The Importance of Parent-Teacher Relationships

Parent-teacher relationships… how do we establish relationships with the parents of our students? How do we continue to have successful relationships with parents? Are parent-teacher relationships important? Necessary? All of these questions were discussed and answered by my Dimensions of Learning graduate class this week. In this class, we have teachers of all grade levels and subjects. Everyone’s answer was similar – YES, parent-teacher relationships are important AND necessary… that question was fairly easy for all of us to agree on. The real discussion came when asked how to establish those relationships and how to keep up with those relationships.

First, how do we establish relationships with the parents of our students? The best way to begin the school year is by inviting parents into your classroom whether that be for an orientation or for open house. It is important to emphasize working as a team. We may hear horror stories of parents and teachers not getting along, not listening to one another… but that is something that can be avoided if the parent knows you want to work with them, not against them. It is also important to express an interest in their children, your students. We want parents to know that we value their child and that we want to support their child to the best of our ability in order for them to succeed. Once meeting those parents face-to-face, you can begin to have conversations about their children… what do you think your child’s strengths are? Weaknesses? What does your child like to do for fun? Does your child have a favorite subject? These are a lot of questions to ask for each student, so a simple survey may be easier to conduct to gain that information – you will also have this information to keep in a file for future use!

In regards to continuing to have successful relationships with parents… the real work begins. We have to remember that parents have their own lives, their own worries and their own problems. Some parents may be hard to reach, so we must determine the best way to reach each parent. Does Johnny’s mom respond best to email? Remind? Phone call? Note Home? Each parent will have their preferred mode of communication. Finding this out early in the school year will be beneficial to parent-teacher communication throughout the year. This question may be added to the survey given that I mentioned before.

Another important piece of continuing to have successful relationships with parents includes weekly or monthly two-way communication. It is easy for us to send home notes or newsletters… but what about parent input? What if they have questions? One way to foster two-way communication may include a parent-teacher folder that is used weekly. Parents can send in notes while teachers can send home notes or other important notices. An important piece of this will include student responsibility… students will need to deliver the folder back and forth from school to home and vice versa. Now… if you’re a kindergarten teacher, this may be a difficult task. Do-able… but definitely difficult for students to remember. Other ways to continue successful relationships with parents includes sending home notes or calling parents with positive news at least monthly. It is rare to have a teacher call about good news… you will pleasantly surprise parents with this and it will show how much you care about their child.

As mentioned before, it is important and necessary to have parent-teacher relationships… why exactly? Parent-teacher relationships are important because students will benefit from them, too. Positive parent-teacher relationships will increase student motivation, improve student behavior and increase regular attendance in school. When our students feel cared about, they will learn and be successful… when they know that their parent and teacher work as a team, the same will happen.