Parents as Partners

Our discussion about teaching and professionalism really struck a chord with me.  It seems that part of the problem is teachers taking themselves seriously.  But a much bigger problem is how the rest of the world views teachers.  A large subset of “the rest of the world” is parents.  How can we expect to be treated as professionals when the people who are entrusting us with their children don’t even view us that way?  I came across an article on cnn that touches on this topic (http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/06/living/teachers-want-to-tell-parents/index.html ). 

If you don’t have time to read the article, (although it’s good… I would recommend it), it talks about how teachers are citing parents as a reason for leaving the profession.  I love the example it gives of having a conference with a parent and telling them something their child has done in the classroom and the parent turns to the student and says “Is that true?”  The author of the article points out that what you really want to say to the parent is “of course it’s true… I just told you that!” 

The discussion we had along with this article made me start to think about how we can make parents our partner rather than our enemies.  If we really want parents to support our work in the classroom then we first have to make sure that they understand what it is that we do in the classroom.  Back to school night theoretically gives you time to talk with parents but it seems to me that all you ever have time to share is logistical information, not really content or how to help at home.  If I had an abundant amount of free time I would love to have a parent training workshop to teach the parents of my students how to help at home.

Lucky for me my school is hosting a kindergarten literacy night next week.  The parents and students will be rotating through three stations.  At one station parents will learn how to read aloud at home and what kinds of comprehension questions to ask when reading at home.  Then the kids get to pick out a book and the parents can practice reading out loud.  At another station there will be six different ABC and word wall word games set up (mix and fix with cut up words, sorting upper and lower case magnetic letters, concentration with ABC cards, ect.).  Parents will learn how to play these games and then have a few minutes to play each one.  At the last station parents and students will explore literacy web based games that they can access at home (I highly recommend www.starfall.com ).

In addition to having an evening set aside to educate parents, I think communicating with parents about what’s going on in the classroom is really important.  I send home a weekly newsletter ( https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B6KbKa8ILJIUYzcwYTA2MjAtMmFlYi00NDQ2LTlmY2YtYTRhZmJhMDBmYWNl&hl=en_US ) to tell parents about our lessons for the week.  Included in the peek at the week is a “tips for home” section that changes every week or two to give parents ideas for ways to reinforce the classroom concepts at home. 

I really believe that teachers and parents both want the same thing; they want what is best for the child.  If we can communicate with parents about our goals in school, most parents will want to help reach these goals at home as well.