Saturday, July 11, 2020
Week 5- Parent communication
Do you think that student's family culture affects how teachers communicate with them? The reading for this week was like a summary of how students and the entire school community should be. One thing that I want to talk about teacher and parent communication. The reading states that it is important to involve parents on the student learning and effectively communicate with them. I work for a district that the student population is more Hispanic. I have seen teachers trying to communicate with Hispanic parents the same way as they would communicate with caucasian parents and it does not work. For example, in my personal experience, I have a brother who is currently in middle school and my parents have no idea how email works, and teachers would send me emails to communicate with them. If it wasn't because I am a third person in this communication, my parents would have no idea about school activities or appointments with teachers. Based on my experience, I would say that about 60% of the Hispanic parents on the school I work for do not use email as their number one communication with the school. I have had students tell me, "oh, I don't care if the teachers send an email to my parents about my detention today at school because either way the email that they have is my sister's email so they won't know anything". I wasn't surprised by this because that is how majority of the Hispanic parents are. If the teacher really wants to communicate with the parents is to actually take the time and call home on the phone. I just believe that as a teacher you need to understand and learn the culture of your students because it can determine what is the best way of communicating with parents.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
-
"Educators should recognize students' efforts and supports their developing work ethic...descriptive feedback that addresses not on...
I think the easiest ways as a teacher to manage communication with parents is to ask them which method works best for them. It can be a little bit more of an inconvenience for the teachers, but it is important to involve parents in the education, so going through a few extra hoops will be worth it in the long run. I think it may help to give parents a questionnaire at the beginning of the year to learn about them, their expectations for the school year, and various housekeeping things like communication preferences. This helps to set the base for having an open dialogue with the parents in order to benefit the child's education.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad that you shared your experiences, Luis. I have not encountered either of these experiences before and so this is a great post for me, personally. If a teacher is in a particular school district where this is common, then they would definitely have to figure out the best way to communicate with their students. Rebecca had a good idea about asking parents which form of communication they would prefer. Sometimes, parents may not be able to communicate with the teacher, like Luis experienced. A translator, student, or other person may have to help with the communication barrier. Communication is so important for helping a student achieve the goals needed to be successful in school. Parents, students, and teachers all need to be on the same page. My daughter's school uses Edmodo and Seesaw apps to communicate things. Perhaps one of those can be used instead of email or a classroom newsletter. Just an idea.
ReplyDeleteWow, that's interesting! I work for and my kids go to schools where the principals and other administrators are bilingual. When my kids were in elementary, the principal would say announcements in English, then repeat in Spanish for the Spanish speaking parents at assemblies and performances. Even now that they are in middle school the announcements come home with English on one side then Spanish on the other side. Working in the high schools, I've noticed that para-professionals are assigned and are in higher demand of those who are bi-lingual. This is critical for communicating announcements and even communicating discipline issues. -Kevin Cathey
ReplyDelete