Today’s extremely busy and high-paced world often creates communication challenges for teachers and parents.
However, effective communication is pivotal to fostering positive relationships and building partnerships with parents. Students are more likely to excel, and their academic success is much more obtainable when teachers and parents partner together.
This week's featured educator, Dr. Kellie Tanner, is a TeacherVision Advisory Board member with more than 25 years of experience as an educational leader. Read more about Kellie and see her TeacherVision resources here.
Today’s extremely busy and high-paced world often creates communication challenges for teachers and parents. However, effective communication is pivotal to fostering positive relationships and building partnerships with parents. Students are more likely to excel, and their academic success is much more obtainable when teachers and parents partner together.
We asked Dr. Kellie Tanner for her advice on how she effectively communicates with her student's parents. Kellie is a middle school and high school English teacher, middle school principal, and district leader. Here she shares some great ways to effectively communicate with parents.
Communicate in the Parent’s Native Language
To successfully communicate with others, we must do so in a language they understand. With an increased number of non-English speaking parents, one must be creative in communicating effectively. Google Translate and Microsoft Translator are excellent resources for translating documents into a language that is understood by non-English speaking parents.
Communicate in a Digital Format
Many parents prefer technology-based communication which fits more easily into their busy personal and work schedules. Keep them informed through social media, video conferencing, texts, emails, and websites.
Our school district has had great success with SchoolStatus for effective and on-going communication between school and home. It offers phone calls, texts, emails, and video chatting options, and it is a terrific resource for documentation purposes. Remind and GroupMe are also excellent digital communication resources that can be used by busy parents and teachers. The FamilyEducation website is also a useful resource for parents.
"Students are more likely to excel, and their academic success is much more obtainable when teachers
and parents partner together."
Communicate on a Regular Basis
Regardless of how one chooses to communicate, it is crucial that communication occurs on a regular basis to strengthen relationships and partnerships among teachers and parents. Make sure you keep parents informed, celebrating successes with one another and developing plans to improve challenging student behaviors.
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