Teacher/Parent Communications

Teacher/Parent Communications What each side would like to see Jennifer A. Cazzell Wilmington University

Teacher/Parent Communications Abstract Communication between teacher and parents is a vital part of ensuring a student

has a successful academic career. Often times, one of the parties is not satisfied with how the other part is communicating or lack there of. It is in the best interest of the children to have teachers and parents which are actively involved in their academic career. By having parents engaged and involved in their lives, the children will have the very best chance of becoming and doing the best that they can. Often times, teachers believe that parents are too busy to take part in their childs academics. By finding out which is the best route for the teacher to take in regards to communicating with the parents, a child shall have the best chances of achieving academic success.

Teacher/Parent Communications Most teachers and parents would like to see an open line of communication between the two. Unfortunately, this does not always happen. As cited by Olson (2012), many teacher education programs require their students to take a

communication course. The reason for this is for teachers to become comfortable in and learn the basics of public speaking. While these programs have a good theory behind them by requiring these courses, I feel that listening courses should be required as well. Teachers are taught that communication is of great importance, yet they do not know how to properly listen to parents. Most communication among teachers and parents go in one direction- teacher to parent. A lot of parents do not want to rock the boat if they have an issue with their childs teacher. Because the teacher has the ability to make their childs school year either difficult or comfortable, parents will often keep their opinions to themselves. They do not want the risk of the teacher taking a negative action against their child. In all four of my interviews, both the parents and the teachers stressed a need to keep the line of communication open between each other. One parent and one teacher did complain of the lack of cooperation from the other party in a situation. One parent of a first grader, is not happy with her sons teacher at all. There seems to be very little positive communication between them. The only communication that they have is written in an agenda book that the child can read. Apparently her son was disciplined for defending himself verbally when he was being bullied.

Teacher/Parent Communications The teacher that is having a challenging relationship with her students

parents, stressed how she send reminders and newsletters home yet the parents do not read them. This particular teacher is a Pre-K teacher at a private, church ran preschool. The positives for her are the fact that she sees most of her parents twice a day. This enables her to be able to address a concern or positive/negative behavior on a daily basis. For those parents that she does not see daily, she has an open line of communication via email. All of the parents and teachers that I interviewed stressed the importance of family involvement in the schools. Ms. Dawn, the preK teacher which I interviewed, would like to see more parents take an active role at home discussing with their child what is happening in the classroom. Currently, she has a kindness chain that the students are working on for the month of December. When a child does something kind for someone at home, the parent writes on the link what it was the child completed. The child then brings the link to school and it is attached to the current chain. The goal is to have the chain reach all around the classroom. She has determined that the students are very eager to find things to do around their house to help their family and the parents love the idea. This is one example of how parents are becoming involved in her preK setting. There are six types of family involvement as cited by Olson (2012). Parenting, Communicating, Volunteering, Learning at Home, Decision Making, and Collaborating with the Community are the six types of family involvement. This is based on the theoretical model of overlapping spheres of influence. (Olson, pp134) It has been discovered that children do not just learn in school, but they also

Teacher/Parent Communications learn at home and in the community. The most important thing for a school to realize while they are developing their family involvement programs is the local needs of its children and families. I very much enjoyed interviewing the parents and teachers for this assignment. As a parent of three school aged children, I know what I expect of my childrens teachers in regards to communicating with me. It was very interesting to learn what the expectations of the teachers are. This assignment has me thinking about the future, my teaching career, and how I might communicate with my parents and families.

Teacher/Parent Communications REFERENCES Olsen, Glenn, & Fuller, Mary Lou (2012). Home and School Relations: Teachers and Parents working together. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.