Home-School Connections

Communicating with parents and caregivers is an important aspect of teaching, because it provides insight and dialogue with families.

I believe that the best way to do this is with the personal touch, with a conversation when a parent comes to school or over the phone. I also like emails, especially since it makes sharing assignments very easy when a child has been absent or if the parent is concerned about the quality of their child’s work.  I also send out frequent newsletters and other communications to help the parent to understand what is going on at school and how they can support the learning at home.

Here are some examples of these general communications:

This is a general interest survey:

This is one of the many parent support letters that are sent home during a trimester:

Since homework can be a bit tricky, a homework “checklist” was created and translated so that parents knew what skills needed to be reinforced at home. This is one example of it:

View this document on Scribd

This is a questionnaire that I use to begin a dialogue during a parent-teacher conference. Parents can answer the questions ahead of time or it can be used as a means to “interview” the parent about their concerns and goals for their child: