Parent/Teacher Communication

Building relationships with the parents in your classroom is one of the most important things you can do as teacher. Each day parents leave the most important people in their lives at our doors and we have a responsibility to let parents know their children are in good hands. We are partners in this journey. This has always been important to me as teacher. In fact, I have parents whose children I taught years ago, that still volunteer in my classroom even though their children are now in middle school and high school. In getting to know parents, inviting them into the room and great communication are all ways to foster relationships that can last even past a school year.

Some ways I communicate with parents:

Also, it’s so simple, yet many teachers never use the email addresses they collect at the beginning of the year. I make a Parent Group in my address book and email reminders all the time. On Monday, I remind them of the goings on throughout the week, I’ll email the night before library books are due and remind of bake sales, etc. After, I also email parent’s individually with little notes of positivity about their child or cute photos I take in class. Email is such a quick way to remind parents of things and it’s convenient for them as well.

HOMEWORK SHEET

Though I know many children grades 2-8 use planners or agendas to write down their homework for the day or week. In our little people’s case, writing these things down, may take forever. So each Monday, I send home our homework for the week ahead on a nice little sheet that can be referenced throughout the week. This way parent know what to expect and students know what their job is each night. Furthermore, I must preface this by saying that I don’t give much homework. I know how real the homework struggle can be. I’m a mom. So my kiddos really just have to read and study their sight and spelling words.

NEWSLETTER
I send my newsletter home every Friday. Also,I try to recap our week and give parents a look at our week ahead.

I have these templates in my store as well. Furthermore, there is a different template for each month available in black and white and in color. CLASS BLOG

In addition to the communication above, I also maintained a classroom blog that was updated weekly, giving my parents a glimpse into their child’s week at school. I had so many kind comments and thank you’s for sharing their child’s learning.

A NEW TOOL!

Besides, I’ve just discovered a new tool for communication as well. It’s call Simply Circle and you should check it out! Of course this comes about when I no longer have my own class, but my wheels are turning for how I’ll use it as the reading specialist as well.

Here are some features of the site.

Finally, our biggest way to communicate is our GO Book. This binder goes home every night with my students and it’s our way to get papers, notes and behavior charts home in a neat and orderly way. To see a very old video that explains how to create these binders, watch below.

To access the newest documents for these binders, click here. They are free in my store.