Sometimes I don't if contacting parents is going to open a can of worms. š
The last thing I want to do is contact a parent for a simple problem which then turns into a huge ordeal because they have been holding a problem in instead of contacting me right away.
As a teacher who suffers from social anxiety picking up the phone to call for pizza delivery is a big deal let alone contacting a parent for an issue. I have learned over the years some tricks to help me and to help parents feel like they are being communicated with.
The first step in communicating with parents is to be first. Open those channels of communication early in the year. I like to email or message via remind every single one of my parents at the beginning of the year within the first two weeks of school. Even when I had 82 students I emailed every parent. This accomplished three things. First, I ensure I have a way to contact parents if ever needed. Also this gives parents a way to contact me. They will always have my email address at hand. Finally, it starts the year off on a positive note. In the email include general reminders and a sentence or two about their child.
Now, you are thinking who has time to email all the parents. I have a trick. Hopefully none of my parents ever see this. In gmail under settings, under advanced you can enable templates. Once you go to compose the email just type in your message. I always save my template with the word NAME in all caps instead of a child's name. To save this message click the 3 dots and find templates. When I am ready to send I open a new message, add the email addresses, click the three dots to open the template, add one positive sentence about each child, and volia a personalized email.
I also choose one child a month to send a letter home about. I use a small greeting card and hand-write a personalized message and send it in the mail. This gives parents a sense that you truly care since actual mail is few and far between these days.
My final tip is to respond to all communication within 24 business hours. We all know how many messages a teacher receives in a day. The key here is business hours if you start responding at all hours parents will expect you to respond on their time schedule. I have received emails at 4:00 am wondering why I had not responded to their 10:00 pm email from the night before. Why? because my colleagues had already responded. Setting boundaries not only help you, but also help the whole school. Once parents know I will respond in 24 business hours they become a lot more patient.
I like to respond to parent messages when I arrive to school for the day unless it is an urgent message like how that child is going home that day. Setting aside a time every day helps me to ensure all parents receive a message back and that the message doesn't get lost in the day. I also try to make sure I send at least a "Yes, I got your message" or "I need to gather more information and will email you back". This school year I was learning a new curriculum and forgot to respond to a few my child is absent today and that came up later when a parent was upset about their child's behavior. In my defense, the office had responded on those emails, but the parent still wanted to hear from me.
So remember communicate early, have positive messages, and always respond.
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