By: Jacily Harmon

They are the ones that give us permission to teach their kids. In Elementary and Secondary, they are in every part of the child’s life, except for during school. They know our students better than we could ever know them.

They can team up with the teachers to help the students with their homework, or make sure that they are actually doing their homework. They can be great volunteers for classroom projects to help oversee the classroom. They can be great allies for anything that the student needs to do outside of the classroom. Be positive advocators for the school in the community It needs to be their job to help the teachers motivate the students to do their very best and want to succeed.

Teachers have not included parents into their classroom activities, because teachers see the class information as their control and that the parents do not know how to help. It was much easier to say to the parents that all they needed to worry about was that they had their students at school on time and that they did their homework, and they should leave all of the learning up to the teachers.

There is too much for the students to learn for the teachers to be able to do it by themselves. The parents may not know everything that we are teaching the students, but they are able to give that student more one-on-one help than we are. By being in constant contact with the parents, we can explain that this is what we are doing, and this is how we are doing it, and this is what I want the student to come away with. The parent will be able to have more understanding of what is expected of the student and how to help the student achieve that.

Make sure to keep the parents informed in projects and classwork that is done at school. Keep in contact with the parent by: Sending home daily reports Put positive as well as some negative, if needed. the parents when have a question Make sure they know they can contact you, whenever needed Keep them updated about what the class will be doing and give them a list of materials the student will need for each project.

We need to tell the parents on the first day of school that we need their help for the students to be able to get the most out of that school year as possible. Be encouraging to the parents Even if their student does not do the best, tell the parents if their child is working at their full potential. Tell the parents how their help is much needed and very helpful to you as the teacher.

More than likely the parent will be more than willing to help with anything that has to do with their student’s classroom. They will be more trusting of you as a teacher and less likely to complain about you. The parents that like to hover over everything their child does, may actually contact you less about how their child is doing if you beat them to the punch and send out information to all parents about students progress. You, as the teacher, will feel less stressed about everything that has to be done for 30+ students because you will not have to do it by yourself.