Parent Lecture

The parent lecture was really surprising for me because of some responses the parents made. I went into this lecture a little naive about parent and teacher relationships. They say the biggest fear for young teachers is the parents. I had never thought about this being an issue until the lecture. I was brought up with parents like the father who was at the lecture. My parents were interested in my school work, my effort, and making sure I was learning, but if I had problems or issues, especially in middle school and high school, they wanted me to confront the teachers about them. This lecture was a good way to introduce me to parents with different thoughts and it brought me to understand these views and ideas.

A couple things that were mentioned that I found would be helpful to me as a teacher were the communication topics. I think that teachers will be able to develop a good relationship with the parents if they keep a solid communication line open at all times. I think giving parents hours and a phone number or e-mail address in order for them to contact you is a great idea. A teacher wants to keep that relationship open with each other and the hours give the teacher his or her personal time, as well. Although a teacher may be dedicated to their students, they should not be expected to be at the parents call 24/7. I think most parents would find this professional, as well.

Another thing I took from the lecture was to be personable with the parents by being aware and sensitive to parents' feelings at conferences and IEP meetings. I think many young teachers may be unsure of how to present themselves in an IEP meeting if they have not had much experience before. One of the parent's statements that was most helpful was to state the positives first at the meeting. I think this not only sets a good tone, I think the parents will have a better feeling that you are setting a goal that their child will be successful and you want to carry through with that goal. This also applies to conferences, if you state something positive about their child, they will want to hear more and in turn, be more willing to cooperate and help with the topics the student needs to work on in any ways they can. Because, like one parent said, teachers and parents are a team working together, not against each other.