Reflection on Families and Community

7. Families and Community – The teacher communicates and collaborates with students, families and all educational stakeholders in an ethical and professional manner to promote student learning.

7.1 Communicating with Families

Teacher communicates with families about students’ progress on a regular basis, respecting cultural norms, and is available as needed to respond to family concerns.

While a bulk of teachers’ responsibility appear to be within the classroom as they are working with students, there are aspects outside of the classroom that may impact a teachers competence in promoting the learning of all students. One factor outside of the classroom that may are the families and community members that are connected to the school in which teachers are employed. The most common community members that teachers must interact with are the parents and guardians of their students. Building a working relationship with parents and guardians is very important as it connects to supporting a students’ education in all possible ways – both in school and out of school. By reaching out to parents about a students’ progress, what is occurring in the classroom, and other aspects about the school the teacher and parents/guardians are able to work together to best support the student.

During the completion of my student teaching internship, my communication with parents and guardians have been limited, but I have had the opportunity to observe my mentors work with parents and receive advice from my mentors about how to work with parents/guardians. One piece of advice from my current mentor that has stuck with me is the need to establish relationships with parents early in the school year. My mentor did this first by posting a letter* to the parents/guardians onto to her page on the school website (see Figure 1.)

Figure 1. Mentor’s webpage letter to parents

She explained that by posting this before the school year and on a public website it enables parents who are searching for their child’s teachers early. My mentor also advised that a letter home at the start of the school year can also act to begin building a relationship with parents; with my mentors guidance I wrote a brief letter* that I may send home with my own students in the future (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. Practice beginning of the year letter

 

The letter should address both what will be taught in my classroom, who I am – both educationally and a few personal hobbies –, and methods for future communications. Each of these components allow parents to have an insight into the class their student will participate in and may establish that I welcome the parents to be a part of their child’s experience in my classroom. My internship has demonstrated that my mentor’s use of early letters to reach out to parents has been successful, as parents appear to feel comfortable emailing, calling, and stopping in after school (with appointments). My mentor nurtures these relationships by ensuring that her responses to parents are prompt and that her tone is always calm and pleasant.

In order to grow in competence for standard 7: Families and Communities I hope to take what I have learned during my internship and incorporate them into my future classroom. The example letter I spoke to above (see Figure 2.) may be used as a starting point for a letter that I may send to parents at the start of the school year, along with other important documents such as the syllabus and information about standardized testing. I would want to personalize the letter a bit more to the community and school in which I am working, such as how I will emphasize the schools core values in my classroom. Throughout the year I will follow my mentors lead in continuing to nurture relationships with parents/guardians by keeping communication with parents timely and refraining from being unpleasant or unkind in my responses to parents. Building these relationships will take time, as will understanding the best way to respond to different parents. I hope that with time I will learn how to adjust my outreach and responses to parents/guardians in the best and most respectful manner possible.

*Letters have been edited to remove personal identification information and contact information.