This past week, I have taken the opportunity to reach out to many of the parents of my students just to introduce myself and to give them an update on how their children are progressing in class. I cannot begin to tell you how many parents immediately get scared when I introduce myself because they think I am calling to give them a bad report about their child. Nine times out of ten I have to reassure them right away that this is a good call and that there is nothing to worry about.
As an educator, it makes me wonder how often my colleagues are calling parents just to tell them that their children are doing well or simply to touch base. My experience has been that I get a lot more support and cooperation from parents that I contact regularly than parents that I only call to give complaints to. After all, nobody wants to hear bad things about their child all the time. I’m a parent and I hate when I get bad reports from my sons’ teachers.
The response to this round of phone calls has been overwhelmingly positive. Most parents are eager to make a connection with their child’s teacher and to receive updates on his or her academic progress. These interactions with parents are crucial to the goals that I am trying to accomplish in my classroom. I am aware that parental involvement will catapult my students closer to performing on grade level. Ultimately that will be the accomplishment that will give them the tools to compete in today’s competitive academic and professional market.
Hopefully, the calls I make will continue to be of a positive nature as the school year goes on. Kids tend to get a little unfocused right around the holidays when it comes to school work. Who could blame them when we, ourselves become preoccupied with preparing for the holidays as they get closer and closer. At the end of the day, I know that bridging the gap between school and home will have better outcomes for my students. They will reap the benefits in the long-run…
Let’s discuss: Have you ever been contacted by your child’s teacher? If so, how many of those exchanges were of a positive nature and how many of them were just made to report something that your child had done wrong in school?
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I love that you do that for the parents of your students. No teacher that either of my boys has ever done that. I have volunteered in their classrooms when their teachers allow, but they never really gave me updates unless I was at parent teacher conferences.
I have been contacted by my children’s teachers and 95% of the time it was something negative. It would be nice to be contacted about something nice.
That is awesome that you do this. I have a 16 year old and have never been contacted because of something good or just to check in. I am homeschooling my youngest because our schools and teachers are lacking and I just can not handle the system here anymore. I really wish there were more teachers that did this and made you feel like your child was more than just a way for them to earn a check. Great job, you are an inspiration to your entire field.
Most of the time there weren’t any calls, good or bad. The good thing for me, though, is that I made time to volunteer in the classroom so I could see for myself many things that went on. That was terrifically rewarding.
As a parent I LOVE when my kid’s teacher reaches out whether there are issues or not. I realize teachers are busy, have lives, etc but as they spend so much time with my kid I’d like to know what is going on. As a librarian I always reach out to parents. I am sure they want to know what their children are up to each afternoon they spend with me. It;s a great way to build relationships.
I think it is great. I love to hear the good things my son is doing as well.
My son is in preschool and we love Parent Teacher meetings. His teachers are so awesome and I’m always happy to take their suggestions because I know that they want to help me to be the best mom possible!
I think it’s really great that you decided to connect with the parents. Both of you have something in common, which is trying to create a better future for the kid.
In Germany it’s absolutely normal that you see the teacher every three months! I like that because this way you know exactly what’s going on and can report issues and find solutions for them.
You sound like an A++ teacher and juggler 😉 I’m a former teacher and LOVE this idea. One year I called before starting the school year to introduce myself to parents. For some of the calls I was able to talk to my new students who were anxious about the new school year and it was great to be able to connect ahead of time. It’s hard as a teacher to be proactive and make these calls, but can make a huge difference for the parents and students.
I think that its the saying ‘ no news is good news’ so parents assume that their kids are fine as long as you say nothing to them. I think its great that you reach out and will only benefit your students.
Most of the time over here the only time the teachers call is to give a bad report,i do believe it is really good that you call just to let parents know what is going on with their child it can put a parents mind at rest.wish there was more teachers like you.
I love that you called the parents. Our teacher last year actually called the kids to say hi, it was cute. But after that she was disconnected. Our teacher this year is great with emails and weekly newsletters it has been awesome. I feel like I know more about what is going on.
You sound like an awesome teacher!
I think it’s lovely you openly talk to parents a lot 🙂 I’m sure people do respond better when something is going badly if they know the good as well. x
Kudos to you. I work in the schools also. I work as support staff in a few different positions. One day I recently was working in food service. I noticed this one group of kids had such good manners! *I always try to acknowledge that directly with the students. I was so impressed with this group that when the teacher came to get them (first graders) I told her. She was SO pleased – she hugged me and thanked me for telling her. Feel good moment for all of us.
I try to give out give out more positive strokes than negative ones. (Now the two middle school students playing around in the middle of the road today falls in the latter category – but I’d rather discuss the positive here now)
Wendy T
I think it is wonderful that you take such an active role with the ids and their families. My experience was quite the opposite. My daughter was struggling and the teacher never felt the need to call me. I never knew until 6 weeks into the semester when I received her progress report that said she was failing. Then he wouldn’t return my phone calls or emails. SO frustrating!
The only time we’ve been contacted my our son’s teachers is when something negative has happened. You are a great teacher and are doing it right. I sure hope other teachers can use your actions as an example of how to keep parents interested and interactive with their child’s teacher and class.
I used to get contacted all the time by my child’s teachers. Usually it was for good stuff though so I didn’t mind.
I know that would rather hear positive than negative about my kids. I’m sure you made many a parent proud.
My kid’s teachers actually send a weekly email out with how the kids are doing, school assignments, things that we should look forward to, what is due, and what they will be working on that week. It definitely helps because 9 times out of 10 the papers they send home with the kids never reach me until 2 weeks AFTER the fact. I seriously don’t know where my kids hide them. So I love getting the weekly emails. And then every now and then we chat it up with the teacher just to see how my boys are doing. I love the update. We just had parent teacher conference too, and the teachers said they love our feedback too to help them know how the kids are doing with the homework at home. it helps them know if they are understanding the concepts talk in class or if they need to go over it again. We are always welcomed into the classrooms at any time too. I love how open our teachers and schools are for us to be apart of the classroom and learning experience of our kids.
My child is not school-aged yet but from people I know when they receive a call it’s usually when something not so good is happening. I think it would be great to hear about the positive and negative!
I homeschooled my daughter so I was never contacted by a teacher! I do feel that parental involvement is very necessary and I think that once the parents got over the shock of their children not being in trouble, I am sure they were happy to talk to you and to help.
All of my phone calls have been bad ones. Calls that my son is in ISD or that he did something or he got hurt. I’ve never had a good call yet from any of the teachers. I wish there were more teachers like you. I dread seeing that number show up from the school because it’s never good news.
we had our parent teacher interaction day today here – i wasn’t feeling well so my husband went (i talk to the teacher daily at pick up usually) and we had a nice progress report.
Kudos to you for doing this! My kids’ school has a similar thing they do at the beginning of the school year. It’s makes me feel more comfortable as a parent for the remainder of the year.
I think you are a rare breed among teachers. Most of the teachers I know only make calls when there is a problem. They say they have to many students and not enough time. Which I do feel is true. I wish more teachers would take the time to call or even email just to let us know things are good.
My son is in preschool right now and I get to talk to the teacher every morning about how my son is doing. He is only 3 but its still nice to get some details.
Our daughter is six and in first grade… We just had a talked with our girl’s teacher. Were happy that all comments were positive!
We really never got contacted by a teacher thank God, but I do hear stories!
my kids are too young for school yet but definatly gonna keep this in mind for when kindergarten hits.. i’m going to be VERY involved!
It definitely helps to have parents that are involved. It mattered a lot to me that my parents cared and were concerned with how I did in school.