{"id":5108,"date":"2013-02-17T07:53:48","date_gmt":"2013-02-17T12:53:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sau51.org\/pes\/?p=5108"},"modified":"2013-02-17T08:14:58","modified_gmt":"2013-02-17T13:14:58","slug":"eight-suggestions-for-improving-parent-teacher-relations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sau51.org\/pes\/eight-suggestions-for-improving-parent-teacher-relations\/","title":{"rendered":"Eight Suggestions for Improving Parent-Teacher Relations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note: The following article summary is shared with permission from Kim Marshall, a former Boston principal, author, and nationally recognized educator. This is from his weekly educator e-newsletter, <\/em>The Marshall Memo.<\/p>\n

In this New York Times <\/em>article, sixth-grade teacher Sara Mosle says some parents are overly intrusive, which robs children of the opportunity to solve problems themselves and puts teachers on the defensive. At the other extreme is parents holding back for fear of irritating teachers and sparking retaliation against their children. Here are Mosle\u2019s ideas for a productive middle ground: Parents should encourage their children to take the lead in sorting out difficulties with teachers. College admissions officers tell school people that they look for students who have developed confidence and \u201cvoice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Parents and teachers should use e-mail and text messages only to convey simple information like appointments or scheduled absences. For anything more substantive, especially if one party is annoyed or angry, it\u2019s better to pick up the phone or speak in person. Conflicts can escalate in e-mail exchanges in ways that would never happen speaking face to face.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Parents should not cc. the principal or other administrators when e-mailing about routine issues. \u201cIt\u2019s disrespectful to teachers and parents alike,\u201d says Palo Alto superintendent Kevin Skelly, \u201cas it sends the message you don\u2019t think there\u2019s even a chance you can work this out on your own.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Teachers should respond to parent com communications promptly, even if it\u2019s a brief acknowledgement and a request for some time to solve a problem. For their part, parents should appreciate that teachers are busy during the day and may have other responsibilities after school. \u201cMy students know that I\u2019m unlikely to respond to an e-mail between the hours of 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.,\u201d says Mosle, \u201cas that\u2019s when I\u2019m focusing on being a parent to my own child.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Teachers should immediately apologize if they drop the ball. \u201cNothing is more disarming,\u201d says Skelly, \u201cand it\u2019s so simple to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Teachers and parents should emphasize and build on children\u2019s strengths. Mosle confesses that she doesn\u2019t do this enough as a teacher, and urges everyone, \u201cIf you have something positive to say, say it early and often.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0When there are conflicts, parents and teachers should present specific desired outcomes that will help the child do better.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Parents and teachers should \u201cproceed with humility,\u201d says Mosle, taking with a grain of salt occasional bellyaching about teachers, especially by adolescents working through issues with authority. \u201cThe teenager, being a teenager, may not rank your parenting skills very high, either,\u201d says Skelly.<\/p>\n

Summarized from \u201cThe Parent- Teacher Trap\u201d by Sara Mosle in The New York Times<\/em>, Jan. 13, 2013.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Note: The following article summary is shared with permission from Kim Marshall, a former Boston principal, author, and nationally recognized educator. This is from his weekly educator e-newsletter, The Marshall Memo. In this New York Times article, sixth-grade teacher Sara Mosle says some parents are overly intrusive, which robs children of the opportunity to solve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sau51.org\/pes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sau51.org\/pes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sau51.org\/pes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sau51.org\/pes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sau51.org\/pes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sau51.org\/pes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5108\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sau51.org\/pes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sau51.org\/pes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sau51.org\/pes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}