to keep the steam engine that is my classroom rolling; I definitely fell short in this area.

I mainly spoke to parents/guardians at IEP meetings, when kids were sick or needed something at school, or when I needed their signatures on some type of paperwork. I know this limited interaction does nothing to help my students. Parents and/or guardians are the experts. They know their child’s strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, habits, behaviors, and quirks better than anyone.

So, now that I’ve identified my area of deficit, what am I going to do about it? First of all, I created a student information sheet to be filled out by parents/guardians. It has the basic address, birthday, phone number stuff, but also includes questions like: What do you consider your child’s strengths? What three things would you like to see your child accomplish this year? Briefly describe what you see your child doing in 10 years. Do I always get answers to these types of questions? No, but the ones that parents do provide me with are very helpful insights on my students.

Second, I am going to make taking time to talk to parents, either face-to-face or over the phone, a higher priority. Last year, I would often catch myself rushing through phone calls from parents during the day or hurrying up conversations with parents at the end of the school day as they were picking up their children. It had nothing to do with me not wanting to talk to them, I just had a billion other things running through my mind that needed to be done. I’ve come to realize that this is flawed thinking. I now understand that it’s crucial for parents/guardians to know and feel comfortable with me. After all, they are entrusting me with their children’s education and their personal safety and well-being for seven hours every school day.

School has only been in session four full days and my New School Year Resolutions have already been put to the test. The student information sheets were promptly sent home (along with the 50 other  pieces of “very important” paperwork parents/guardians get inundated with at the beginning of every school year), and my assistants helped make sure that sheets were returned for each student.

I took time to read each sheet and my wonderful assistants (who I could not survive without) made a chart with important facts about each student. Also, I have had nice face-to-face or phone conversations with five parents already. My favorite part of bumping this up the priority list is that I always find out something new about my students when I take time to just talk with their parents/guardians. I so value this insight and know it will help me better serve my students and their families.

Even though I’m making progress in the area of parent/guardian communication, I know I’ve still got plenty of room to grow.

What ways do you guys get parents/guardians involved? How do you build relationships and rapport with parents/guardians?

Comments

[Andrew]

Hi Kaylie,
It sounds like you have had quite a first week. Congratulations on the engagement. As someone who is about to start my career as a SPED teacher I cant help but feel a little intimidated by the sounds of your first week in. I really look forward to starting, but stuff like that sounds pretty tough. I have continually heard that having good communication with the parents/guardians is key, so I believe you when you say its something to strive for. Thanks for the post, and have fun planning that wedding!

[Emma]

Kaylie,
I think that putting increasing parent communication is a good goal to have! This year, we have set up a parent to teacher notebook. At the end of the day, we write a quick note about things that happened during the day or any questions that we have. Then when the student comes to school the next day, we check to see if the parent has written anything back. Each student has a binder with a take home folder, assignment notebook, and a spiral notebook in them. This has helped cut down on phone calls throughout the day and surprise visits from parents.
We have also told parents that if they have any urgent questions to please call or email. We have found though that some parents will take advantage of the open door/communication policy. Our special education coordinator has made it a point this year to let the teachers and parents know that we will only do communication during the school hours. We have had parents in the past be on the phone with us for more than 2 hours. This is something to keep in mind when setting up communication. But it sounds like you are doing a great job!

[Kaylie]

Thanks so much for the feedback! I love the ideas; keep them coming!

[Elizabeth U.]

Hi! My program also does home visits...I have not had a chance to experience this yet but I know I will get an in-depth look at the real lives of my students. Also, I sent home a welcome packet that had questions for parents to answer similar to yours - basic information along with strengths, weaknesses, desired outcomes for the year.....

And finally, because I know my parents are busy, I made a website through shutterfly.com that is free for teachers and allows me to share photos and information to my parents. This allows them to see what they are doing all day and get any information or forms that they missed.

[Mary Beth Diehl]

me again! Forgot:
1. CONGRATS on the engagement! :)

2. If possible, try emailing parents and using communcation notebooks. One of the advantages of written communication is that it forces ALL parties involved to slow down & think about what they are 'saying'. [Of course, I came up before texting and IM-ing]
:) MBD

[Mary Beth Diehl]

Hi Kaylie! We are blessed in our school district with the time to do Home Visits--if there is ANY way you can get this going with your students, please try. Quite a bit of research available on the benefits, read one just recently on the NEA website. The Student Info form is also a super idea--mine has really helped me. I do one at the Initial Home Visit, and a different one to prep for Annual Review for IEP. Also glad to hear your paras are so good :)
Re: the 20-jillion VIF [VERY IMPORTANT FORMS] that go home daily--I've made it a rule to only send home one piece of paper per day. Many of the VIF's are not that crucial, and can wait a day or 2. The first week of school is the worst--great to hear your return rate was so high.
It is hard to write an IEP when you have only know a child for a brief period of time. Make sure your admin knows this--perhaps you can collaborate with the students previous teacher, or apply for a 30-day extension?
Finally, the child who set off the fire alarm: Maybe this can be used towards one of the child's IEP goals? "____ continues to increase his abilities in interacting with and exploring his/her environment, and communicating with peers and staff". :) Mary Beth Diehl, early childhood special educator

[Kaylie]

I love the idea of a parent night. Y'all chose great topics to discuss, too. Thanks so much for the feedback!

[Sara Stanley]

We host a parent night twice a year. The fall session is a get-to-know-you/q&a (with treats, of course!) The spring parent night is a presentation - parents usually help us pick the topic. Last year we discussed parent advocacy and also did a hands-on workshop in the computer lab to teach parents how they can use the computer at home to work with their child.