Maintaining an open line of communication with parents is crucial toward establishing a positive teacher/parent relationship. This can be as simple as sending parents e-mails at the beginning of the school year telling a bit about yourself and briefly outlining the educational objectives for your class. Of course, this also means that you respond to parent e-mails as quickly as reasonably possible.
As David Walbert suggests in his article, knowing your audience is the key to communicating on the web, including parent communication. Thus, whether most of your students come from SEC backgrounds versus parents who are Harvard professors, will likely change the tone and style of parent communication. Technology like e-mail can make it easier to communicate with parents, but it might also cause communication errors on either end of the spectrum. If your writing is not clear and concise, parents are more likely to misunderstand you and get frustrated or angry.
The two most promising and realistic technologies to allow parent/ teacher communication are probably e-mail and services such as Edline. Teacher or district web pages can serve the same purpose as Edline, that is, they allow parents to see exactly what students are doing in class and even view how and why a teacher makes decisions. Although services such as Edline posts student grades and assignments, web pages could work in the same manner, as long as privacy was afforded to the students grades. Each student, for instance, could be identified by a unique number, known only to the parents, so that grades are not publicly displayed.
It is extremely important; however, not to assume that all parents have access to a computer or the internet. Some parents simply cannot afford the expense that a computer or the internet entails. For these parents, you must be willing to make concessions. If every parent has access to their students’ grades through edline, how will the concerned parent without internet access know how their child is doing? In these cases, a phone call or a letter home would still be useful. Certainly, a teacher should never use social networking sites such as facebook to befriend either students or parents. In such a case, the potential risks far outweigh the benefits.
As Matthew pointed out, we now have the ability to openly communicate with parents using e-mails and course websites; however, there are some challenges when it comes to communication through technology. As teachers, we cannot rely on e-mail alone since many families have limited internet access. Notes home and phone calls are still necessary forms of communication. Also, there's something to be said about hearing the voice and inflections of the person you are talking to that is removed from e-mail conversations.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of new technology, Rhonda Bodfield points out that "we're teaching a different generation of kids, and they learn a different way. This is super stuff — if we use it responsibly." We need to be responsible when it comes to interacting with students and their families on sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc. Not only is it creepy that teachers are 'friending'their elementary students, but it makes me question why an elementary student even has such a site?! In any case, I doubt that I will friend or text a student in my class.
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ReplyDeleteAs my wise colleagues say, let's keep in mind that you do not have to be facebook friends with your students to have good communication with them. Resulting gossip and rumors are not worth the novelty of checking each other's page. School relationships should remain on the professional side through: websites and newsletters. Individual communication can take place through calls, emails and meetings without the friending. This is a new stance I have as of this year. Last summer I friended all of my students after our program ended. Now we email or call to keep in touch. Also, let's keep in mind that teachers need a place to be free and separate from school.
ReplyDeleteOn a more positive note, I appreciate the quotation from the "Communication with Parents" blog: "you have nothing to hide." Websites can only improve the classroom. She also reminds teachers to be organized. Our shuffling papers do not show we care! How can a teacher manage? Is a folder for each student necessary? Maybe.
Brown's article about consistency in communication expresses the importance of incorporating classroom websites into our schedules. Perhaps we should check the classroom website as often as we check our email? Is that obsessive?
The classroom website is my favorite idea from these articles. The website, edline?, can foster organization. As mentioned, parents who work or students at home can check this site-brilliant! Websites show accountability. The computer saves information for clarification. What a great tool!
The issue I see with trendy websites includes a loss of oral communication. The site should be a place to plan and organize. I would prefer communicating with parents on the phone or in person. Ruth brings up the important point that hearing a voice or seeing a person is an essential piece of communication.
I am sure we will all create class websites and enjoy the benefits!
To add to that which has been mentioned thusfar, I would simply like to point out that a way to incorporate the user-friendly features of Facebook into implementing extracurricular classroom connectivity might be to make a private Facebook account for your class. Students could post questions to their classmates, receive links and other assignments from the instructor, and more, all while maintaining the privacy of the instructor's personal Facebook account (i.e. by not utilizing it). Essentially, this is the same things as creating a class website, but with the work of the formatting already completed by Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook). Another option for teachers might be to make a Moodle site that serves the similar purpose of class communication. (Moodle has a bit more of an "academic" format and emphasis.) Of course, I agree with my colleagues about the need for traditional communication as well, both out of respect to accommodate those who do not have the resources to gain access to and monitor a classroom web site, and also for the sake of likely preference by many parents for pen and paper and/or a telephone. Nonetheless, I feel that online communication, if used properly, is a wonderful tool.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, I was pleasantly reminded by Walbert's article on "Writing for the Web" that no matter what format is ultimately used, web postings shoudl be "concise, easy to scan, and objective (rather than promotional) in style." My CT and I have developed a general rubric for blog entries based on the "four Cs": "Complete," "Concrete," "Coherent," and "Considerate" in order to convey our expectations for quality writing on the Web in addition to on paper. All in all, I believe that the technology our students use in their daily social lives can be used to connect to the schools both inside and outside of the classroom. Upon being prudent in our degree of openness, we as teachers can better address the concerns of students and parents in between the ending and starting bells each day.