This is undeniably one of the most difficult times of the year to stay positive and motivated in the classroom! I was thrilled to learn that Angela Watson’s newest book Unshakeable was out and waiting for me to devour!
Establishing great relationships with my students’ families was not always something I felt comfortable with. In my first few years of teaching, I would get much more nervous about talking with parents than I would teaching all day. Looking back on my training, nothing really prepared me for that aspect of my job. Over the years I have learned what an asset parents can be to making a successful and memorable year for all involved! It takes some effort to reach out and establish those relationships, but the return is invaluable.
Some of my closest friendships are with parents of my students! Every year I feel that my students and I gain so much through these relationships.
In the book, Angela thoroughly covers the following ways to establish good relationships with your students’ families:
- Get parents on your side from day 1 (or even earlier)
- Know and celebrate your community
- Hold monthly or quarterly family festivities
- Share good news from school
- Establish on-going two way communication
- Be pro-active with demanding parents
- Be pro-active with uninvolved parents
- Adopt an attitude of grace toward students’ families
- Accept the fact that some parents will never, ever like you
- Never give up and always keep trying to make parents your allies
One of the things I like most about Unshakeable, is that Angela has been a teacher and writes with first hand experiences. I also had the privilege of meeting Angela last year. She is a wealth of knowledge yet still strives to learn as much as she can in every situation. She’s a teacher’s teacher. She just gets it.
Watson’s blog and website, The Cornerstone for Teachers, by clicking the
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Jodi says
April 6, 2015 at 7:20 pmI HAVE to get this book! I could not agree more about establishing relationships with parents. In all honesty, parents make me nervous! Establishing these relationships is a goal of mine every year.
❀Jodi
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kate c says
April 19, 2015 at 12:26 amI'm a first year teacher. Parents scare the crud out of me too.
Lita Lita says
April 6, 2015 at 8:48 pmI have ordered the book! I cannot wait to read it! 🙂
Angela Watson says
April 7, 2015 at 12:12 amThanks so much for sharing your thoughts here, Reagan! I totally agree that nothing in my teacher preparation courses or student teaching really prepared me for the realities of working with students' parents. I learned pretty much everything by trial and error! I hope that "Unshakeable" will save other teachers a lot of headaches! 🙂