Parent Communication Plan
Part A
Parents are
actually co-teachers - just in a different space. A student’s success is largely dependent on
the school’s ability to work in conjunction with the parents or guardians. A student likely spends more waking hours at
school than he does at home. Therefore,
my first commitment is to the student but not to the exclusion of the valuable
role parents play in a student’s achievement.
Parents and guardians must be invited to engage in the classroom because
really, we have the same goal: providing students with the tools they need to
be successful adults.
Depending on
the school’s policies and schedule for after hours events, I would like to host
an open house prior to the start of the semester where parents and students are
invited to my classroom for a meet and greet.
I would take
that time to introduce myself personally and present the overarching theme for
the semester and/or the whole year.
Parents could get an idea of who I am and how I interact with
people. I could go over the syllabus and
disclosures as well as what texts we will cover. I would also discuss with them my grading and
discipline policies and give them instructions on how to access their students’
grades online. Parents and students
would then have the opportunity to ask me any questions, and I will provide my
school email address as a way for them to contact me should any questions or
concerns arise later. At a separate
meeting, be that in person or by phone, I would like to touch base with parents
whose student has an IEP or qualifies for 504 accommodations.
Communication
with parents cannot stop there, however.
Ongoing updates must be made available to parents. In my managerial experience doing annual
evaluations for my employees, I held the belief that there should be no
surprises on an evaluation. The same
holds true for students and their parents.
There should be no surprises at midterm or year-end concerning a
student’s grade. Before it is too late,
I will contact by email or phone call any parent whose student is at risk of
failing my class. If school policy
allows for the creation of a Twitter account for a class, I would utilize it as
a way to post updates and inform parents (and the community) of what is
happening in class. This could also be a
good way for students to integrate what they are learning into the broader
community.
Problems do
arise, and if correcting the problem goes beyond what I can manage in the
classroom, parents and possibly administration will most definitely be brought
on board. Prior to contacting a parent
or guardian about an issue, great care must be made to collect as much factual
data as possible surrounding the situation.
This could be test scores, formative assessment data, attendance
records, and behavioral observations. It
is then time to listen to what the parent has to say and let him or her
reply. It never hurts to remind parents
that we are on the same team of supporting the student. It also never hurts to have something
positive to say. It is then my duty to
provide a parent with progress reports in case we need to reshape our approach
to correcting the behavior or providing the best opportunities for the student
to succeed.
Parent
contact does not just have to happen when there is a problem. Parents can feel engaged in the classroom
over positive interactions as well. In
the disclosure agreement I send home with students, I will ask parents for
multiple ways to reach them as well as preferred ways of contacting them. When I catch a student doing something right,
I will contact the parent just to give them a chance to feel proud of their
student and to let the student know that more than one person cares.
Part B
April 29,
2016
Dear Parents
and/or Guardians,
Welcome to Sophomore
English II. I have a fun and challenging
year planned that covers various texts with corresponding assignments. First, let me assure you that I have your
student’s best interest at heart. I care
deeply for each and every student because his or her success is our
success. That being said, you should
also know that I ask for their very best work on the given assignments. Some of these assignments are part of the
district-wide assessments for informative writing, narrative writing, and
concession paragraphs. In addition, I
have allotted time for creative writing, satire, which they particularly enjoy,
and free-choice reading, writing, speaking and presenting assignments. In case you haven’t noticed, teenagers like
making their own decisions, and as long as we are being productive and aligning
our outcomes with the common core state standards, I am going to let them!
A disclosure
agreement from me will be sent home during the first week of class that both
you and your student should sign. Within
that document is a sample rubric used for grading, the types of assessments I
use, a list of texts we will be covering this year, the school’s plagiarism,
absent, and tardy policies, and my own classroom management plan. Let me preface the management plan by stating
that they are are not just about discipline; they include ways of building the
kind of respectful classroom environment where students can learn. Here are some values of great importance to
me that I expect from my students:
- · A growth mindset
- · Professionalism and poise
- · A solution-oriented approach to learning (and complaining for that matter)
- · Respect
- · Quality discussion
In return I commit to respecting you and your student, to
working hard to maintain a positive environment, to delivering quality
instruction to meet learning goals, and to keeping open lines of communication
with you, the most instrumental person in your child’s life. We are in this together. Feel free to contact me any time by calling
the school or emailing me at leevernon@ourschool.com. I also hope to have a Twitter account set up
for the sophomore students. I will
provide more information as soon as it is available.
Be on the look out for an open house invitation from the
school. Excitement abounds for what this
year has in store, and I can’t wait to meet our students!
Kindly,
Lee Vernon
School Phone: 406-555-7777
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