Would you like to wow parents all year long?

“Tell the Teacher More Day” is the single most effective piece of the strategy that leads to positive communication throughout the remainder of the school year. The day needs to take place before school starts, in individual, 15-minute appointments with the teacher. To help the teacher stay on time and to collect consistent data on each student, parents were asked to complete a form prior to their appointment with the teacher and then after, using it as a springboard for conversation, surrender it to the teacher. The most important information to gather is the way in which the parents want to communicate.

Teachers were instructed how to direct this meeting process, and should parents digress, the teacher should bring the parents back to the topic of the child. When teachers were asked about their experiences with “Tell the Teacher More Day,” they responded:

“Loved it! It really gave me a chance to attend to the needs of the student with the parent one-to-one. We had a great foundation before the school year even began.”

“At first I was skeptical about how effective this strategy would be. I wasn’t sure how honest parents would be about their child.”

Engaging in the best avenue of communication for each family can be overwhelming. But if the teacher clearly knows the expectations of how and what the parent wants communicated, then information regarding anything besides forward progress and good behavior becomes less of a stressor. I agree wholeheartedly with Robert Debruyn when he writes that “…too much goes on in a good classroom these days for it to be regarded as an isolation ward…we should develop a partnership (with the parents) out of desire to do so, not because it’s the law. After all, the children in our classrooms are more than just our students- they are their parents’ children. Their education needs to be a shared responsibility. We don’t have the right to exclude parents – when things are going well or when they’re going badly.”

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