Well the year has begun and 24 new kindergarteners have taken over the classroom! Along with those 24 kiddos come 24 sets of parents. Anyone who has ever taught kindergarten knows that these families often need lots of communication. Many of these parents are first timers when it comes to having a child in school. They have lots of questions, concerns, and anxiety when it comes to having a child in school. And rightfully so! It dawned on me this week why parents feel nervous. As a teacher who is a non parents, I often forget that these children are someones babies. I've been around several of my friends who have had babies this year. As new working moms, they were on the hunt for the best childcare possible upon returning to their jobs. They interviewed many in-home sitters and daycare center providers until they found the perfect one. Even then it was hard for them to leave their babies!
This is exactly why kindergarten parents are nervous! They are dropping their child off with someone they only met once. Someone they didn't get to choose. Someone they don't even know. My perspective on parent communication changed drastically upon this revelation! My mission: To provide parents with as much information about myself, my instruction, our daily activities, and our goals as possible. Whatever I can do to make them comfortable with their child's education, I will.
I started with an email to my parents before Open House night. I wanted to welcome them and share my excitement for the school year. I also opened up my class website to them prior to Open House. My website is something I am SUPER proud of!
I started using Shutterfly's free website template a few years ago and absolutely love it! More importantly, parents love it! If you haven't yet checked out their free sites, do it! One of the best features is the calendar. You can add events throughout the year with details for parents. The day before an event occurs, an email is automatically sent out to parents reminding them of the event. This is awesome for early dismissals, concerts, class parties, and school-wide events. We all know how busy we get as teachers, so why not let your website do the work for you? Another feature I really love about Shutterfly is their picture feature. Adding photos of your students is easy. You can add captions and allow parents to comment on photos. I usually add a new album each month to keep myself organized. Parents often tell me how much they enjoy seeing what we're doing in the classroom. It makes them feel like they are right there with us every day. Last year I even uploaded short movies of the kids Skyping with local firefighters and singing songs. Our school requires a newsletter go out to parents from each classroom every other week. I simply write an update on the homepage of our site and a notice goes out to parents that the newsletter was added. You can upload files to the website as well. I have my monthly snack/activity calendar available each month along with documents that get sent home, just in case they get misplaced :) When parents email me looking for things like the snack calendar, the newsletter, or that paper that was sent home on Tuesday, I can simply tell them to check for it in the website. Everything is in one place! I am not paid my Shutterfly (wouldn't that be awesome though) so trust me when I say that you MUST get a classroom website started through them!
Finally, simple emails make all the difference. After our first day of school, I sat down and typed up a brief account of our day. I told parents there would be some pictures of our first day on our website too. I got several emails back in response within a couple of hours. Parents were so grateful for my constant communication and said how relieved they were to know their children were in good hands. All they needed was to know their child was safe and cared for. Within a few days, many of them knew that; and that was my goal. Now as the second week begins, I need to be sure that my communication remains constant. It's easy to get busy with assessments, data results, organizing the classroom, and lesson planning, and forget the basics. But now I really understand the importance of communication. It leads to trust. Trust leads to a partnership. And great teacher-parent partnerships mean a successful education for children.
(If anyone wants help with setting up a Shutterfly website for their class, just leave a message. I'd be happy to help! I do not have a link here to my website because it is secure. Parents must be invited by me to have access to it. Nothing is more important to me than the privacy of my students and their families. Another plus to the Shutterfly website!)
