Working With Your Parents

...No, not your parents; the parents of your students! Learning first-hand what NOT to do when communicating with parents is not the way to learn. Before reaching out to parents or members of your school community, make sure you know exactly why you are communicating with them, and the tools to be effective. Cramer (2006) suggests a myriad of different ways to keep parents connected to your classroom: newsletters, teacher websites with homework and contact information, emails, classroom phones with voicemail access, resource sharing, and parent meetings. Whether you're calling home about behavior problems, having your first IEP meeting of the year, or introducing yourself at back-to-school night, these are steps to success for effectively communicating with parents:

1. Always start with the positive. Especially if you are calling home with bad news about grades or behavior, make sure you highlight the good qualities about the child before delving into your reason for calling. 
2. Get them on your side. Always point out that you are not blaming the parent or the child for whatever is happening. Let them understand that you want this to be a partnership between the school and them. If it's a matter about poor grades, offer your availability before or after school for tutoring, suggest communicating through homework agendas to ensure completion, or try to meet with the parents after school about ways the student should be studying. If you let them know you are in this together, it makes the success even greater!
3. Follow up. After a few days or so, call or email back to let the parents know what improvements are happening that you see. Ask the parents what they see happening as well and discuss the differences. Hopefully as you work together, you are seeing similar changes for the good, and the parents will feel better knowing you are keeping tabs as well.

In terms of working with the community, it's important to know who you are dealing with. Maybe you've decided to help with the fall play, run a fundraiser with parents, or run a club who does community service. You should do a little research before starting any project. Know your community. I know it sounds crazy to do a lot of homework when you're the teacher, but as a graduate student as well, I know how easy it can be to search for the town's demographics for a project. It makes a lot of sense to know the languages, religions, work backgrounds, etc. of the parents you are speaking to and what kind of community you have. For example, I now work in a pretty wealthy district. Most of my students even have iPhones, so I also know 99% of my students also have computer access at home for internet work. But when you work in an Abbott school or the community is very low-income, you will have to tailor your lessons accordingly. Similarly, before working in the community you should know if there are going to be linguistic or religious barriers to deal with. 

So please, DO YOUR HOMEWORK!

*Source:  Cramer, S. F. (2006). The special educators’ guide to collaboration: Improving relationships with co-teachers, teams, and families. (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.