The media and policy seem to paint a grim portrait of our schools. The media continuously paints our frustrations with our education systems often focusing on the firing of teachers and the plummeting of student scores. Politicians tackle the frustrations by evaluating teachers based on their students’ scores or cutting budgets. They seem to believe that teachers and test results are the biggest frustrations. However, this was not what our PTCHAT discussion this week revealed. What parents and educators were most frustrated with was a lack of communication, collaboration, and engagement between educators and parents. This is what the participants this week tried to focus on and fix. If all our education systems worldwide focused on this frustration then I believe we would definitely improve education for our children!
This past Wednesday on the #PTCHAT educators, parents, principals, and other stakeholders reflected on ways to fix our frustrations with schools.
Image from Wordle.net
Here were some of the great ideas shared:
Parentella: Goal of the discussion is to find out things that we’re frustrated with as we head back to school and see what we can do to fix them.
flourishingkids: It’s tough to be frustrated with school practices and not validate parents openly when they ask questions; can be tricky as a teacher
newfirewithin: @Parentella Would a blog/ site or school email be better to dispense info?
aprilabtbalance: @newfirewithin For me, YES! Email blasts and blogs would make me happy.
4thGrdTeach: I always try to be super approachable but still feel I only connect with some parents, any suggestions?
GaryBrannigan: Schools can be intimidating to parents. They need to reach out to them and encourage involvement in their children’s education
fiteach: I know that here, the only way that things can change is if parents bring concerns to the administration.
pepepacha: Yes! Hate paper! And schools think they have solved communication by sending paper after paper. There are alternatives
cybraryman1: Good Parent-Teacher Communication is essential. My PT page: http://bit.ly/cdBRK1
Mollybmom: I think being open with parents, as I am with students, is the key to developing positive relationships.
aleaness: @Parentella I am a teacher and still feel like that as a parent sometimes
penny_222: What bothers me most is that parents always jump to negative conclusions, that is why teachers need to call with positive calls more often
AskMoxie: @Parentella Can you use Google calendars to color-code the schedules? I’ve been using it with my ex, two kids and babysitter.
sciteacheraker: I think both teachers and parents can do more to make contact when things are just “OK”…and not wait until things are really bad.
Parentella was created to solve the issue of parent and educator communication at elementary, middle school and high school levels. As part of this mission, we are hosting weekly #PTCHAT discussions to encourage a productive dialogue between parents and educators. We hope you will join us Wednesdays at 9 p.m. EST.
You may also want to join Parentella on Facebook to keep updated. We invite you to propose questions for upcoming topics. View the entire transcript here.
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I’ve learnt that my youngest loves creating (with Legos) and makes a huge mess. Very much like me.
