There's a Plan for That

So, picture this, I’m newly 21, fresh out of college, teaching a ROWDY set of 9-year-olds. I felt like a stranded seal in the ocean surrounded by a swarm of hungry sharks. Apparently, my administration realized it too! On our annual evaluations there is a section which rates our parental relationships and communication. During my novice years, I was consistently told that this area should be my “focus area” for the year. 

Parent communication terrified me! 

I’m not sure if I imagined parents waiting at home, plotting their next negative response. Somehow, I just knew that these parents were out to attack me if I let them know that the halos above their scholars’ heads were less than perfectly straight. 

As the oldest of 3 kids, I was a fairly easy student, who didn’t need a ton of managing or redirecting. My younger sister was the model student, with a pristine behavior record and a stellar work ethic.  And then, there was my little brother. My Mom always joked that “God knew what he was doing giving the boy last, cause he would have been the only.” Out of all 3 kids, my mom hands down received the most calls from school about my brother with ADHD. There were times when she would see the caller ID and just sigh. Not because she thought the calls and concerns weren’t going to be valid; but because constantly having to correct, redirect, positively reinforce, punish or bribe is exhausting. We all will have the students that are “my brother.” Maybe you currently have them. But for those students, there is a strong likelihood that this parent has never received a call from the school that contained any positive news about that student’s academics or behavior. 

I have changed my classroom practice and now at the beginning of the year I keep a running log of positive things that I find out about each student in my class. Yes, this is an investment of my time. But the payoff is WORTH IT! Call your parents, (yes call). It doesn’t have to take long, call a few a day during your specials, or right before/after school. Call those parents with the sole purpose of bragging about their child. This isn’t a call where there is a but… or an improvement to be suggested (even if you already see one!) Taking the time to acknowledge your scholars as individuals will go a long way! Remember that the scholar you have who can’t remain seated, or constantly blurts out whatever thought comes to mind, they are someone else’s world. Their baby! By taking a moment out of your day to celebrate the good you see in their child, you have started to set up a great foundation with that parent. Now when you have to call later on in the year with concerns, or needing the parents help correcting a behavior, they KNOW that you aren’t simply out to get their child. You’ve already shown them that you see the VALUE their child brings, so they will be much more willing to partner with you about issues happening in the classroom. 

Click here to go to Teachers Pay Teachers and download your copy of my positive feedback log FREEBIE!

PROACTIVE CLASSROOM COMMUNICATION: 

Part of my fear to call parents was that I would somehow be found at fault for their child’s actions.  So negative behaviors in my classroom SNOWBALLED out of control! It had reached the point that my students KNEW that I had no intention of contacting their parents over anything. And boy, did they use that to their advantage. I crippled my classroom management system! A “clip down” really doesn’t carry much weight if the only person who knows about it is the teacher. 

The issue would then become when two students were having a conflict with each other and were both in the wrong, each of their parents only heard one side of the story- their child’s!  This singular prospective, without fail, painted their child as the “innocent victim” and me as the “incompetent teacher” who allowed bullying to prevail unchecked in my classroom.  

Communicating proactively to parents instead of waiting for them to react and call me has changed my classroom management, and student and parent relationships. 

That means when conflict arises in your classroom, reach out to that parent BEFORE the scholar goes home. Give your voice an opportunity to be heard! Now if your thoughts are anything like mine where after receiving the same advice, you may be worried about the amount of time this contact might take. Parent contact is not exclusively a word for a phone call. This may be a “text” through Remind101 or Bloomz. (I have used both; my personal preference is Bloomz). You might send an email, or write a note in a students planner, if your school uses them. If this parent picks the scholar up from school, you could walk them to the car and talk to them directly. You may even be a brave soul and send a text message with your personal cell phone.😅 (I have never personally felt comfortable doing this, though I have found a middle ground through Google Voice. I put the app on my phone and it generated a phone number for me, and I can make parent calls and texts through this app at no charge, without giving parent access to my personal phone number). 

The idea of getting out ahead of the students during conflict may sound like a no brainer; but it should also be applied to assignment completion… or lack thereof. If you have an upcoming project, tell your parents about it directly! Depending on a 9-year-old to inform their parents about homework and projects, while noble, it lends itself to inconsistent outcomes. Let’s face it, procrastination is a pretty widely known human flaw. Your students are going to try and get out of doing work. Those same lies we tell ourselves, “I’ll do it later, it will only take a little bit”; your students live it too. We are here to teach time management, it’s part of that hidden curriculum that college forgot to teach us about. Get your parents on board! Let them know about projects, and all of the steps their scholars should be completing to succeed. 

That student who is missing 4 assignments? Reach out BEFORE report cards go home. Better yet, contact parents within the timeframe that they can actually have the scholars turn the work back in and get partial credit at the very least. 

Weekly newsletters are a great way to keep your parents up to date. This will give a snapshot of the topics being taught as well as important dates for the parents to remember. 

If you click on this link it will take you to teachers pay teachers where you can purchase my newsletter templates!

If you want to give your parents a more in-depth explanation of what’s happening that week, you can create a video newsletter using loom.com. This is a plug-in that you add to your browser. It lets you record either just your face, your computer screen only, or a combination of your computer screen and your face at the same time. I’ve found this to be communication GOLD! Parents can SEE what I’m talking about in real time. This is perfect for modeling assignment expectations! As an added bonus, parents feel connected to you because you have just put a face to the name so to speak. Best part is this “special” feeling was created with the same amount of work it would take to reach out to just one parent. Loom is 100!% free to educators, you simply need to create an account (make sure to use your school email address) and install the plug-in on your web browser of choice, and you are set! If you haven’t already done so I highly recommend you jump on the Loom bandwagon! 

In review, actions that promotes positive school/home communications are: 

~Your first parent contact should be only positive, with specific feedback about their child.  This must occur at the beginning of school. 

~Be proactive about behavior concerns or incidents.  Contact the parents first, before the scholar has talked to them. Give your perspective a voice!

~Set up a communication schedule. Whether it be a weekly, monthly, or even quarterly newsletter, find time to establish that in your professional routine.

~And last but certainly not least, Loom and Bloomz are some fantastic tech tools which aid in proactive parent communication. 

I am aware that not all parents will be responsive or even involved enough for you to make these contact points. But you will be pleasantly surprised by the positive partnerships you can form with parents with your proactive steps. Remember, it isn’t you against the parents, we are all on the SAME team, helping their child be successful!