Creating a Great Relationship With Students and Parents
There are easy ways to create a positive relationship with students and their parents.
By Elisa Jackson
Positive communication is the foundation for every successful relationship. Therefore, the relationship a teacher has with students and their parents has to be based on good communication in order to flourish. Here are some ways to successfully keep that line of communication open and to create great relationships with students and parents.
The first thing I always tell my students and their parents is that I have an open door policy. This way, they will feel comfortable coming to me with any questions or concerns. I don’t want them to feel that they cannot come in if they need to speak to me. Yes, you do have to set up some parameters. You might welcome parents to come talk to you in the morning or after school, but not while you are teaching. You also may have to nix the open door policy during such times as state testing, but for the most part students and parents should feel that you are available. If you are flexible, everyone will feel more comfortable with you. By making people feel comfortable, you take the first step toward breaking down barriers, and creating great relationships.
Another way to create good relationships is by sending notes home. It is always a treat to be able to send a positive note home with a student. This can be done on paper, through email, or over the phone. Sometimes, an email or phone call can be the most exciting for parents because they are the most unexpected. I once had a second grade student tell me that he loved his mom very much. As soon as I could, I wrote her an email telling her what her child had said. She said it made her day. From then on, we had a great relationship.
Taking the time to show you care when you talk in person with students and parents is also very important. While communicating your body language should show them that you are interested in what they have to stay. As a teacher, you are a master multi-tasker. But when a student or parent comes up to talk to you, it is important to put down what you are doing, look them in the eye, and make them see that they have your full attention. If you give them attention, they will know that you truly care and think that what they have to say is important.
While positive notes home, an open door policy, and personalizing your time with students and parents is important, you also want to make sure that you are communicating often. You don’t want months to go by in which you do not communicate with the parent of a student except when you have to. Parents appreciate the little extra effort it takes to communicate with them even when there isn’t some “issue” to be handled. Communicating on a regular basis will only improve your relationship with both students and parents. Here are some activities to do with your students to teach them about communication as well.
Creating a Great Relationship Lessons and Activities:
This communication lesson allows students to interview each other to practice their communication skills.
In this lesson students practice using their body language to communicate without talking.
Students learn how to communicate through email by emailing the principal of their school.
This is a worksheet students fill out if they need to communicate with their parent about a behavior problem that happened at school.