Communication with Parents and Guardians

December 2, 2011 Erin.Grewar Communication with Parents and Guardians

When Parents Get an A+ on Their Kid’s Assignments

I was recently talking to a colleague over lunch about some purely spectacular geography projects submitted by the most unlikely candidates. Some had subheadings dreamed up by a team of marketing execs while others rivalled last month’s feature article in National Geographic in terms of in-depth analysis and startling facts. What made them all the more surprising was that some of the projects belonged to students who normally functioned at a level 1. It was obvious that the parents had been extensively involved in the project and was made all the more evident when one called in to get some additional feedback.

We talked a lot about how to grade such an assignment and how it’s an awkward situation if one actually confronts the parent. One way to avoid the problem entirely is to break the project down into components (pre-research, graphic organizers, rough drafts, etc) all of which are graded and completed in class. That way, you can assume it is actually the students’ work and that there is not a miraculous transformation into a Nobel Prize-winning final copy. Although I was quick to condemn the many negative implications of the parents’ involvement, when I actually started to think about it, I remembered a few of my own school projects where my parents were definitely a part of the process. Without doing my actually work, they nonetheless made it a more enriching experience by taking me to museums, art galleries and the Science Centre to compliment my research. Thinking back to my own experiences made it less clear cut in my mind. Obviously it’s not ethical for the parents to actually be doing the work but at the same time, is it wrong for them to participate constructively from the sidelines to provide a more enriching and complimentary experience for their children?

November 23, 2011November 25, 2011 Carmen.Oliveira Assessment, Communication with Parents and Guardians, Diverse Learning Needs, Interviews, Learning About Your Students

Parent/Teacher Interviews: Connecting, Celebrating, Planning, Supporting

Samantha’s experience with parent/teacher interviews was powerful and resonated with my view of the important partnership we share with our students’ care-givers.

This year I structured my interviews in order to connect, celebrate, plan, and support both students and parents. In each interview I made sure to:

CONNECT: Catching up with parents after our Curriculum Night was a nice way to begin our interview. With each one I tried to express how grateful I was for their involvement in their child’s life and encouraged them to share how things were going outside of school (homework, clubs, sports, hobbies, etc.). I also had parents share their thoughts and feelings about their child’s progress.

CELEBRATE: We celebrated their child’s strengths, progress, and special or important accomplishments thus far.

PLAN: Based on the child’s progress, their strengths, and needs, we created a “next steps” by choosing one or two goals and deciding on some strategies we (student, parent, and teacher) could use to help the child accomplish each goal.

SUPPORT: I offered some resources and advice for both parents and students that could be used to support the plan we decided to put into action.

I had one of the most successful interview experiences of my career which was spectacular! However, when all is said and done, it’s the unexpected moments that empower and inspire me most. I’d like to share one such moment that solidified my belief that we can be agents of change to our students in ways we might not have imagined.

I have a student in my class who spent a great deal of time in the principal’s office during his previous six years at the school. “Good luck” was the response I got when teachers saw the name on my class list (a reaction which is one of my greatest pet peeves). This of course, only sparked my interest and motivation to bring about positive change. The funny thing is that it took very little effort to witness a complete turn-around in behaviour, focus, and attitude toward learning! I attributed it to a structured but engaging classroom environment, a lot of positive feedback, and regularly connecting with his mom with respect to his work and behaviour. During our interview I had the pleasure of sharing and celebrating all the progress and success the student had demonstrated and together, we planned our next steps/goals. At one point, the student’s mother hugged him tightly and filled his face with kisses. She began to tear up and said, “You can’t imagine what it is for a mother to continuously hear negative comments and be called into the school every other day to deal with problems. Since the beginning of this year, he comes home happy to show me his agenda with all the positive notes you write. He believes you like him and is eager to be his best self. At home, he is an amazing kid. I hardly recognize him. I cannot begin to thank you enough.” I quickly reminded her of the factors I attributed to his progress. “I really do feel that he’s more mature and ready for a change”. But she nodded in disagreement and said, “He believes you really like him. That’s all it took.”

Needless to say, as exhausting as interviews are, hearing that from his mom completely made my day.

November 18, 2011 Samantha.Perrin Communication with Parents and Guardians, Interviews, Report Cards

Parent Teacher Interviews

Parent teacher interviews are definitely one of the things that I love about my job.

To date, I have spent 7 hours a day, for 53 consecutive days (excluding weekends and P.A. days) with these little young people and during parent teacher interviews, I get to speak at depth (at greater depth than telephone interviews and letters home) with the people who spend all that other time with them, and share all of the students’ gains and struggles that we have had in class.

Parent teacher interviews allow me to look at each student as the unique individuals that they are. Often in my teaching, I am focussed on my teaching practices, getting the students to a ‘Level 4’ and looking at what they are not doing, and what I need to do to get them where I want them to be. This is an expected aspect of teaching, but meeting with the parents provides me with perspective and reassurance of how much we have already accomplished together.

I am finding that Grade 1 is a very rewarding grade to teach. I am amazed at the progress my students have made. ‘Johnny didn’t want to write at all in September and is now writing consonant sounds?’ That’s a big gain.’ Liza didn’t seem to understand at all when we were learning our word families, and is now printing initial and final sounds during her spelling tests…even though she got one out of ten words correct?’… ‘That’s a lot of progress for someone I was concerned about when I first did my diagnostic tests at the beginning of the year’…’ Oh, and she was born a month and a half premature?’ That makes sense of my developmental concerns that I had that were not mentioned in her file. Let’s monitor that and look into what other resources are available to us.’ ‘Aiden still is having hard time remembering his homework and to hand in letters. Let’s set up more routine at home so that this doesn’t continue to be a problem once grade 6 and big assignments roll around. ‘

Through parent-teacher interviews I also get deeper insights than what were communicated to me through my parent correspondence at the beginning of the year. Parents going through a difficult time, resulting in misbehaviours in the class?, You are seeing the same inattention at home?’ Let’s both monitor it and see if we need to speak with a professional in the future… ‘. Meeting with parents provides me with perspective of what is going on in my students’ lives and that the time that I spend working with them, pushing them to their best IS working. I get to realise how much of a positive impact I am actually having on my students. It’s easy during the day-to-day to feel a little bit frustrated that despite my best efforts to deliver an engaging, memorable lesson, all students don’t seem to carry it over to their work. But after meeting with the parents, and after reflecting on where the students were when they arrived in my classroom (and speaking to the parents about where they were before); looking at where they are now, I realise that each and every one of my students have made gains. Not exclusively academic, but behaviourally and also with respect to their ability to follow routines, socially, and also with their engagement and love of school.

Having parent-teacher interviews affirms the work that I am doing with my students in the classroom, and it also makes me hopeful about the behaviours that we need to correct at school. It serves as a distinct reminder of what I need to revisit or refocus on at school. When teaching a younger grade level teachers have the opportunity (with the cooperation of parents) to instil good habits and practices in young students that will serve them well in life. To me, this is a very optimistic, and rewarding feeling that can easily fall by the wayside when running around gathering materials, resources, integrating and staying on top of student progress… all of it. Parent teacher interviews remind me of how much my students and I have accomplished through our hard work.

As a small aside I would also like to share an encounter that I had with another teacher on the night of parent-teacher interviews: A teacher and I were chatting in the staff room, and she shared that an exasperated student looked at her and said “teachers have it so easy, they don’t have to do all the hard work… it’s us (the students) that do!”. We laughed knowing that three times the hard work goes into our preparations for their tasks, and yet in their smaller worlds, their work IS the hard work. The bottom line from that conversation is that we have ALL worked hard. The conversation also gave me some perspective,… maybe that I need to reward my students’ hard work a little more often: free time, a movie, some extra DPA outside,… after all, each and every one of us are all working hard and all work and no play isn’t good for any one of us. Another one of my goals this year will be to make a greater effort to celebrate my students’ successes.

My tip to fellow beginning teachers out there is to try to be less anxious about parent-teacher interviews, and use that valuable time to reflect on how well you actually know your students, how much you have learned from your parent-teacher meeting and how much you have accomplished in 53 days. Remember to save the good representations of the students’ work, their struggles and their gains, and what you’ve both accomplished, and your ability to speak to it will often speak for itself.

October 19, 2011October 19, 2011 Alison.Board Building Inclusion, Classroom Management, Communication Tools, Communication with Parents and Guardians, Interviews

Staying Connected

Similarly to Tina and Roz, I use different means of communication to stay connected with families throughout the year, mostly our classroom website, face-to-face contact, and agendas. It is difficult to limit yourself to one tool to suit the needs of all families. At the beginning of the year I send a paper newsletter and ask for email addresses to invite families to view our classroom website and receive updates from our weekly blog. This is a big hit in the community where I teach, as many parents like to get reminders on their mobile phones or sync our class calendar to their personal calendar. Most of the emails I receive are simple questions that require a simple and quick response, such as setting up interview times or confirming ad due date. Like Roz, if the request is something more delicate, I often call the parent and discuss the concern over the phone or set up a time to meet in person.

Since I teach a grade one and two class, I walk them each day to the outside door to meet their parents or sitters. The parents that I see daily or weekly can easily approach me with a quick question or I can provide an update without having to make time for the phone or computer. For example, I have a grade one student who has arrived in September with no English language. One or two days a week, her mother may ask me about something we have done in class that her daughter is trying to understand and has told her mother at home. With the mother there as the translator, we achieve quite a lot in a few minutes. These quick discussions are easier, more casual, and provide positive support for the student’s learning on a consistent basis (in addition to the support she receives in the classroom), which connects her learning to her home and family.

At my school, every student from grade one to six purchases an agenda in September. At first, I thought this was taking a step backward on my path to improve parent communication with the use of technology. Now, I realize it is just one more means of communication – not only between me and the parents, but it supports communication between the students and their parents when they refer to it together at home. I decided that if the children are all buying the agendas in my class, then we would make good use of them. So, when the students get settled at entry they first open their agenda and find the day’s date. We do quick math skills, talk about health and wellness while evaluating our feelings and assessing our exercise and eating habits for the week, in addition we use the calendar in the agendas rather than a shared calendar, and the students write reminders to themselves. I do not sign the agendas daily, but I do a quick walk around to either read, respond, or initiate a comment as needed. It has also helped with classroom management during the transition from entry to the time we meet together for our gathering circle. The children have learned to explore their agendas (agenda work), if my attention is focused on addressing a student concern or speaking to a parent at the classroom door.

Although keeping up a few forms of communication sounds like juggling balls in the air (and it sometimes is), it is the best way to meet the needs and include all families. By ensuring that you have communicated with parents about any concerns, your face-to-face communication during scheduled interviews will be easier for you and the parents!

October 17, 2011 Roz.Geridis Communication Tools, Communication with Parents and Guardians, Diverse Learning Needs, Homework, Interviews

Connecting with Parents

As the busy school year develops, parent communication is very important. All parent(s) want to know what his/her child is learning at school. Having a 5/6 all boys class made me find ways to involve the boys and open the communication for the family and to the school. To describe my class a little, it all boys with over half of my class on IEPs; 1 gifted, 2 HSP kids, 1 Aspergers, some identified LD and some still on the wait list for an assessment. Also, many boys have anxiety which some have been medically diagnosed and others are not. Agendas are a routine we are working to develop both for parents to read and for students to use them.

Communication I have used:

– started a bi-weekly newsletter, written by the students;

The writers are a job assignment and hands regularly go up to take on the job. I do give some content to include such as curriculum information, projects and areas of curriculum we are working on. The writers are able to add their content also and I do give a final approval. Once edited and published, I was impressed that the boys all took them home, not one was left in the classroom!

– meetings for IEP;

Most of my parents requested a meeting to develop the IEP so I had to find some time to meet with approximately half of my class. I scheduled all meetings with student entry time as an end time and gave parents 20 minutes to discuss the IEPs. This allowed me to meet with all parents who had requested a meeting, leaving me enough time to input the added information into the student’s IEP. I did keep in mind if parents had other concerns to discuss, another meeting would have to be scheduled.

– use of the agenda;

Many parents have asked for me to communicate through the agenda. At times, it seems like limited communication, I still take the time to develop a routine where students place their agenda on my desk and I initial every morning. I do not sign agendas at the end of the day as I am trying to help the students to build the routine of utilizing the agenda. I do give agenda time at the end of the day and write on the board the evening’s homework and reminders. The students are aware I will look at the agendas the next day therefore the routine is beginning to develop. If there is a need to write a note in the agenda at the end of the day, I do so.

– phone calls home;

Although there are limited phones and phone lines in the large school I am in, I have developed a routine. I take one prep period a week to make phone calls giving parents an update. I try to call every parent once a month. If there are no concerns from myself or the parents, I start to give strategies to help with homework routine and learning skills. I also inquire about items getting home and inform parents about the class newsletter used as my way to keep parents updated.

– parent meetings;

Many parents have been calling to set up meetings. I am in an involved parent community; this is the norm in my school. Again, due to the early start of the year, I schedule the meetings with an entry time as the end point (i.e. 20 minutes before school or at the end of lunch). Some of my parents are colleagues and I do schedule those meetings for after school. All meetings have gone over 20 minutes but we are also discussing education related issues not just the colleague’s child.

– email;

I do not give out my email unless it is asked for. If parents do email me, my email reply consists of a simple acknowledgement of the concern and asking to set up a phone call meeting or face to face meeting to discuss the concern. Email is very easy to misunderstand and often I am in rush to read all my emails and do not have the time to finely craft an email response to a parent’s concern. If you do decide to use email, please save your email in draft and take another look, either a few hours later or the next day. Often, a discussion with an experienced colleague or time away from the concern gives us a different perspective.

What I have done are just examples of parent communication and have changed for me based on the school I am in or the students in my class. In some schools I have seen parents daily, even in upper junior grades, regular parent communication is quick. You have to do what works for you and your community. Most of all, remember to document your parent communication. Get some labels, print off a sheet with all the students name, record the parent communication and stick it on a paper in your communication binder.

October 13, 2011October 17, 2011 Tina.Ginglo Communication Tools, Communication with Parents and Guardians

Tweeting To Families

Although I am well aware of the concerns and dangers of participating in web based social media sites with students, social media platforms such as Edmodo.com and Ning.com are quickly becoming powerful classroom tools. I am excited about these web based social media platforms and the potential they have for engaging students with curriculum and providing them with 21^st century literacy skills. Over the summer months, I looked into ways social media has been used safely to build community and collaboration in business and education.

Now that I am a parent myself, more than ever, I appreciate the importance of home and school communication. I thought that I might try a social media platform to support my connection and foster relationships with families. With my principal’s permission, I am now Tweeting to my students’ families!

My principal had a few concerns about Internet safety, which I respectfully considered when setting up this Twitter account. First, I have set my Twitter account so I must approve my followers. Since I have most of my parents’ email addresses, it is easy for me to identify whether or not a request to follow is coming from one of my families. Secondly, I set it so that followers cannot comment on my Tweets. Unfortunately, this limits the potential this social media tool has for building community, but hopefully it will help keep parents in the loop and help me to establish trust and rapport with my families. Finally, I don’t identify my school, my teaching assignment or students’ names in my tweets.

I have 18 students in my class. To date, I only have two followers, but hey, that’s okay. I have two parents who I touch base with on an almost daily basis about things such as homework reminders and positive events that took place during the day. It will be interesting to see if more parents begin to follow as the year progresses.

To learn more about ETFO’s Advice to Members re: Social Media, please click here.

October 4, 2011October 17, 2011 Sangeeta.McAuley Building Inclusion, Communication Tools, Communication with Parents and Guardians, Learning About Your Students

Making Connections with Family

Thinking about Carmen’s experiences at her “Meet the Teacher” night reinforces for me how important it is to connect with the families of our students.

Building inclusion goes beyond what we do in our classrooms and if we are going to connect with family members, using less jargon and the words of our students can make a difference.

When our “Meet the Teacher” night came, I asked my students, “What would you like to share with your families about our classroom?” and the answers started pouring in. Not surprisingly, there was very little emphasis on curriculum!!! They wanted to share what they had helped to create: our reading corner, the desk setup, how they can earn class points and so on.

So, I took all their ideas and made a checklist, which they could access when they came in with their families. It was so exciting to observe my students bringing their families into their world at school. It also gave me an opportunity to observe the relationships they have with parents, siblings and grandparents. Once the “tour” was done, then I could chat with family members and answer any questions they had.

Each family left with handouts of the topics we would be covering throughout the year (which still tend to be a bit of an overdose on jargon) so to balance this out, I also send home newsletters with questions that family members can ask my students about what they are learning (see section below). We call it an “Ask-Me” letter and my students helped me develop the questions for their families.

Writing Personal Stories – Ask me…

-what is a seed story and a watermelon story?

-what is the difference between storytelling and telling a story?

-how am I writing the lead to my story?

Problem-solving in Math – Ask me…

-what are some ways you can solve a problem?

-what is one strategies that has worked for me?

-what is “working backwards” or “guess and check”?

Ideally, I hope to have them design the next newsletter, but for now, it’s a start!!!