Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Assignment#4
Assignment#4
Assignment#4
Gema Bofill
Professor A. Zayas
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
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
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
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
3) I contacted parents via email concerned about their daughter's attendance and
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
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
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
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
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
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
1)E-mail
4) Parent conferences
Some of the strategies that we need to keep in mind when communicating with parents are:
6) Be culturally savvy, research before you engage in communications with a family from a
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
12, P., 6, J., 19, H., 17, J., 15, P., 17, P., . . . 10, R. (2017, November 17). Seven tips for working
effectively with parents. Retrieved June 22, 2021, from
https://ct.counseling.org/2012/05/seven-tips-for-working-effectively-with-parents/
Authors, C. (2018, May 31). Effective communication with parents: For professionals. Retrieved
June 22, 2021, from https://raisingchildren.net.au/for-professionals/working-with-parents/
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
District.