to establish positive and productive relationships with families

To Establish Positive and Productive Relationships with Families
By: Angelica Arredondo

Positive and productive relationships with families establish a strong connection for the benefit of nurturing and educating the children entrusted to my care. I know how important it is for the parents to know about their child’s day, upcoming school events, and progress in all areas of the children’s learning and development. I know that consistent communication is the key to a trusted partnership with parents. Having a clear understanding up front of what we can expect from each other helps us establish common goals for the benefit of the children. It is an important foundation for creating the very best early childhood experience for the parents and children. Daily communication between parents, teachers and school management is an essential component to my partnership. The parents will receive additional information on a weekly and monthly basis in a variety of formats including welcome letters, weekly and monthly newsletters, ongoing assessment communication, and parent teacher conferences. Multiple forms of communication foster the connection between home and school to build relationships and create continuity of experiences, which increase a child’s sense of security and well being. I also provide my parents with helpful parent resources related to children’s learning and development. Many items and links are classroom or age group specific, including book suggestions, home fun activities and additional online resources. In order to keep up with what’s going on in the children’s lives after they leave my care, I maintain a close personal relationship with the parents. To do this I must be attentive and trustworthy. I talk to the parents about the child’s behavior at home as well as at school. If there needs to be any adjustments including discipline I immediately talk to the parents about what we should decide on next. We discuss a plan that will work for home and at school so the child knows it’s the same consequence in both environments. If ever I am not physically at work on a day a parent has a special request I leave a parent/ teacher log for them to fill out and leave. I was very eager to receive the questionnaires back from my parent’s. I have quickly learned how much respect I have received from my families. I was thrilled to find that I meet, and in some cases over exceed expectations of the parents. Reading some of the parent’s answers it’s established that I have positive, responsive and cooperative relationships with their children and all members of their families. This was definitely one question all the parents seemed to agree on. In conclusion to this essay this has confirmed all my beliefs about my classroom and I. I will continue to grow professionally through out my years of teaching and look forward to many more parents’ feedback.