{"id":3205,"date":"2020-01-14T07:30:34","date_gmt":"2020-01-14T12:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/teachersfirst.com\/blog\/?p=3205"},"modified":"2020-01-02T15:27:30","modified_gmt":"2020-01-02T20:27:30","slug":"amp-up-school-to-home-communication","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/2020\/01\/amp-up-school-to-home-communication\/","title":{"rendered":"Amp Up School to Home Communication"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A new year is a time for reflection and resolutions. Perhaps you have taken the time to reflect upon your teaching and want to make some changes. One area all teachers should think about is how well they <\/span>effectively <\/span><\/i>communicate with parents and family members as part of their ongoing efforts to make all students successful.<\/span><\/p>\n

This<\/span> NEA Policy brief<\/span><\/a> makes it clear that research is comprehensive, consistent, and convincing that parent, family, and community involvement leads to greater academic success. This success relates to students\u2019 not only achieving higher grades, but also to regular school attendance, participation in higher-level educational programs, and more.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Additional research provides information on the best way to achieve school to home communication. This<\/span> infographic<\/span><\/a> from the Speak Up Research Initiative reveals some interesting differences in the perception of effective communication between parents and principals. Principals indicate their belief that face-to-face meetings provide the most effective communication, while parents prefer individual emails or automated phone messages.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A couple of years ago, I shared some<\/span> Practical (and easy) Tips for Communicating with Parents<\/span><\/a>. That blog post contains several online tools and classroom suggestions to use for parent communication. All of those ideas remain valid suggestions for staying in touch with family members; here are some more ideas to help you build support for your classroom through ongoing interactions with parents and families.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Communication Tips:<\/b><\/p>\n

Build 2-way communication<\/b> by inviting parents to share their knowledge with students.<\/span> Flipgrid<\/span><\/a> (<\/span>TeachersFirst review<\/span><\/a>) is a video response tool that encourages collaboration between users. The infographic mentioned earlier indicates that parents prefer methods of communication that are short and available when they have the opportunity to read and respond. Flipgrid fits right into those categories due to its convenience of use across devices and 24-hour availability.\u00a0 Use Flipgrid to post a question for parent responses. Here are some ideas to get you started:<\/span><\/p>\n