Parent Communications at New Brighton Area High School

From the very beginning of my time at New Brighton Area High School my co-operating
teacher clearly communicated to me that there would be a number of students who would
frequently fail to do their work as was expected of them. She and I discussed a variety of
solutions that she had tried in the past, and some of the options I had in addressing these sorts of
students and their lack of motivation and effort. One of those options was to call or email parents
and discuss their student’s behavior with them.
About three weeks into the third grading period, there were a number of students who had
turned in little to no assignments, and as a result had a very low grade. At that point I decided it
would be a good time to call home to parents to ask first, if they could give me some ways to
encourage and motivate their students, and secondly what they could to do encourage and
motivate their students. I called about ten parents/guardians that day and about half of them
picked up the phone. If the parent was not available to talk, I sent both them and their student an
email indicating what their grade was and what assignments they were missing.
The parents and/or guardians who did pick up the phone were all very pleasant and
thankful for my attention to their student’s performance in class. When I asked, most students
were glad to have me email a list of what their student was missing, so they could hold their
student accountable for that work. When I asked what I could do to encourage their student, most
of them responded that just giving them frequent reminders of what they were missing would be
good motivation for them. The parent’s also showed interest in having their student come into
the building for the “Willing to Work Wednesday,” the virtual learning day that New Brighton
had at the time. Overall, it was a very beneficial process. I really enjoyed getting to know the
parents of some of the student’s I was teaching, and in most of the student’s cases it seemed to be
very effective and most of them turned in at least some work over the course of the following
week.