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Talking to the Teacher
Having a positive relationship with your child’s teacher sets them up for greater success. In this session, we look at reasons and ways to talk to the teacher. Use the resource guide and the videos to create your plan for talking to the teacher.
Skill Segments
Skill Support
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Video Transcript
Hi parents, as a teacher, one of my most important goals was to
establish productive relationships with my students
parents. In this session, we’re going to look at reasons an ways
to talk to the teacher. So in the first segment, we’re going
to talk about why the parent teacher partnership is so
important. Then we’ll explore specific types of conversations
you might need to have in tools that have worked well for our
team. In our final segment, we’re going to challenge you to
use these tools and resources to talk to your child’s teacher.
Alright parents, put on your learning coach hat
and let’s get started.
Video Transcript
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When teachers and parents partner it positively impact
student success. Partnering with the teacher means you and the
teacher or on the same page about your child’s progress and
what your child might need to move forward and succeed with
school work. The only way to achieve this partnership is
through productive communication. For some, talking
to the teacher can feel intimidating. Trust me when I
tell you your child’s teacher welcomes the opportunity to talk
and partner with you, it makes their job so much easier knowing
that they have your support.
And while many teachers try to connect with every parent at the
beginning of the school year, you don’t have to wait for the
teacher to make the first move. Feel free at any point in the
school year, even at the beginning of the school year, to
reach out and begin to build that partnership in connection
with your child’s teacher. And if you’re already well into the
school year and you feel like you haven’t had an opportunity
to connect with your child’s teacher, reach out and invite
that teacher to talk when introducing yourself to the
teacher, we recommend using the aided approach a debt.
Is a tool that our team has been using an organizations for
years. A stands for acknowledge I stands for introduce D stands
for duration. E stands for explanation or explain and T
stands for. Thank you. Using ADA to introduce yourself to the
teacher. Might sound like this. Hi Mrs Smith, my name is Erica.
I’m pages Mom and I wanted to introduce myself and let you
know that I look forward to partnering with you to make sure
page has a successful year. I’m open to any recommendations or
ideas you have always to support her progress over the year, so
let me know how I can be helpful. Thank you for your
commitment to my daughter
success. You might have noticed that message can be
sent over email over the phone or even delivered face to
face, no matter which communication method you’d
like to use to establish a partnership with their child’s
teacher. I encourage you to take that step to set you and
your child up for a successful year.
Video Transcript
Checking in with your child’s teacher over the course of the
school year is an effective way to keep track of progress as
well as to gather information that will help you coach your
child’s learning. For regular checkins, our team recommends a
parent teacher connection conversation. This conversation
is an opportunity for you to ask questions and determine how you
can best support your child, whether over video conference or
in person. Here are some tips for your connection conversation
before you schedule the
connection. Think about the purpose of the meeting. Your
overall goal is to support your child. Make a list of
questions. We recommend asking 3 specific questions for your
check-in, and you can of course add any others that
have come up since your last connection conversation. The
three standard questions are.
What is working well with my
child? How can I support my child to be successful in this
class, and are there any materials my child can use to
enhance learning? Remember, these questions are a starting
point. Feel free to modify as
needed. Then reach out and ask for the meeting. This is usually
done via email and in your message you would explain that
you would love the opportunity to connect and it’s also helpful
to go ahead and provide your questions or discussion items in
advance, so sending those in the email message works well and go
ahead and provide times that you’re available to meet. This
makes finding time easier for both of you. You’ll want to
thank the teacher in advance for taking the time to meet. This
shows respect for the teachers time, and it shows that you are
committed. To partnering with that teacher for your child
success during the connection, take time to connect with the
teacher on a personal level. This might sound like how is
your day. My child enjoyed the experiment. I’m sure that was
fun for you. This personal touch reinforces the relationship and
shows that you care about the teacher as a person and after
greeting the teacher with your personal connection. Keep the
conversation focused on your questions. Most of the time the
meeting is going to be scheduled for a very specific amount of
time, so you’re going to want to make sure you have time to get
through all of your questions.
At the end of your time together, consider asking the
teacher this question. Is there anything you need from me? This
question will be refreshing to the teacher. It shows that you
really are committed partner and that you are supportive after
the connection. Follow up on any actions you agreed to take and
ensure that the teacher has followed up as well. For
example, if you agree to check over your child’s homework that
night, make sure you write a note or initial the bottom of
the page to show that you did
your part. If possible, go ahead and schedule that. Next, check
in with your child’s teacher. Meeting regularly establishes
that productive partnership that best serves your child.
Video Transcript
From time to time you’re going to need to collaborate with your
child’s teacher to find solutions to challenges that
have surfaced. One approach for working with the teacher to find
solutions is to have an impact conversation and impact
conversation is a problem solving discussion. It’s
intended to build relationships and communicate a supportive
stance like the other communication methods we’ve
outlined before initiating an impact conversation with your
child’s teacher, you want to be sure that you are clear on the
goal. And the challenge or concern the structure for an
impact conversation is describe the Challenger concern.
Describe the impact, determine a solution and ensure a mutual
commitment. Let’s use an example to further define each part of
the conversation. I just discovered that my child has
received low grades on several recent assignments. Some of the
assignments were classwork assignments and some more
homework assignments. When I asked my child about the
assignment, she says she finished everything and didn’t
know why she got so much wrong. I look over the work and suspect
that she is rushing through the work. I know I need to meet with
the teacher to do two things.
Confirm my suspicion that she is in fact rushing through the work
and make sure there are no other
issues. And then determine solutions to this problem during
the meeting I use the impact conversation structure. So first
I’m going to describe the challenge and concern. Thank you
for meeting with me. As you know, Pages received low results
on the last four assignments. When I asked her about the
information, she seems to give me accurate answers. I’m
beginning to suspect that she is rushing through the work and
just being careless. Then I described the impact.
I know if she continues this pattern of rushing through she
will eventually miss key information and receive a
series of low results which might also impact her
confidence down the road. I’d like to nip this in the Bud
right away. I then suggest that the teacher and I work
together to determine a solution.
I’d like your help with this problem. I was thinking we could
do two things for classwork and homework. We can set a minimum
amount of time before she can turn in her work, or say that
she’s finished. I’ve notice she usually says she’s finished with
homework in about 15 minutes. I could set her time minimum to 25
minutes, and while she’s sitting there with an extra 10 minutes,
she can begin to use that time to look over her work.
Also, we could both begin to ask her if she is double checked her
work as she turns in every
assignment. Do you think I’m on the right track as far as this
being a rushing issue, what do you think about these ideas and
do you have any other ideas that have worked with other students?
And once the teacher and I have discussed the possible
solutions, I ensure mutual commitment so it sounds like
we’re in agreement. That will set a time minimum for turning
in assignments, and we’ll both ask if she’s double checked.
Each assignment. Is that right? Remember, when challenges or
concerns arise, stay focused on
your overall goal. Which is to support your child. Also
remember the teacher has the same goal.
Video Transcript
Hi parents, in this session we’ve looked at ways to
introduce yourself and establish a partnership with your child’s
teacher. We’ve looked at how to have a check in conversation.
And how to have a solution? Finding discussion with your
child’s teacher. Now we want you to put these strategies into
action. Decide which type of communication you need to have
with your child’s teacher. If you haven’t introduced yourself
or met your child’s teacher yet, go ahead and start with Ada to
introduce yourself. Then use the talking to the Teacher Resource
guide to prepare for your
interaction. Then talk to the teacher. Once you do, give us
an update. We’d love to hear how it goes. Email us at
parentaslearning.coach@stoudereducation.com. We look forward to hearing
from you and have fun talking to your child’s teacher.
Talking to the Teacher Resource Guide
Download the Resource Guide PDF to get the tools mentioned in this Skill Session.
Connect With A PALC Expert
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