This morning, Edutopia published my post, “New Teachers: How to Talk to Parents.” I feel uncomfortable giving advice on anything because I certainly don’t consider myself an expert. Even after 26 years of teaching, I know that I have a lot to learn. But I have a few Oprah-ish, What-I-Know-For-Sure truths that I have collected throughout my career – and I can tell you that I Know For Sure that developing a positive relationship with the parents of my students goes a long way toward developing a positive relationship with the students.
Look at you-this is so awesome! Great advice, as always. Parent communication is something I also feel like I’ve gotten better at over the years. I had a particularly difficult set of parents one year and I had an admin who said -well, look at how you can do better. And as I reflected, I sure did find ways to make those connections more effectively.
Thank you! I think that once I got over needing to feel right all of the time, and made more effort to understand, relationships just fell into place so much more easily!