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Posted on October 19, 2014 3:02 pm
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qaWeBu
qaWeBu
Reps: 125
New teacher, New school
A fairly novice teacher, teaching 2 years, moves to a new state and maintains a job over a phone interview.
This teacher a young middle class female is placed in a school with a high African American student body. The students at this school come from homes with one parent. There are cases of drug use in the house, boyfriends in and out of the home and very absent parents when it came to the school. When the mothers did come to the school it was usually a hostile situation and most of the time the parent was yelling at this young teacher.
The teacher knew that it was not at all the fault of the child and wanted to send a message to the parents that she wanted to partner with the parents for the sake of their shared student. How would the teacher reach that goal?
 
     
     
 
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Solution 1
Posted October 19, 2014 8:04 pm

myNepu
myNepu
Reps: 103
I think the teacher needs to do this through positive contacts. It will be time consuming, but when the parents understand that you are not only going to contact them when their child is being bad, but you will call them and praise their child when they are good, you earn their respect. Send home notes, make phone calls, print out certificates as often as necessary to show that the teacher cares about the student and wants him/her to be successful.
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Comments posted for this solution

raWubu
raWubu
Reps: 97
Wow, I loved that idea. I would use that approach if I were to be in that situation. You can gain the trust of the parents as well as boost the student's academic self-esteem.
  Posted on: October 19, 2014 9:25 pm

neHaGy
neHaGy
Reps: 200
This is an great solution! i will definitely use this in my classroom.
  Posted on: October 2, 2015 6:33 pm

Kathy Allen
Kathy Allen
Reps: 200
I think this is a great idea!
  Posted on: February 23, 2018 9:09 pm

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Solution 2
Posted March 12, 2015 5:33 pm

buZage
buZage
Reps: 100
This sounds like my first year of teaching! I made it a point to reward my students in the classroom for the good efforts whether academically or socially. When our students began to realize that my partner teacher and I had their best wishes at heart, they began to "warm up" to us. We realized, after this, the parents began working with us more. I think parents want to know that you care for their children. So often, they feel as though your are judging their parenting skills when you call over every wrong thing that their child has done. If you can make students feel special and important, the parents can see that when they get home. We also held a lot of conferences with the parents throughout the year in order to allow them to check in on them while they were at school. With so much negativity in these students' home lives, it is important to provide them with a positive learning environment.
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neHaGy
neHaGy
Reps: 200
This is an great solution! i will definitely use this in my classroom.
  Posted on: October 2, 2015 6:33 pm

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Solution 3
Posted February 17, 2015 1:37 am

aGuvuL
aGuvuL
Reps: 101
Positive parental contact is very important. Most of the time, parents only receive negative phone calls or notes regarding their children. Mix it up and tell the parents when their child did something good.
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Solution 4
Posted March 15, 2015 5:23 pm

Hytabu
Hytabu
Reps: 103
That sounds like a lot of new teachers that come to the high school in my district. My first advice it to try and get some thin skin. Parents are not nice a lot of times. It seems like they have had to fight all their lives, and do not want or do not know how to stop now. The positive contacts really does work. I have a student in my class who used to always get in trouble. My first contact with her was to talk about him being disrespectful. The next I called her to tell her he was getting better and had an awesome day. She said,"Wow, that is great, I thought he was in trouble again." She told me she was scared to answer the phone because she didn't want to deal with him getting in trouble. She told me to call her anytime because she would be scared to answer. We now have a great teacher-parent relationship. They really do work.
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Comments posted for this solution

neHaGy
neHaGy
Reps: 200
This is an great solution! i will definitely use this in my classroom.
  Posted on: October 2, 2015 6:33 pm

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Solution 5
Posted February 22, 2016 4:33 pm

Victoria Horn
Victoria Horn
Reps: 201
I think that it is awesome that the teacher wants to help, but the teacher needs to be aware of her surroundings and know policies to keep herself safe. She could potentially bring up after school programs, tutoring, and parent teacher conferences. Anything to help the student!
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Solution 6
Posted March 9, 2016 8:36 pm

aZyLeq
aZyLeq
Reps: 102
The teacher should not get discourages because many parents will reject her but with time they will see that she is trying to help their child. I think she should send emails, letters, class flyers, and reports home weekly. She should make sure that the child sees her trying to improve the way the child is taught. With reenforcments of proof the teacher will win over the parents. She should invite the parents to come in when there isn't a problem with the child. Make her room and open door policy.
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Comments posted for this solution

nuXuma
nuXuma
Reps: 100
I like the different communication styles you talked about. I know not all parents can have a working phone all the time so flyer are letters home can be the next best thing.
  Posted on: October 19, 2019 3:40 pm

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Solution 7
Posted February 23, 2017 4:37 am

beTyze
beTyze
Reps: 211
The teacher can reach this goal by having a nice sit down talk with the parent and explain to her that you really have her child's best interest as she should also. Also the principle should be present to express the importance of this conference.
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nuXuma
nuXuma
Reps: 100
this strategy might put the parent on edge especially if the principal is there. They could view it as a hostile situation so I wont do this in my classroom.
  Posted on: October 19, 2019 3:42 pm

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