Communicating
Connecting
with parents
Maintaining positive
connections with
parents requires more
than contact at backto-school nights, class
parties and carnivals.
Personal engagement
throughout the
year builds positive
relationships that may
last a lifetime.
8
Leadership
Parent engagement at the
school site has been a hot topic for the past
several years, and rightfully so. In addition
to recent accountability measures requiring
parent engagement, including the Local
Control and Accountability Plan, as educational leaders, we are aware of the many
benefits that occur as a result of positive
home/school relationships.
While those benefits may be obvious,
there is another component related to communication that needs to be addressed:
making intentional connections with parents and families.
As a former elementary school teacher, I
noticed my parents were more actively engaged in the classroom when I made them feel
welcome, invited their input and encouraged
their participation. In fact, several parents
throughout the years have left comments and
notes thanking me for a successful year with
their child. To this day, I am in contact with
a few students and their parents as they have
become adults with their own families and
careers.
However, I didn’t always get it right. For
example, I can remember a time when I ne-
glected to inform a parent of an upcoming
field trip. As the date of the trip drew near,
I realized I had not received a permission
slip from the parent. When it was discovered that the student had been absent the
day the slips were distributed, I immediately
contacted the parent. The parent realized it
was a mistake on my part when I was honest
and took responsibility. Although there had
been a disconnection, she was appreciative
that extra steps were taken to resolve the
problem.
Everyone communicates
Connecting requires communicating, but
communicating doesn’t necessarily result
in connecting. While communicating is a
transferring of information, connecting is a
joining together, establishing a relationship.
For example, have you ever been in a situation where you assumed you had communicated a particular message to someone, but
their perception of the message was received
as offensive? This can occur with social media
networks like Facebook or mobile media, inBy Terri Edwards