Communicating with Angry Parents

There are many pleasures of teaching, but talking with upset parents is not one of them. As a teacher, you are an easy target for agitated parents to attack when things are not going as they planned. Here are a few simple tips to keep in mind when faced with angry parent, listen, remain calm, and remember the student.

Listening is Key to Building Bridges Home
First, and most importantly, listen to what they have to say. Parents are key pieces to understanding how to help a student exceed. You, as a teacher and the parent have a cooperative agreement, you rely on each other to meet one goal, a successful student. An upset parent may often feel like you do care about what the problem is, if you do not let them talk. If the initial communication is through e-mail, do not reply quickly. Wait and gather your thoughts before you respond. Decide whether e-mail to work towards a solution is appropriate or if a parent-teacher conference would allow for better communication.

Remaining Calm Diffuses Heated Conversations
Second, give parents space when things feel a little heated. One idea is to offer to step out of the room so that they may cool down and collect their thoughts. This will prevent the meeting from to turning to unconstructive. If they refuse to calm down, or become verbally abusive, let them know you will see them when they have regained control of their emotions.

Keeping the Goal in Mind, the Student
Final tip is to remember to keep one thing in mind, the student. Although it may feel like the parent is attacking you personally, they are not. You may not be aware of situation in the students family may be facing that could set this off. Be proactive, and start the conversation with ways the student is excelling in academics or other subjects.

Dealing With the Bully and the Victim

Teachers are in an especially difficult position when dealing with “bullies” because not only do they have to contend with the assailant, but they must be able to provide a safe environment for the victim. All schools should have some sort of program that will give the children, non-violent resources to settle their differences. Since bullies can be very intimidating educators need to be able to recognize the signs of a student being victimized.
These behaviors can include staying close to teachers, frequent visits to the school nurse with complaints of not feeling well, reluctance to attend school, withdrawal from others, poor concentration, poor academic performance, and refusal to try new experiences. A student who is anxious about being victimized either during lunch or on the way home from school cannot concentrate on school work.
It’s imperative for schools to hold workshops, assemblies, a school campaign, and have a school policy of zero tolerance. Assembly programs stressing character development and positive social interaction can be held.
The following steps may help the classroom teacher stop bullying issues before they even begin:
• Focus on students’ doing the right thing.
• Reinforce positive behaviors and work from students’ strengths.
• Be a positive role model. Students will emulate teacher’s treatment of and reactions to students. When a teacher reacts in a positive manner to students, other students will exhibit similar behavior. When teachers value the contributions of students, students will value the contributions of other students.
• Establish a classroom environment that allows students to voice their opinions.
• Enforce the concept that each student is allowed to have his/her opinion and can agree or disagree with the thoughts of others.
• Provide a forum for students to express their thoughts.
• Encourage many solutions to problem solving.
• Enable students to express feelings through speaking, writing, art, music, dance, and dramatization.
• Develop an appreciation of diversity in population and thoughts.
• Provide opportunities for cooperative group work, peer tutoring, and peer mediation.
Probably the worst thing a teacher can do about bullying is ignore it. If you do not know what to do, ask other teachers or administrators, but don’t think the children will be able to work it out on their own, they need adult intervention.

Communicating Through Song During Classroom Transitions

Transitions between classroom lessons and activities occur many times during the school day. Since young children usually love to sing, these transitions provide the perfect time to sing a simple song directing them to their next task. A quiet song about taking out the math workbook and tearing out the page can catch on and after repetition, the children will sing along with the teacher. By changing a few words to a familiar tune, a teacher can adjust the same song to fit many different classroom situations. There are so many simple children songs that adapt easily to different words.

This process allows for a smooth and pleasant transition in the classroom. Most young children love to sing and respond positively. Singing helps children refocus their attention to a new task and gives them permission to use their voices without creating a noisy, chatty classroom.

Finally, research shows that children learn better in a relaxed and positive environment, and singing helps create a fun way to transition and learn.

Sudents Who Need Extra Attention.....

In every class that you teach you will always have one, two or maybe even three students who need a little bit more attention than other students need. It is very important not to favor these students but extremely important to make sure these students know that you are there for them when they need you. If you have a student who acts up or is having trouble in class talk to them, find out what they want and need. Speak to their parents; find out if this is their normal behavior. If so, what do their parents do for them? Keep their parents involved. This will make it easier for the students as well. You don’t want to get frustrated in front of the student as this will most likely cause the student to get frustrated back . You want to stay calm and maybe look in to getting back up. A teaching assistant, especially in an Elementary school setting is a great tool to have to make sure every student gets the special attention that they all need. It’s impossible to be super teacher all the time.

Body Tells All

Homework

Communication Through Classroom Web Sites

Information about classroom projects, activities and events may be shared with parents through an on-line classroom web site. Established and maintained by the teacher, the web site provides a convenient arena for communicating with parents. The teacher can update parents on the activities of the class and may even choose to include digital photos from the classroom. (Please note: Signed authorization for the release and use of student images must first be obtained from a parent/legal guardian.)

Teachers may use the web site as a means to remind parents of upcoming events. Students might create a class book which can be scanned and shared on the web site. A calendar of events might be included.

There are many things that can be shared by a teacher on a classroom web site. It is an effective method of communication with busy parents and can be easily and quickly maintained by a very busy teacher.

It's all in the Delivery

Communicating With Others, Not Just Students

Teachers interact with many people during the day, not just students. Open lines of communication need to be constantly maintained with parents, administrators, other teachers and support personnel such as secretaries and custodians. The ability to effectively communicate with all these various people is essential for the teacher to maintain classroom management.
For example: understanding roles and assignments, planning and carrying out learning activities, coordinating approaches with students, providing information to teachers on student progress and behaviors, and building a positive relationship with students, teachers and other staff are fundamental for teacher success.
Teachers, administrators, support staff and parents must work as a team for the good of not just one, but all students. Setting aside a time to meet with fellow teachers and administrators can establish and maintain open channels of communication.
Open channels of communication are important for several reasons.
1. Talking to the lead teacher and administrator can convey special interests, talents, training, or hobbies they might have which could be an asset to instruction or to the classroom.
2. The teacher can also reach an understanding of different backgrounds, experiences, values, cultures, religions and other factors which might affect their working relationship.
3. The educator must be willing to ask for clarification on tasks, if the assignment is misunderstood, and they must be able to confront the supervising teacher with concerns they might have.
Finally, as a team, the educators need to work together to build trust in the working relationship. Just as important as communication skills are, listening skills are also needed for effective communication.

Students Communicating With Other Students

Communication between student and student is an important tool that students should learn at a young age. While teaching an Elementary class it is important to let students communicate with one another. This will enhance their communication skills for the future and hopefully reduce the chaos in the classroom. There are a few ways this can be done. For example….
-On the first day of school, let students interact with one another to get to know each other. It is very important for every students to feel comfortable with their classmates that they will be spending the year with.
-Let students work in groups- this allows students to interact with one another, learn how to work together and get to know each other.
-Let students ask other students questions- meaning if a student has a question about something they are learning have them ask their classmates.
-Let students have a little relaxation time- Set aside 5-10 minutes of quiet, social time for students to interact with one another. This will hopefully reduce the number of interruptions between students during the day.
Children between the ages of 5 and 10 are just learning the basic skills of positive communication and should communicate with one another daily. These types of communication skills will stick with them forever. It is important to teach them early how to interact and communicate with people their own age. These will be valuable skills that they will use with everyone they meet in the future.

Velcro

Using Acronyms as Learning Strategies

Research indicates that grade appropriate learning strategies are easily learned and remembered through the use of acronyms. Following is one example of many acronyms useful to teachers and students:

• S = Sit up straight and tall
• L = Lean forward
• A = Act interested
• N = Nod
• T = Track the teacher

By describing and modeling the steps to SLANT and by reinforcing the steps through verbal rehearsal, children will learn to respond quickly and quietly to a single cue from the teacher.

Research proves that learning strategies work well with all students, including those with learning disabilities, improving learning opportunities for all students.

Classroom expectations

Establishing classroom rules is crucial to maintaining a healthy classroom. The beginning of the school year is the best time to inform the students of what you expect of them. Three effective ways to communicate classroom rules are,
 Posting rules in a visible area in the classroom
 Enlightening the students of the rules early in the school year
 Reinforcing positive behavior
These ideas can help you successfully create a great learning environment.

Posting Rules
Create a fun and appealing poster listing all of the classroom rules. If the poster is appealing, the kids will not feel like it restricting but makes class fun. A visual set of rules allows the students to see what is wrong to do, as opposed to determining on their own.

Informing the students early
Begin the year with the best foot forward. Inform that students of what you expect of their behavior while in class. This does not have to be a lecture, or something that will have them staring at the ceiling for fifteen minutes. Instead, make it fun to learn about the rules; make a fun movie with puppets. Have children participate in little scenes that depict the wrong and right thing to do in class and discuss. The more interactive that you make it, the better they will grasp the ideas, and retain the information.

Making the call home
Contact parents when their child is well behaved in class, as opposed to doing the bad call home. Calling the parent at home also opens the lines of communication between yourself and the parent. Tell the students when you have called their parents at home, and be sure to include that you will not contacting for bad behavior. Students who are misbehaving in class will soon begin to display better behavior in order to get the “good” call home. Rewarding students after good behavior also reinforces their manners. Keep track of the students behavior during the week and reward them at the end with a treat to show you notice how well they are doing.

These are just a few of many things that can be done to effectively communicate classroom expectations. Remember the age of the students, as they will be your audience. Here is a simple recap, Post, Enlighten, and Reinforce.

Relating to Students - The Lighter Side

Which Class Would You Rather Have?