Charmelle: Partnerships with Parents

A parent came in this school year and shared with me all the wonderful things that her son had worked on this summer and how she was still concerned about his progress. I assured her we could meet and work on some more strategies that she could continue to do with him at home and how we would continue to support him at school. She turned to me and said with a smile “I trust you with him, Ms. Smith.”

Those words meant so much to me being both a parent and educator. I understand how comforting it is to be able to trust someone with your child when you are not present all day.  In that moment, I realized just how important it is to establish communication and build relationships with parents because it is an essential component in how we are successful when working with our students.

Recently, my school had its Back to School Night. I love this time of the year as it creates an opportunity for me to meet with parents and share with them all the things the students will learn this school year and how I plan to support the students through their learning process. This is also a time to facilitate the first line of communication with parents and begin the groundwork for building our relationship.

I like to share with them that I am not only there to be a support to the student but to also support them as well and have them understand that we are a team in achieving the best possible outcome for their child.  Here are a few things I’ve learned in getting my parent relationships off to a good start:

1. Use Multiple Modes of Communication:  Communication in a lower socio-economic environment can be very tricky and I have had to be very creative. My parents work long hours, so I have to be willing to contact parents by phone, email, in person or even through written notes or communication logs. Be sure that your positive communication outweighs the negative ones. Communicate regularly! 
2. Make Yourself Available: Just like in college your professor had office hours so that you would have time to meet to discuss concerns or get extra help if you needed. Set times when you can be available and post them so that parents can have the opportunity to plan to meet with you about their child. It takes some of the stress out of scheduling meetings by arranging office hours. This year I am trying a combination of morning and evening times for parents.  
3. Create A Parent Resource Board: In my classroom, I create a small board that provides parents with a variety of resources that include tips on preparing for IEP meetings, tutoring opportunities, support groups and more. This allows the parents to have access to local support systems and create community connections to available resources.
4. Create A Newsletter: This year as a department we created a newsletter, similar to the parent resource board, which provides strategies and tips. We also use it to share information about the latest changes in school and to highlight student achievements and activities in our classrooms.
5. Be Honest and Document: Always, be honest with parents and be sure you document all communication, incidents, progress reports and more. Documentation is a huge part of our job -- it keeps parents happy and informed about their student.

 

How do you build positive parent-teacher partnerships? I look forward to reading your feedback!

Comments

[tonya]

Engaging parents at the secondary education level is one of the most complex yet important aspects of 21st century education. Obviously by the time a student has reached high school, he or she has gone through a process, both educationally and socially, of separation from parents.

This process is somewhat natural, but is also aided by educators who feel a responsibility to teach each student the importance of individual responsibility. To accomplish this task there is a conscious decision to exclude parents. This exclusion creates a situation where parents are only invited to be involved in their child's education where there is a problem. Thus over time, a call from the school is perceived to be negative, and it is this aura of negativity that must be overcome if parents are to be re-engaged in the child's education.

It appears that the most successful approach is to engage parents through the interest of their child. Examples are band, chorus, sports, some academic clubs, etc. Research indicates that youth engaged in curricular and extracurricular activities are more likely to be successful students. These are, as stated above, the areas where parents are most likely to be engaged. Unfortunately, these are also the areas where the marginal students are not likely to be engaged.

[Kaylee]

I am finishing up my student teaching right now, and the idea of working with parents is a bit intimidating. As a new and young teacher I worry about building a professional and comfortable relationship with parents and other professionals in the building. I really like the idea of a resource board. What a great way to show the parents that you really want to help support them! I also like the idea of a newsletter. There are many different ways you can go with a newsletter. I really liked it when I had students help make a newsletter. I had a template where I added information on current news from the school and my class, but then I had a spot that each student filled in themselves. They decided what they thought was important from their week. This looked different depending on the student's abilities. Some drew pictures, some wrote, some typed. This way it was informative but also personalized. The students were able to work on their writing skills as well! I know gaining parent's trust is the hardest part, so thanks for the tips in this post!

[BreAnna]

Hi Charmelle,

Although I am only a student teacher now, I have already experienced the impact of teacher-parent relationships. A mother came into school two weeks ago saying that one of the para's "inappropriately" touched her student. This particular student is very defiant, and sometimes hard to deal with. The para had actually just placed her hand on his arm, and asked him nicely to get to work. The mother was irate and through a huge fit, which ended up turning into a school-wide meeting. This event was very disheartening to the para, because she was just trying to help motivate the student. The next week was Halloween, and he did not want to participate in the parade so he came into the special education room and sat with me and one of my peers from college. After talking with him, we realized that his family did not have money to buy him a costume, and he was embarrassed. My peer went to the store and bought him an awesome vampire costume to wear for the rest of the day, and to take home with him for trick-or-treating. The mother called that afternoon and was so grateful for the nice gesture. She felt so blessed, and continued to say how much she appreciated the gesture, and that if we ever needed any help in the school to call her. Since that day, this student has tried his best every day, he is kind, patient, respectful, and fun to be around. To me, opening the doors to this student and his mother was the key in getting this student to trust and respect us as his teachers that are there to help him learn and succeed.

[Anne]

Charmelle-
I love the idea of having a parent resource board. You have some great points and ideas to increase home to school communication. My students come to the school via the district bus, so I wonder if I can send home resources a couple of weeks before the IEP meeting? I will need to double check that. Thanks for the ideas!

[Carley H.]

I really like your idea about creating a newsletter. I think that would be such a positive way to keep the parents in tune with what is happening in class, accomplishments of the students, and provide information about resources avaliable for families. I think the parents of my students in my special ed class for student teaching right now would really appreciate such a fun way to hear about class!

[Robin Williams-Jones]

Communication is so important. I think the teacher is the initial contact for the student when he or she is at school. After reading this, I will make it a point to communicate effectively, efficiently and often with my parents. I will use those five tips as a part of communication examples. It has changed the way I will communicate with everyone. It will also make me a more outspoken professional. while I don't have students and parents to communicate with as a professional now. I can use this blog as a way to reach out to my children's teachers now and years to come. I have gained valuable insight on communicate. It will make everything much better.

[Kristine]

I like what you said about letting the parents know that you are there to support them as well as their children. I think a lot of parents are intimidated by the whole process of IEPs or perhaps do not understand the school work that their children bring home, so leave education solely up to the professional educators. It is not that they don't care, they just don't know how they can help. Letting parents know that they are one of the most important parts of their child's education, and then giving them specific ideas of what they can do (for example, working on real-world math problems at the supermarket, or games to work on computation skills) could make many parents feel more connected.

[Emily P]

Charmelle-
In the classroom where I am student teaching, we have 13 students. It is a combined classroom with 9 high schoolers and 4 middle schoolers. The schools try to remain separate. For example, our high schoolers had dress-up week for homecoming this past week, but the middle schoolers did not. Maintaining parent communication can be very difficult when you have half of the students on one schedule and half on another.

Like you said, you must use multiple modes of communication. We have a whole-school field trip tomorrow, and we sent out permission slips in communication folders on a paper copy AND through e-mail. Each parent prefers different modes of communication. Also, I have been sending out a bi-weekly newsletter to parents informing them of upcoming events, schedule changes, and general classroom information. On the bottom of the newsletter, I include a box that says: “Dinner Conversation- If you could own one animal, what would it be and why?” This question, of course, changes with each newsletter.

One last way that we communicate with parents is through the use of daily communication sheets. Every day, the students each grab a half-sheet of paper labeled hours 1-7 (one for each hour of the day). After every hour, a paraprofessional or teacher fills out the respective slot with the activities each student completed and their attitudes/behaviors. At the end of the day, the communication sheet is sent home to parents and is returned the next day with any comments the parents may wish to include.

[Andrew]

Thanks Charmelle
As I end my schooling and look ahead to the challenges that await me, one of the recurring themes I encounter is dealing with the parents. Throughout my times spent in class I have heard horror story after story about teachers dealing with difficult parents. I found your entry helpful in sketching out a game plan for approaching parents and working with them. As teachers we would love it if the teacher, the student and the parent could always be on the same side and work in the same direction, but it will be nice to have a plan in place for the times when differences arise. Thank you for the advice.

[Hailey K]

I love the ideas of communicating with parents that you have shared! I am learning quickly that you need to find a way to communicate with every parent, and it's not going to be the same way for each family. Currently I am student teaching and we have a student who communicates with ASL. Her family is working on learning ASL, but the student knows more signs currently then they can understand. My cooperating teacher and I wanted to find a way where we could have our student communicate with her family, but also allow for us to help explain what she was trying to say. We came up with and idea that I am in LOVE with. We now started video taping our student at the end of the day signing to her family about what she did while we interpret it for the family. This way the family learns the signs, but it also gives our student the ability to share her day with them. This is something new for us, but is going great already. Other students we still use the communication log like you mentioned, but finding something that works for everyone is difficult, you need to make it individualized just like their learning.

[Liz]

I may be a little late in replying but this is a wonderful set of ideas to have at hand when preparing to communicate. I have been working with my teacher to plan a way to communicate in the high school setting that still gets the information across. This will help me a lot in the future. Thanks for having it here.

[CharmelleS]

Hello Everyone, thank you so much for leaving all your wonderful comments and feedback. I agree with you all communication is so important and meaningful. You definitely have to find what works for you, your parents and what fits your school environment as well.

@Avery, I have been considering somethings in how to address your comment with a possible solution. I understand you don't have interpreters available all the time but is there someone who is at the school who may speak the child's native language who can possibly help with written communication? Language barriers can be challenging if I can think of anything else to support I will come back and post. Good luck to you and everyone :)

[Alison]

I agree that communication with the families is extremely important. Like you stated it can be hard to find a way to communicate that works with the parents, but once you find out what works it is important you constantly keep communicating and keeping them up to date. I really like your idea of the parent resource board that will be very helpful for the parents and a great way for them to get good information. Thank you for sharing it sounds like you are really working hard to establish great relationships.

[Brandi]

Charmelle I loved reading your post! These few tips about keeping communication with parents were very helpful, some of them I had never even thought of. I am an undergraduate studying special education and any little tips that I can acquire are always helpful. Something that I notice in my student teaching is how often my cooperating teacher is communicating with parents, specialists, and other teachers. Communication is definitely one of the the most important aspects of education, and without it we will be setting up our students for failure.

When I do become a teacher I hope to use these methods to keep communication between me and the parents of my students. I think that using email, phone calls, notes, and communication boards are all ideas that I will definitely implement my first year of teaching and beyond. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge!

[Gerryanne]

It's really nice to see your suggestions about how to keep in contact with parents. I am currently in my last year in college, and I feel like important information like proper communication with parents and classroom management isn't really discussed that much in college courses. I am in the process of student teaching and nice to see my cooperating teachers methods of communication. I will definitely keep in mind your suggestions as well!.

[Kristin]

I am a parent with a child with special needs and the honesty and open communication goes along ways. When you know you have that with a teacher you can trust your kid with that teacher! My son was recently diagnosed by an outside agency and we are working with his teacher (and she is new to the school) so we need to be all on the same page. Right now we have a communication notebook more of behaviors; that comes home daily and a DOT (daily organization tool) binder with daily homework and other school info. We also have constant emails between the outside agency, his teacher, and my husband and I. The one thing I do like that my kid’s schools have started is grade meeting for parents. They are meetings for parents to ask questions about the curriculum, how things are being taught, and to add any suggestions that might help at school or at home. I do LOVE your idea of being available “like office hours”! I will have to remember that when I start teaching and I will also pass that idea along to my son’s teacher.

[Alley Chai]

I am a student teacher and have learned a lot from my mentor about how to establish partnerships with parents. One of things that she does even before the school year starts is hold an open house. This open house is a time for new students as well as old to come visit the classroom with their parents, to see what new things they will be learning, and what skills that will be continuing to practice. It is also a great opportunity for parents, especially those of new students, to get to know the teacher and the school community. Then there is the Back-to-School night that everyone in the school hosts, which is a great time to share more of the specifics when it comes to academics that will be done in the classroom. It is also a great time to talk about volunteer opportunities and things parents can do at home. Finally, my mentor sends a small, typed note home everyday along with the child's point card that talks about some of things we did that day. I LOVE this as it lets the parent know what we're studying or if we had any special visitors today. Then the parents can write back a note on the child's point card as well as how much reading/math they did that night. I think establishing partnerships with parents is something that needs to be done at the beginning of the year because having a home-school connection for a child can allow them to be even more successful!

[Jerry]

Charmelle,

Thanks for the post. I appreciate very much the thought you have put into the relationship you build with the parents of your students. I have long believed that this is often overlooked, but the truth is: the parents are the experts on their children. Thus, it is incumbent upon teachers to work as closely with the parents as possible. We might know ABA, but the parents know their children.

Thanks again,
jerry

[Stephanie C]

Charmelle,

Communicating with parents is so important and it is great to see all the different ways you strive to do so. I really enjoyed all of your ideas, especially the parent communication board. I like how on your communication board you provide very beneficial and important resources to your parents.

I am currently student teaching and I have had many experiences with other classroom teachers. One classroom teacher communicated with ALL parents on a daily basis. Each student had a binder where they listed their assignments, had reading logs, etc. Within this binder the parents were encouraged to sign off on their child's assignment notebook and respond to a written note by the teacher. This teacher also had a weekly newsletter that she would put in each student's binder. The newsletter included what had been done in class that week and what parents could expect to be taught and done in the classroom the following week. The newsletter also included extension activities for parents to do with his or her child. This teacher also had a classroom website, which reflected a lot of what the newsletter included. The website also included pictures of what the class has been doing, assignments, and a blog for parents to connect with the teacher and one another.

Thank you for sharing your ideas of parent communication!

[Kayla]

What a great comment to hear from a parent! It is so reassuring to hear parents share their confidence and trust in you as their child’s teacher. I am currently a student and will begin student teaching in January. During my field experiences and classes, my cooperating teachers and professors have always stressed communication and relationships between teachers and parents. Your experience is a perfect example of why these relationships are essential. In order for us to meet the needs of our students, we will need to communicate with their parents and build trusting relationships with them. It is a team effort! I love the idea of a parent resource board. Providing resources and tips for parents can be a huge weight lifted off their shoulders and show them that you are there to support them. Creating ‘office hours’ is also a great idea to make yourself available to parents.

Thank you for sharing your advice for building strong parent relationships! These will be a must in my future classroom!

[Avery]

I send a notebook with the students that serves as a method for daily communication. However, I am struggling with a language barrier between myself and a few of my parents. Any suggestions on having effective communication with all parents? Interpreters are not always available.