As an
early childhood educator, parents are entrusting you with their precious
babies. In doing so, you are expected to wear many hats– a coach, a mediator,
and a teacher to name a few. But probably the most important role you have is
as a communicator. You need to be a good communicator with your students and
peers, but maybe most importantly with parents. While this can be a daunting
task, approaching communication through a variety
of avenues is manageable and makes all the difference in
strengthening your partnership with parents.
Beginning of the Year Parent Communication
Letter of introduction – This
may be the simplest one, but is often overlooked. Before school starts, send a
letter to your students families introducing yourself and welcoming them to
your class. What is your teaching experience, your teaching philosophy, your
expectations of students and parents? Share a little about your personal life
too—your family and hobbies are a good place to start. Include a picture if
possible. Putting a face with a name will help ease those first day jitters.
Home visits – If you
have the time, home visits can be the most powerful way of getting to know your
students and families and laying the groundwork for good communication. Offer
the option to families so you can meet on “their home turf.” Optimally this
would occur before school starts, but some families may be wary about inviting
you into their home before they have established a relationship with you. There
shouldn’t be an agenda for the brief visit (under 30 minutes), but you might
ask the child to show you his/her room and consider taking a family picture
during your visit which can be used in the classroom later.
Meet the Teacher/Orientation
– Most schools offer some sort of meet the teacher before school
starts, but my favorite is having separate ones for the parents and the
children. Invite parents for their own orientation during the evening. If
they’ve already received your letter of introduction, this is the optimal time
to go more in depth about the curriculum, schedule, and goals. Make sure you
include expectations for communication! How can they best reach you? Should
they expect daily, weekly or monthly written communication from you in the form
of a newsletter? How quickly should they expect an email response from you?
Remember, they are entrusting their babies in your care and they want to know
everything!
In
addition to an orientation for parents, an orientation for children is a MUST!
If possible, schedule small groups to come visit the class during small time
blocks varying with age. Given them a tour of the classroom and then let them
explore or interact with the other children. During this time, you might also
have a special art activity or the give them the opportunity to pick their
nametag or cubby.
Phone Conferences – After
the first month or so of school, share a phone conversation with the parents of
your students. You have been observing and getting to know their children and
this is a good time to share some early observations. It is a great time to
listen to the parents; to find out how their goals for their child for the
school year. Certainly, these types of conferences can (and should) take place
anytime through out the year, but I’ve found this early one to be instrumental
in building the parent-teacher
relationship.
Parent Communication Throughout the Year
Newsletters – Newsletters
have always been a great form of communication and nothing has changed there.
What may have changed is the avenue through which you share your newsletter. Remind
parents of upcoming events, share parenting tips, and include pictures of
children at school. Rarely do I print newsletters anymore. Now, they
are emailed and posted to the website. What a great way to save time, money,
and the environment!
Class or School Website – In the
21st century, the first place we head for information is our electronic
devices. Having basic information available online is a great way to
communicate with parents while also marketing yourself and your school to
prospective parents. If you share pictures of students, make sure you have
parent permission and refrain from using last names if you have captions.
In addition to our school
website which has basic information for the community, our main communication
tool is MemberHub.
This is the one, secure place teachers and parents can find everything for our
school. From the calendar to newsletters to class photo albums, you name it
it’s here. I can also send short announcements (via email or text message) to
parents reminding them to turn in picture orders or bring in show ‘n tell.
Notes or Calls Home – Have
you ever received the dreaded note home from school? Sometimes you have no
other choice to share an issue with parents. When you must do so, make sure you
sandwich the not so good news with something positive both before and after.
And even better yet, is to get into the habit of sending positive notes home.
If you are in the practice of communicating with parents through “just because”
positive notes, then if you have to share the negative news the parents might
be more receptive to hearing it. When you only communicate bad news, parents
tend to tune out!
Social Media – While
you may occasionally find a family without a computer or email address, this is
definitely the exception rather than the norm. In this information age, you
have to meet parents where they are. Take advantage of the technology and communicate
with parents via Twitter, Facebook and blogs.
End of Year Parent Communication
Conferences – While
fall phone conferences help build rapport between parent and teacher and we
might communicate electronically on a frequent basis, face-to-face conferences
are still a must. This is a great time to share your observations along with
student samples and suggestions for home activities to support the child’s
growth an development.
Thank You Notes – Why
should you be thanking parents? You might think it should be the other way
around. Thank parents for the opportunity to learn and grow with their children.
Even for those challenging students (and sometimes especially for those
challenging students), a note of thanks goes a long way.
I’ll leave you with a few
final words of advice: be positive (you get more of what you focus on), think
before you speak (take a deep breath before speaking or writing when upset)
and be careful with email (great for a quick
response or update, but also easy to be misinterpreted). While doing all of
these may seem daunting at first, pick and choose what works for you and you’ll
be on the way to completing the puzzle of effective parent communication. It
will ultimately make your job easier and parents will appreciate it too!
About the Author
This is
a guest blog post from Beth Dickinson. Beth spent five years teaching primary
grades in public school before having children. She has spent eight years as a preschool
director including the last six years as the Director at Hayes Barton Baptist
Preschool in Raleigh, NC.
