Table of Contents
Tip 62: Parent -Teacher Relations
Establish good rapport with parents and administration. Make yourself available to parents by appointment or at parent-teacher meetings. Teachers and parents need to work together to help the students. If you have a good relationship with the parents, you can work together to help the student to improve.
If you have a poor relationship or one that will influence the students, then they won’t respect you, because their parents won’t like you either. So, work on maintaining a good relationship with parents. Of course — you should stay professional, but help each other to help the students.
Also, most teachers know that their best friend is the custodian and the lady at administration because they can help you solve a lot of the problems you might have in your class. So, build good relationships with everyone at the school, but especially with the administration and the parents.
How to communicate with parents
“Teacher-parent communication is key to getting parents involved in their child’s education,” writes educator Suzanne C. Tingley. Quoting research by Edutopia, Tingley says that parental involvement usually results in better test scores for students, improved social skills, better attendance, good participation levels, and such learners are less likely to be disruptive.
Given all the positive effects of parental involvement, most schools regularly reach out to parents with a variety of events, such as quarterly parents’ days, newsletters, social media groups, etc. Parents who partake tend to be more supportive of the school.
Teachers should build an effective relationship with their students’ parents. The school should have clear guidelines regarding parent-teacher relationships and communication. Even if the school’s management is efficient in this regard, you as the teacher should personally inform parents at the start of the year how and when you will periodically communicate with them. Then do so consistently.
However, set appropriate boundaries; never make your phone number freely available; teachers do have the right to a private life. Rather communicate with an approved and agreed to social app group.
Teachers must plan beforehand how to respond to parents, especially if there is a problem. Don’t wait until a struggling or disruptive student is failing before informing the parents. When you meet with parents, tell them what the problem is and what strategies you’ve tried and what remedies you’re considering. Ask and listen to what they say. You are not a miracle worker, be honest and don’t be forced into decisions or promises on the spot. Say when you first need to consult with your seniors.
Having a plan when you talk to parents helps prevent being caught off guard. A plan also relieves the pressure to quickly come up with a solution to an angry parent’s perceived problem.
Tip 63: School Rules and Drills
Learn the school rules and policy and make sure to know security drills and disaster procedures. As a teacher, it’s up to you to know everything about the rules and the drills at school. So, know exactly how to handle fire drills or earthquake drills, or if there’s an emergency. Also, practice those with your students.
You’ve got to know those school rules very well. So, if a student acts out or does something inappropriate, you know what the school rules are and you can ask them, “Okay, what are the school rules about this? Please don’t do it again.”
The best schools have a strong policy that all the students and teachers know very well. Make sure you learn these rules and procedures.
Tip 64: Be Organized
Have all your paperwork on file. As a teacher, there’s so much paperwork to be done. You should have your grading ready, your planning, your files on all your students, the procedures. There’s so much to do. So, the best thing is to have everything done and organized because if you suddenly need to find something—some kind of record, or find some grades, you could save time and respond with a professional demeanor.
One of the most important things about being a teacher is being organized and having everything ready, knowing where everything is.
It’s very difficult for a teacher who is not organized to function one hundred percent. So, have all your filing done, all your paperwork filed, and up to date. Know where everything is. If somebody comes to you and says we need that file, you should be able to produce it immediately. If you’re talking to some parents and they ask you about their child’s grades, you should be able to produce that evidence to show them. So, it’s very important to be organized. It will make the rest of your teaching life a pleasant experience.
