Effective parent-teacher collaboration is the foundation for a positive learning environment that nurtures and promotes a child’s holistic learning.
Despite knowing the obvious academic and social benefits, it has never been an easy task for educators to build a bond with parents due to various challenges. From excessively intrusive to extremely reluctant, teachers must partner with every kind of parent in between.
However, parents know their children the best and therefore, can be a teacher’s biggest ally! So, what can teachers do to build strong relationships with parents?
Know parents well
This is the foremost thing a teacher needs to do to build a bond. Ensure to stick to the fundamentals such as welcoming with a warm smile (more important in online meetings), calling them by their names (pronounced correctly, of course), and sharing credit for their role in their child’s achievements. While anyone can learn to communicate effectively, getting to know someone well requires deeper mental and emotional effort.
Pay attention to what parents say about their child and make time to discuss any issues they may have. Try and keep conversations natural and specific, rather than forced and mundane. Make parents feel that they have been heard and that their feedback is highly valuable to you.
Keep them apprised
You can spring surprises on students in the name of tests but never do this with parents, unless it’s positive news! Keeping parents in the loop is critical. Sharing a comprehensive report about a child’s progress regularly is a great way to keep parents in the loop. Try to limit the number of communication channels to avoid spamming and confusion.
Involve them
Building relationships starts with involving parents actively in their children’s education. For younger grade students, start by providing information and ideas on how best they can assist with homework and other curriculum-related activities. Also, suggest enrichment activities they can do with their children like tours to museums, library visits, theatrical plays, and fun DIY science experiments.
Such suggestions are a great way to include parents in their child’s learning and with these, there will be more room for conversation with them. Furthermore, schools can also conduct workshops for parents. Communication should be designed thoughtfully to include both parents as well as the extended family.
Effective communication
Be it communication or progress reports, every parent has their own preferences of what they want to receive and how they want to receive it. Schools may not be able to customise everything but should aim to ease the process of keeping track of children’s progress online. Not every parent is able to check daily email updates. So, send updates and reports at scheduled intervals.
With online learning, customisation has become easier and teachers need to explore the available technology tools for effective communication. While providing choices is good, setting limitations is also equally necessary to avoid strain and confusion. Ensure all the updates on student’s progress, deadlines for submissions and other crucial information are available to parents in one single place.
With the paradigm shift in teaching and learning, the issues surfacing are also evolving. Thus, schools and teachers need to be proactive in actively doing as much as they can to
establish a clear and positive communication with parents.
(The author is co-founder of an EdTech startup)