Effective parent-teacher communication is essential for any classroom teacher, but can prove difficult at best. Sometimes it seems that parent communication happens at the end of the day as kids are rushing out of the classroom and you can barely hear yourself think.
We are all aware of the advantages to effective communication. In many cases, children will be more successful in the classroom if parents are well aware of what is going on. Additionally, effective communication throughout the year ensures that parents are not “surprised” when parent-teacher conferences roll around.
But how do you do it?
During my first year of teaching, I had “Parent/Teacher Communication Journals.” These were simply notebooks that I wrote in every two weeks to each family. I included a short paragraph explaining the great things that their child had done during the two weeks, as well as any challenges they were having and ways that they could practice and be supported at home. Parents could then write back to me with a response. That year was probably my best in terms of communication with parents. Parents loved the journals and there were never any surprises about how their children were doing in school. The one disadvantage to this method was that it was very time consuming.
Many teachers like to touch base with parents by telephone at the beginning of the year, and then periodically throughout the year. If you choose this method, please make sure that you don’t get into the habit of only calling with bad news. Call parents just to tell them how good their children are doing!
Here are a few other ideas for effective communication with parents:
Email – Send home emails once or twice a month to each parent, but please remember that tone of voice can be misinterpreted in an email. Keep it professional and to-the-point.
Classroom newsletter – Send home a classroom newsletter once a month. Include what the class has been doing, what is planned for the next month, and highlights. A nice touch is to add pictures of students engaged in fun activities and hands-on learning.
Invite parents in – Hold an open house and other events throughout the year where parents are welcome in your classroom. Take the time to touch base with each parent.
Provide contact info – Ensure that parents have a way to contact you with questions or concerns, for example a school email address and phone number.
Keeping Track of Communication
If parent communication is one of your goals, you are going to want to ensure that you are keeping track of who you communicate with, when the communication took place and what was discussed. To make this job easier, download this free parent-communication tracker from my TeachersPayTeachers store by clicking HERE or on the image below:
I would love to know how you communicate with parents. What challenges have you faced in terms of communication? How has it benefited you and your students? What methods do you use, and what would you like to start doing? Please leave a comment below to let me know!
Have a great day,
Shelley
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