Working with parents to create a safe and accountable classroom

A teacher's duties do not end when the school day is over. There are lots of works to do. Like lesson plan, assignments and test or book to be marked, and general organization tasks to be complete. One and very important responsibility which begins when the school day is over is to communicate with parents about their child’s academic performance. It is commonly thought that teacher-parent contact occurs only when there is a problem. But this is not true. I believe it is very important to working with parents to create a safe and accountable classroom.

Why should parents be involved?

Increased parental involvement with the school is beneficial for everyone, the parents, teachers, and the students. The most important reason for my belief is that involving parents will improve the relationship between parents, teachers, and students. And also will have a beneficial effect on the community at large. Moreover, the teacher gains a great deal of insight into their students, his/her home environment and the students-parents relationship. This means that by understanding the student’s home life, the teacher can provide differentiated assignments to address the student’s perceived weakness and build on their strengths.

Some of the challenges of working with parents

However, there are some challenges to working with parents. Like, parents can be disinterested in their child’s school experience. This is an especially difficult situation for teachers who strive to create an ideal learning environment for the students but cannot establish a partnership with the child’s parents. In such a case, the options for the teachers are limited. He/she can continue to offer their support, in the hope that the parents will eventually agree to cooperate.

Some other challenges like increasing number of instances of parents finding difficult to provide academic support at home, even if they would like to do so. For example, the percentage of single-parent families has been steadily increasing over the world. Single parents often need to support their household on one income. As a result, the parent needs to work longer hours to earn money and is forced to sacrifice the time which would have been available to support the child’s learning.

Some tips when working with parents

There are lots of tips for teachers to help them work with parents. Firstly, keep the parents informed of what is happening in the classroom. And teachers should be aware of the parent’s home situation, this will allow for easier communication and diplomatic handling of sensitive issues. Furthermore, teachers have to be patient when parents come with concerns. Because it is natural and normal for parents to worry about their children’s, so as a teacher we should make every effort to resolve their concerns. Moreover, be prepared to discuss plans and the reasoning behind them, so parents will accept a new situation more easily if they can understand why things are being done in a particular way.