Working effectively with families

Gema Bofill

Educator Preparation Institute, Miami Dade College

EPI0030- Diversity Course

Professor A. Zayas

June 26, 2021

 Rationale

Communicating with parents can be either terribly frustrating or immensely satisfying.

There is no teacher out there who does not dread the first parent-teacher conference. Are the

parents going to yell at me when they realize Johnny is failing? Is the mom going to cry during

the meeting? Am I going to be able to eradicate my implicit biases and preconceptions? It is an

art indeed, and many years will pass before we, new teachers, master it. But as a matter of fact,

parental involvement has a beneficial impact on student academic performance. When teachers

and parents communicate effectively, they are both creating trust and supporting student’s

development. It is a win-win situation.

During the school year, there are many scenarios where parents and teachers will interact,

such as Open House Night, phone calls, parent-teacher conferences, emails, and others. I have

selected five examples of parent-teacher interactions to analyze in this assignment from my first-

year experience. These are all real situations that made me a better educator.

Scenarios:

1) A new student, Bryan, has moved in from Texas. After an introductory chat with the

student, I realized the parents only speak Spanish. I printed out my Spanish version

for the Syllabus and welcome letter, including rules, procedures, grading, and

communication options, and asked the student to bring it back the following day

signed by his parents. That evening I received a phone message thanking me for the

information about the course in Spanish, to which I responded, and a positive

communication channel was created with the family.

2) After reading a student’s IEP with a hearing disability, I moved him to the front of the

class so he would be seating to my left, so he could hear the instruction properly since

he was deaf on his right side. Ja’Queveon struggled to turn in his assignments, so I

called his mom and started the conversation praising her son’s class participation and

respectful manners, which was a big surprise for her. After discussing some strategies

to help him complete his assignments on time, she thanked me because she had never

received a call from school to praise her son’s work. He made acceptable progress in

my class until they moved out of state.

3) I contacted parents via email concerned about their daughter's attendance and

subsequent academic performance decline evidenced in district assessment. Since the

student’s records stated her home language was Spanish, I sent my email in Spanish.

From that moment her mom communicated consistently with me to explain her

daughter was suffering from depressions and rejected school and peer contact. I

mostly listened. I was able to contact her with our school counselor and the school

provided evaluation and specialists to help the student. Even though Monica didn’t

pass the class, she got the psychological help needed and is planning to attend classes

next school year.

4) As a teacher in the South part of the MDCPS district, I deal with a lot of illegal

immigrant families. As part of the district, services are free or reduced-price lunch,

but parents need to apply. As I tried to explain to Anthony, a student who consistently

skipped lunch because he had no money to pay for it, he told me his mom would not

sign or do anything because of her status, that she was afraid. I sent home a

handwritten letter in Spanish explaining the application process and the mom agreed
 to participate in a Zoom call with the counselor where we filled out the application

and the issue was solved.

5) Student-athletes can feel a lot of pressure because they have to perform at the highest

level not only academically, but also in their teams. Ta’Jai was a basketballer, who

started to put more interest in sports and her grades in my class started to drop

drastically. I requested a parent-couch-teacher conference to set all together a plan of

action and consequences to help her recover and perform well in class again. The

positive environment of the conference and the fact that we all acted as a team to

support student’s interests helped Ta’Jai to find the way to excellence in both sports

and academia. I still have the email from her mom with the quote It takes a Village.

Analysis

In the first scenario, the strategy used was that written communication should always be

in the family’s spoken language. Once the language barrier is torn down, communication flows.

It is always a good practice to survey at the beginning of the year to inquire what is the home

language of your students. If the spoken language is not familiar to us, then we can use school

ESOL teachers who are always eager to help.

In the second scenario, starting a contact praising the student instead of jumping into the

negative problems makes a huge difference. This mom was so not used to a teacher talking about

how well-mannered and respectful her son was that she couldn’t believe we were talking about

the same student. There is always something positive in each individual and this is the best place

to start a conversation.
 The third scenario was all about listening. Many times, we have implicit biases that make

us get the wrong ideas about someone’s actions. During the conversation with this mom about

her daughter's absences, I listened carefully. This family needed help and not my remarks that

her daughter was failing. I listened, found myself help in my school-based community, and

contacted back the mom to set her up with specialists who were able to help.

The strategies used in the fourth scenario were communicating in the simple home

language, without any professional jargon, and allowing time for the parents to make an

informed decision. Many times people do not feel comfortable in an environment where others

use complicated language and academic terms they do not understand. By expressing the ideas

clearly, the student got free lunches for the rest of the school year.

In the last scenario, I used a problem-solving approach. Talking about the problems when

they come up is the key in this strategy, which consist in identifying the problem (Ta’Jai failing

Algebra), jointly brainstorming as many solutions as possible, and putting the solutions to action

(meeting with parents and team couch and discussing a plan for Ta’Jai) and lastly reviewing the

solution after some time. Ta’Jai passed the course and she is currently enrolled in Summer

Academy to make up the grade.

Reflection

As a teacher, I am a work in progress. Even though this was my first year in the U.S and

it was a very hard school year for everyone, I was blessed with a huge knowledge gain. All these

atypical situations were opportunities for me to learn from my mistakes and to reflect on the

work done. Working effectively with parents for me means to open a positive communication
channel as early as possible and keep it open and flowing, not only for problems, but also to

praise. The main communication options I use are:

1)E-mail

2) Phone calls using Google Voice

3)Apps such as Remind

4) Parent conferences

Some of the strategies that we need to keep in mind when communicating with parents are:

1) Listening, because it is the foundation of effective communication.

2) Speak to parents in a clear, respectful, and considerate way.

3) If possible, use parents’ home language to communicate.

4) Find and share the positive before anything else.

5) Use a problem-solving approach. Do not communicate to complain.

6) Be culturally savvy, research before you engage in communications with a family from a

culture that’s unfamiliar to you.

7) Be consistent in your communication and use different platforms (websites, technology,

printed pamphlets)

As educators, we cannot forget that parents are a child’s first teacher. When teachers partner

their ability to inspire with the foundational support parents provide, students are better prepared

to have a positive school experience, and this will lead to better academic performance and

student success.
 References

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Authors, C. (2018, May 31). Effective communication with parents: For professionals. Retrieved
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communicating-with-parents/communication-with-parents

Bilash, O. (2009, May). Working with Parents. Retrieved June 22, 2021, from
https://bestofbilash.ualberta.ca/working%20with%20parents.html

Flores, K. (n.d.). Working effectively with challenging parents. San Lorenzo Unified School
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