Connecting Home and Classroom
This weeks blog post is dedicated to our duties as teachers to not only have a shared connect to our students but also to our student’s parents. It is super important that we are able to communicate what we want to accomplish with our students and where we intend to take their academics with their parents. At the end of the day, it is all about the students and having a healthy relationship with their home life is a key way of furthering them not only academically but also it could help them socially/emotionally (Sager, 2021). At the Baldwin Union School District meeting at Meadow Elementary School, I was surprised to see that many parents like to show up to these meetings to not only voice there opinion on things but to also ask questions. In order to guarantee that their children and all of their friends receive the greatest education possible in the classroom, many parents put in a great deal of effort in addition to volunteering. There was a lot of discussions about money and scholarships to be awarded but what I found to be super interesting is that there was also discussions about tables that could no longer be used because they we unsafe and unfixable and school buses that had numerous of problems to be sent off for scrap metal. This was brought up by parents and school officials which shows that they need to work together for the benefit of the kids. When enrolled in the educational system, students need “the ultimate support system,” which is “an informed and supportive family,” which is given when legal guardians participate in their children’s education (Heick, 2013).
American Federation of Teachers (2023) Building parent-teacher relationships, www.readingrockets.org. Available at: https://www.readingrockets.org/topics/parent-engagement/articles/building-parent-teacher-relationships.
I’ll search for ways to set up parent-teacher conferences when the time comes for me to interact with families as a future teacher. In order to stay in contact with my students’ legal guardians, I may additionally add emails to these conferences as needed. I need to educate myself on the communication style of the parents I will be interacting with in order to do this. This would entail finding out the ideal time of day to get in touch with them, the appropriate writing or voice tone, and the preferred method of communication (Vestal’s 21st Century Classroom, 2021). In an effort to inspire hope among the kids and their families, I intend to inform the guardians of my students’ accomplishments and good behavior in the classroom (Aguilar, 2012). Thank you for again reading another blog post!
References
Aguilar, E. (2012, August 20). The Power of the Positive Phone Call Home. Edutopia; George Lucas Educational Foundation. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/power-positive-phone-call-home-elena-aguilar
American Federation of Teachers (2023) Building parent-teacher relationships, www.readingrockets.org. Available at: https://www.readingrockets.org/topics/parent-engagement/articles/building-parent-teacher-relationships.
Sager, J. (2021) How to Build A Parent Teacher Communication Strategy That Actually Works, Teach Starter. Available at: https://www.teachstarter.com/us/blog/parent-teacher-communication-strategy-ideas-and-tips-us/.
Vestal’s 21st Century Classroom. (2021). 9 Ways to Communicate with Parents for Teachers // INCREASE parent communication! In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aHJkRXgbcE
Hi Milia, I really enjoyed reading your post and totally agree with you. I think teacher and parent communication is very important to have as you want parents on the same page about the way their child is being taught. Parents also being interactive helps the teacher know what children need what. It is also important because parents are able to advocate for their children and help the teacher become aware of anything that may be going on at home and the teacher should be aware about. This was a beneficial module to learn about because the learning doesn’t stop when you leave school as it also happens at home and parents are learning too.