Mollie Deuel's Teaching Portfolio

Side Dish 2

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Working With Student's Families

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Involving students’ families in their schooling and having an open line of communication with my students’ families is something that I feel very strongly about.  Communicating with families can give teachers insight into their student’s lives and help understand their learning needs more thoroughly.  I believe that the classroom is as an extension of home since the student will be spending a significant amount of their lives in school and teachers, similarly to parents, are helping shape young students minds and lives.  It is important to make student’s parents and families your ally early on, since it is their child you are working with and they probably already have many expectations of their student and you already that could help inform your teaching. 

 

To begin the line of communication from my end, I intend to send home a parent letter with each student at the beginning of the year introducing myself and the course and have the students return a signed slip stating that their parents have received and read the letter (see letter below). In the letters I will also invite families to contact me if they have any questions about the class or would like to share any further information about their student with me.  It is my hope that sending this letter will make families feel comfortable contacting me with any concerns and show them that I am willing to make an extra effort to ensure their student is successful.  I will tell students when I hand out the letter that if their families need a letter in a language other than English, they can let me know sometime before class is over and I will translate and print out copies for them using a translating website.  In the signed portion that the student will be returning from the letter sent home I also ask family members to give me their preferred method of contact and the best hours to reach them.  I will create and excel spread sheet for each of my classes, where I can organize and store this data pertaining to each of my students (see example spread sheet below). I also plan on logging any formal interactions with my student’s family members in the excel spreadsheet and a rough outline of the outcome of the communication.  For example, I will log what the conversation was about and I will note the general outcome and feeling of the student’s family member at the end of the conversation.

 

For an ongoing line of communication throughout the year, I will also keep a class website up to date that I will share with families.  On my class website I will have a syllabus, a list of assignments and their due dates, as well as extra resources that students and their families can use to help them with any content that they may be unfamiliar with. I will also post grades through the online parent portal.   I want to make these resources available so that families can keep up to date with what is happening in my class if they would like. I will not, however mandate that families be very involved in my class as I am sure they are very busy with their own lives.  I will instead encourage collaboration and make them feel welcome if they do choose to engage in their students learning. 

 

In my initial letter home (below), I invite families to come into our schools “back to school night.”  During that time, I will have a sign in sheet (see example below) for parents to fill in their contact information, if for some reason I never received the return sheet from the letter home, with their contact information.  I will also have an optional handout with my contact information, in case they misplaced my initial letter, or never received it.  I also would like to encourage parents to feel free to ask me anything about the course or myself to show them that I am willing and excited to build a relationship with them throughout the next year.

 

If I ever need to call or email (I will always call unless contact information states that is not an option) a parent about an issue concerning their student, I always want to let my students know ahead of time, so they aren’t blind-sided when they get home.  I also want to give a full and thorough explanation of why I feel it is necessary that their families be informed about the issue and a rough outline of what I plan on saying to their family member.  I want to convey to both the students and their families that this shouldn’t be viewed as a form of punishment, but rather as a collaborative effort to get the student back on the right track. 

 

While I don’t think I will have the time, at least in my first year of teaching, to call every student’s families to offer some good news about their student on a regular basis, I will try to make the effort to call in the case of an exceptional feat or if I have noticed a vast improvement in the student’s performance.   If I notice that a student is working exceptionally hard in my class or if they do an exceptional job on an assignment, then I would like to make it a point to let their families know to help boost both the student’s and their families’ moral.

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Example welcome letter for families at the beginning of the year:

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Example spread sheet where I will store student and family data:

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Example script for if I need to call/email a student’s family member about them missing assignments:

 

Good afternoon (insert parents name),

 

This is (insert student’s name)’s Biology teacher Ms. Deuel. I am calling you because I wanted to elicit your help in figuring out how to get (student) back on track in my class. I’ve already talked to (student) and told them that I would be contacting you so that you were aware of what was going on and wouldn’t be confused when looking at (student’s) grades on the parent portal.  (Student) hasn’t turned in three out of the last four assignments that have been due.  After not turning in the first assignment I spoke with (student) and tried to figure out a plan for them to start completing their homework on time. I let them know that they could come to me and request an extension if they really needed it and that I would be more than willing to help them with their work during lunch or after school.  I’ve reminded (student) of this after each subsequent missed assignment and at this point I think we need to come up with a better plan for (him/her) moving forward.  Do you have any suggestions for helping hold (student) accountable for their work?

 

At this point I will listen to the parent’s ideas and collaborate with them to come up with a plan for the student to be held accountable for turning in their work from here on out.

 

I really appreciate you collaborating with me to make sure (student) is successful in my class.  Thank you for your time and I hope you have a great weekend! 

 

 

Sample sign in sheet at parent night:

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Sample handout to give at parent night:

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References

• Biology teacher clipart. Retrieved May 07, 2017, from https://clipartfest.com/categories/view/b50f363a470021f17749926398d69c809c33d8da/biology-teacher-clipart.html

• Graham, E. (2014, November 20). How Teachers and Parents Work Together for Student Success. Retrieved May 07, 2017, from http://neatoday.org/2014/01/03/how-teachers-and-parents-work-together-for-student-success-2/

• Survival Guide for New Teachers. (2005, December 15). Retrieved May 07, 2017, from https://www2.ed.gov/teachers/become/about/survivalguide/parent.html

• Neddo, D. Letter to Parents. Retrieved May 07, 2017, from http://mrneddo.weebly.com/letter-to-parents.html

• Weinstein, C. S., & Novodvorsky, I. (2015). Working with Families. In Middle and secondary classroom management: lessons from research and practice. (296 - 334) New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.