February 14, 2022

How Teachers Can Effectively Communicate with Parents?

Communication between parents and teachers is imperative in keeping the parents fully involved in their child’s educational life and thereby also a key ingredient in a student’s overall success. Effective communication improves academic performance in children as they are guided at both school and home on the same key domains where they need help and guidance. And when such a feeling of community is created, parents too don’t feel eliminated from their child’s life which is something every parent wishes for. Especially now when the connection via PTMs and such is lesser with the shift to online teaching. In such a case communicating effectively is even more necessary.

Now the next question that arises is what is the most effective way to communicate with parents?

1. Take the initiative to communicate

The primary step is the initiative to communicate. Keep the parents involved, (especially when teaching online)! From the very beginning of the academic year let them know how and when you would get in touch with them (in a way, prepare a calendar). Furthermore, assure them that you would inform them immediately about any concerns regarding their child.

2. Build a rapport

You and the parents are to be in this together. And so, to help involve them completely, you have to create a sense of trust, especially when it’s via the online platform. They must know that you are trustworthy to both handle their children as well as to pass all the required information to you. For this you have to:

Be warm and empathetic – welcome them, understand them and be kind. All parents are concerned about their children’s future, be empathetic and assure them you will take care of their children.
Be positive – Every kid is not the same. A kid who is bad at math may be good at painting. While explaining the performance of each kid, highlight the positive aspects and then talk about the shortcomings.
Make them feel valuable – acknowledge their involvement, value their questions, and listen to their ideas, concerns, and perspectives.
Make it a two-way conversation – don’t just keep talking about all that you have and end the meeting. Let it be a conversation in the true sense of the word. Let the parents express their views too.

3. Don’t bombard with too much information

Receiving too much information at once might end up getting them disengaged. Also, overdoing anything is a bad idea, meaning sending updates too often and too much might result in them missing out on actually essential information.

Hence, do not keep sending updates every few hours, or even on a daily basis. But at the same time don’t wait for an issue to communicate, create a balance such that there isn’t too much to discuss at once.

4. Don’t make assumptions

Don’t assume anything about the family, parents, or their situation. Be open to everything, for every family comes in all kinds of shapes, sizes, and backgrounds. Even things as simple as assuming that the family might understand English is the kind of assumption you must avoid.

What mediums can be used for effective communications via online teaching?

Be it the online or offline mode, other effective methods of communication, then the timely organized PTMs, would be, phone calls, emails, reminder messages, etc.

But to further simplify tasks for online educators, the online teaching platform Winuall helps you have all the needed facilities in one app. From an all-in-one, ready-to-use online teaching app and website under your brand name, to other management and communication features make things simpler. Apart from this, there is a feature Parent Module via which you can effectively communicate with the parents. Further, you can also send them timely reminders and reports and keep them involved.