Parents always want to know how their children perform in school in terms of academics, extra curriculars and overall behavior. As a teacher, you are the main source of this information. You can share this information through letters, phone calls, face-to-face meetings, emails, and more. You should also find a way to monitor all of the communications and the best way to do this is through a parent communication log.
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Parent Communication Logs
What is a communication log?
The most popular method of keeping track of all communications between you and your students’ parents is through a parent communication log. This is particularly useful in preventing forgotten communication or miscommunication. To optimize the value of the communication log template, consider the following tips:
- Make the participation of both you and the parents a requirement. It is equally important that you as a teacher are also informed if one of your students didn’t sleep well, had a particularly bad or good morning or evening or might feel ill.
- To increase the efficiency of your log for both sides, make it as simple as possible. You can add as many yes or no boxes for checking or elements like scales and ratings for behaviors. The use of checkboxes, supplemented by one or two sentences rather than a while dissertation increases the chances that you and the parents will write on the log regularly.
Parent Call Logs
Why is communication important with parents?
If there is enough communication between parents and teachers, you can expect an increase in trust and understanding. Then you and the parents will work together better to support your students’ development and well-being. This is the reason why effective communication is crucial and you can record your communications on a parent communication log.
Having a positive relationship working with parents means that the knowledge and experiences will get shared to understand your students’ situations better. If you use a parent-teacher communication log effectively, you can work together with parents to develop plans to support your students.
Communicating with parents properly
In each interaction you have with your parents, one of the main goals is to improve your partnership with them. This goal can be a lot easier to achieve when you consistently communicate with parents in a considerate and respectful way and log the details of your interactions on a parent communication log.
It would also be very helpful to keep a parent call log to see how frequently you have talked to your students’ parents over the phone. When interacting and communicating with parents, you can do this properly by considering the following points:
- Pinpoint and share the positive aspects of your students’ behaviors, experiences, and learning.
- Only provide your students parents with accurate information based on your observations.
- Always think before you say anything, especially when talking to parents about sensitive or difficult issues.
- Always allow the parents to make the final decisions. You may offer suggestions but the parents will have the final say.
- If you are in doubt of what to say or how to say something, think about it first. You don’t have to answer right away.
- Always use ordinary language so parents will understand you better. Using professional language can feel alienating or daunting to parents.
Parent Contact Logs
Tips for communicating effectively with parents
You can create a positive learning atmosphere by forming a bond with parents and informing them of your students’ progress. Teacher-parent communication can take many forms and yield many benefits.
Your communication can be as simple as a short note to celebrate one of your students’ achievements or a comprehensive newsletter that details all of the exciting events happening in school. You and the parents want your students to succeed and one great way to accomplish this is by working together.
If you can make the process as enjoyable and easy as possible, so much the better. Apart from keeping a parent communication log, here are some suggestions to communicate effectively with parents:
- Send a survey to the parents
There are several ways that you can get in touch with your parents. Whichever way the parents prefer, what matters most is that you can contact them as soon as possible before the school years begins.
Having a parent contact log can be very useful here. Communicating early on allows you to establish a good relationship with the parents while giving you the time to organize yourself based on what you have talked about. - Create a communication schedule
Once the parents have provided you the communication method of their choice, you can come up with a schedule for communication. Make an outline of what type of information you should share in a given amount of time then make a note of it on a planner. You can also take note of significant student achievements and academic progress then send celebratory notes to the parents. - Send a fill-in-the-blank letter
Although parents and students consider you as the one with all the answers, finding a way to have the involvement of parents in your students’ education can be a very powerful idea. After all, parents are the persons in authority your students look up to at home. When parents have a personal stake in their child’s education, your students will have a personal stake in their own education too. - Create a course syllabus to set expectations
It is always a great move to send out a course syllabus to parents and students to give them an idea of what to expect. Send this to parents through email to provide them with a point of reference at any time throughout the term. - Send a class newsletter regularly
To make it easier for you to create a newsletter, use a template. This way, you can easily design the newsletter and update it every month. Send this to the parents either by email or by printing it out, and sending it home.
It is very important to maintain regular communication with parents. But if you would like to keep all of the parents informed not only on their child’s progress but also on school-wide activities or class projects, the best way to do this is by taking note of such information into a document that features a professional look. One that will reflect the pride in the quality of education that you and your co-teachers offer.
