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- It's hard reaching parents that have different levels of accesibility to potentially useful methods of communication
- Would prefer email contact over text messaging with parents
- Wants to see more parent accountability and follow-ups
- Ideally, she would contact parents weekly if there were an efficient way to do so
Rosa, Teacher
Rosa is an elementary school teacher at a school in Barcelona. She expressed that she finds it easy to get in contact with her students' parents. Her regular method of communicating with parents is by writing notes in their students' agendas. In urgent situations, she contacts parents by phone. She usually calls parents to schedule an in-person meeting once per semester to give them feedback about their child's performance in school, and if there is a behavioral problem she also uses the phone to schedule an urgent meeting. Because the school system in Spain assigns a "tutor" to every student to keep track of their progress, Rosa meets with other teachers on a weekly basis to discuss student performance and every 3 months attends a meeting to evaluate the students. She expressed the desire to contact parents more often so she could encourage them to collaborate on activities and homework at home with their students.
Lessons Learned:
- Urgent communication can be easily accomplished when families have consistent and reliable contact information (working, non-changing phone numbers)
- Simple approaches to communicating (ie: writing notes in agendas, in-person meetings) can sometimes serve to be more helpful or efficient than using technology
- Easier communication methods and more parental involvement could potentially enrich and enhance a student's educational experience by bridging the gap between school and home
Rosa, Teacher
Rosa is an elementary school teacher at a school in Barcelona. She expressed that she finds it easy to get in contact with her students' parents. Her regular method of communicating with parents is by writing notes in their students' agendas. In urgent situations, she contacts parents by phone. She usually calls parents to schedule an in-person meeting once per semester to give them feedback about their child's performance in school, and if there is a behavioral problem she also uses the phone to schedule an urgent meeting. Because the school system in Spain assigns a "tutor" to every student to keep track of their progress, Rosa meets with other teachers on a weekly basis to discuss student performance and every 3 months attends a meeting to evaluate the students. She expressed the desire to contact parents more often so she could encourage them to collaborate on activities and homework at home with their students.
Lessons Learned:
- Urgent communication can be easily accomplished when families have consistent and reliable contact information (working, non-changing phone numbers)
- Simple approaches to communicating (ie: writing notes in agendas, in-person meetings) can sometimes serve to be more helpful or efficient than using technology
- Easier communication methods and more parental involvement could potentially enrich and enhance a student's educational experience by bridging the gap between school and home