Sep
14
2007
Calling Home
I just recently read NYC Educator’s article entitled, Startup Tips. Great stuff there.
Neither she nor any teacher of education ever advised me on classroom control. The standing platitude was “A good lesson plan is the best way to control a class,” but I no longer believe that. I think a good lesson plan is the best thing to have after you control the class.
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The best trick, and it’s not much of a trick at all, is frequent home contact. It’s true that not all parents will be helpful, but I’ve found most of them to be. When kids know reports of their classroom behavior will reach their homes, they tend to save the acting out for your lazier colleagues—the ones who find it too inconvenient to call.
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Calling home works when you can actually get hold of parents and if the parents are cooperative. In my last school, I had parents yell at me and blame me if their kids did something wrong. A lot of times the numbers given were non working numbers. Some got mad if they were disturbed at work. In other words, we were pretty much on our own. I found that the best thing that worked for me was my own attitude. If I kept my cool and let them know my expectations, they respected me and my classroom. Sometimes they could tell if they were stepping over the line just by the look on my face.:)
I totally agree with you! You can read my posts that support you at:
http://successfulteaching.blogspot.com/2007/09/parentteacher-communication.html
http://successfulteaching.blogspot.com/2007/09/starting-point.html
Thanks Pat! One of my problems when I moved to the border is that I don’t speak Spanish. That can make parental contact communication at times, but I find that it is successful much more often than it is unsuccessful. One bad experience can’t be allowed to mess up the other good experiences.