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Four Tips to Strengthen Partnerships with Parents

By Lisa Dabbs — October 12, 2018 4 min read
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Dear Amanda,

Your last post on Cultivating a Strong Parent-Teacher Partnership was a good read and had some very insightful reflection. Glad you were able to take time to play! It also sounds like you want to try some of my work-life suggestions. Good to know that they resonated with you.

It’s clear you’re working hard to build connections in your classroom and with parents but you ended your post with a challenge: I have not spent enough time thinking about how to cultivate successful partnerships with parents. This is an incredibly tough topic for most new teachers so you aren’t alone. I’m going to share some ideas and resources with you today that you may find helpful

Amanda, in January of 2012, as a resident blogger at Edutopia, I had the privilege of creating and running a five-part series on my Edutopia blog called the New Teacher Academy. It included key concepts that new and pre-service teachers need to develop in their first years of practice. I asked several talented educators, active in social media, to join me and contribute weekly to this series and it was a huge success! One of the segments in the series was on Working with Parents and my special guest for that was the one and only Shelly Terrell. In that post, she shared four tips which I think are so important not only for new teachers but all teachers.

Now, I want to share them with you here. Although they may be somewhat familiar to you, revisiting these tips will be helpful!

Let’s look at the Four Tips that can make a big difference in working with parents:

1. Begin on a Positive Note

It’s important to communicate with parents at the very beginning of the school year, and start with some positive news. Often, teachers only communicate with parents to deliver bad news. In the beginning, we find out about our learners, and it’s easier to discover their talents then and share this information with parents. At the beginning of the year, use a blanket email. Copy and paste the first two sentences and always say something along the lines of, “Dear Mr./Mrs. Garcia, I really enjoyed meeting Jose, who is very bright and makes me laugh at his funny jokes.” Then add a personalized sentence or two about each child, making sure that it’s positive. This way, your first communication with the parent is positive. Include information and links to your google classroom or school website page, add your contact information, where they can find homework, your meeting hours, school supplies needed, and other important dates or information. At the end of the email, ask the parents to respond with answers to questions such as when is the best time to contact them and how they would like to help. If the parents have a question, they are more likely to respond back to this email since it’s so much more personal for them.

2. Ask Parents for Best Communication Method

Ask parents about the best way to communicate with them. Is it email, text message, Twitter, or letters sent home? Communicating digitally can help manage time and also develop relationships with the parents. It’s easier and quicker to send an email or text message about all news concerning the students, but let’s not forget that a letter from time to time is also helpful.. Most parents spend a lot of time working and may never have the chance to meet you face to face, but when you give them these communication options you’ll see how much they appreciate your flexibility.

3. Invite Parents to be a Part of the Team

Invite parents to participate in helping their children succeed. Ask what they think would make the curriculum better, and—if the ideas are good— try to implement the suggestion. I’ve known of parents who are eager to contribute but never get that chance. See if asking them to add Google classroom content such as song lyrics or YouTube videos, a book or game might be of interest to them. Invite parents to volunteer and help! Parents can decorate the classroom and help with set up. They can gather and organize fundraisers to get computers or other needed items in the classroom. They might even be able to update a class’ online calendar with their children’s upcoming competitions or ceremonies so that as a class they can support each other. Consider putting parents in charge of the activity of the month or resource of the month in google classroom or other online community. Parents can organize field trips or help you line-up classroom guest speakers. Remember... just like students, parents need to feel valued and included.

4. Do Workshops with Parents

Invite parents in! Introduce them to your curriculum by hosting a workshop and serving food! Food entices people to come. Host workshops after the first few weeks or now as the new year is starting in order to go over what technology you use in the classroom, games you will play, class rules and more. Talk to parents about their concerns, and share some great dialogue. You might even video record the parent workshop and then send it to those who weren’t able to come so they can have access to the content.

Amanda, you’re already on your way to using good ideas to build relationships with parents, just keep moving forward. It takes time to see those connections with your families actually bear good fruit.

What other teaching hurdles are you thinking of as we start to get closer to the Holidays, that might be a challenge? Let me know!

Lisa


Show a newbie some love and connect with Amanda on Twitter; her handle is @ateacherstory.

Lisa can be found blogging about her passion to inspire educators to thrive at lisadabbs.com. You can connect with Lisa on Twitter at @teachwithsoul.

The opinions expressed in The New Teacher Chat: Advice, Tips, and Support are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.