Are you having trouble getting the parent involvement and support that you’d like? Most teachers say YES, but so often, we overcomplicate things and make it HARD for parents to succeed.
When teachers make it EASY for parents to be involved and informed, life is easier on the teacher, too! I’ve got two tips, plus an easy system that leads to big changes!
1. Focus on Essentials
Take a moment to look at everything going home each week. It might include binders, folders, planners, and books. There might be Reading Logs, Behavior Logs, homework pages, newsletters, flyers from school, reminders, weekly readers, returned student work, etc. Â
Look at everything as a whole, and ask yourself, “What is essential? What can be eliminated?”Â
You might find that nothing can be eliminated, but often there are things going home each night that simply don’t need to. Eliminate anything that isn’t essential.
2. Make It Manageable
Imagine for a moment a family of 5, two parents working full-time jobs with three school-aged children. Imagine parents getting home from work at 5 or 6 in the evening, rushing to prepare dinner or hurrying kids to after-school activities like dance, Scouts, or sports. Or maybe a single-parent who works the evening shift and only sees her children for an hour each evening. The fact is, families are busier than ever as they attempt to balance multiple jobs, multiple children, health and financial issues, and after-school commitments, often with little to no help.
Can you imagine having 3 school-aged children in different classrooms with teachers who have different systems for sending things home? With different systems for homework? One teacher wants homework back on Friday, one on Monday, and one just sends it randomly. One teacher wants Reading Logs signed each night, another wants them weekly, and the other doesn’t have them at all.
Complicated systems set parents (and children) up for FAILURE. Many parents just give up on the whole thing and don’t even attempt to keep up. If you want parents to stay informed and involved, make it EASY for them to do so.
The Simple System
The Simple System comes from my online course, Positive Parent-Teacher Partnerships. I’ve tried and seen multiple systems in action and this one WORKS.
The Simple System works like this:
One Place. Everything comes home together in one place. It might be a single folder or binder, but it’s all in that one container. Â
One Day. Everything comes home on the SAME day each week and everything due back is expected on that same day the following week. Parents and students know and expect to open the folder or binder and go through everything on that certain day each week, ideally a Friday or Monday. This means that homework is due on that day, library books are returned that day, signed papers and forms, and anything else, are all due on that same day. Â
One Plan. There is a clear plan that everyone knows. One year, my child had a daily planner (to be signed), a weekly grade-level newsletter, a weekly school newsletter, a daily binder, a daily homework folder with different homework each day, AND a Friday folder (to be signed). Even as a teacher, I was drowning trying to keep up with it all. When you streamline your plan, parents and kids have a chance to be successful.
Personally, I prefer to use Friday Folders. On Friday, students return library books, completed homework, and any signed paperwork. On the same day, they take home new library books, new homework, returned papers from the week, and anything else. This gives the family the entire weekend to look through the folder, begin homework if they choose, and sign anything that is necessary.
When I switched to Friday Folders, I saw a huge improvement in homework completion and signed paperwork getting returned, AND got fewer questions and confusion from parents about things going on at school.
How does your school-home system make it HARD for parents to stay informed? How can you make it EASIER? Share your best tips and ideas below so other teachers can learn from you, too!
