Right from the get-go as soon as you can, make sure parents understand the importance of working together to ensure their child's academic, social and emotional growth.
Try to restate this idea every time you speak with parents/guardians, write an email, send a message through a text or anyway you communicate with parents/guardians.
At the bottom of homework sheets, e-mails, or even at the end of a conversation, I always would write or say,
Try to restate this idea every time you speak with parents/guardians, write an email, send a message through a text or anyway you communicate with parents/guardians.
At the bottom of homework sheets, e-mails, or even at the end of a conversation, I always would write or say,
I appreciate your support at home. It shows in your child's progress!
OR
Thank you for your support at home. When we work as a team, it shows in your child's progress!
During the first few weeks of school, try to contact each child's family to chat about how the first few weeks are going and to share a compliment or positive attribute about their child.
I remember way back when I was in college a professor emphasized the importance of giving compliments to parents about their children as well as sharing positivities with students to build self esteem.
It can be as simple as your child brightens my day with his smile or I can tell that Sam was really working hard over the summer. It really shows in his work!
I know for a fact that small gestures of kindness can make a parent or student's day!
Also, if you start off the year with a few positives, you are establishing a rapport with parents and students, which shows you care. Later, if you do have to share a problem, parents know that you care about their child...you shared something positive!
You can also use your class list and jot down a few positive attributes of each child. This not only is great for parent/guardian communication, but it will also support seeing the positivity that each of those smiling faces bring into your classroom everyday and can change your classroom climate and build classroom community that goes beyond academics!
If you have used Tips numbers 1 and 2, then parents should already understand that communication between home and school is important to their child's growth! Even if you didn't use Tip 1 or 2, TIP 3 is the most important!
At Back to School Night or whatever your school does to introduce parents/guardians to your class and you share information about the way things run, EMPHASIZE the importance of keeping communication between home and school easy ans expected.
It is so much easier when you know what is going on in a child's life at home and as important for a parent to understand how their child is handling school, friends, academics, emotions and anything that parents should know and you need or want to share with parents about their child's school day/life.
I Hope you Have a Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Year!
