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The first thing that can be done to connect with parents is send out a welcoming letter at the beginning of the year in order to introduce yourself. There may be some things about you that are important for parents to know, or maybe they would like to know. Another form of introduction can be a follow up phone call. Some parents may not know how to read and have the students read letters for them. Some important details may be lost in translation. Parents can also be invited to school trips, events, and functions to create a more family-oriented setting for both student and family. I like the idea of class dojo but don’t think it is accepted in all schools. According to Bryant, “teachers should therefore make attempts, at the beginning of the school year and throughout the year to focus on the positive by sending good news about class activities, student progress, and behavior to build communication bridges that foster collaboration”. (Bryant, pg 208)

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Parent-Teacher collaborations are important with both general and special education families because family involvement has the ability to enhance students performance. One may think getting parents involved is an easy task. However, it is critical to implement effective and efficient techniques to motivate parents. A lot of times, the message gets lost in the message. When I say this I mean, just like children the message has to be relatable and comprehensive to the parent. "A deliberate approach is needed to effectively establish meaningful connections. Meaningful relationships begin with a foundation of trust and understanding. Parents must know they can rely on teachers to examine and set aside their own biases, cultural norms, and beliefs." (Sawyer 173) Every family struggles with different situations, whether it's a non-reading parent, homelessness, single parent family or poverty. Nonetheless, every parent wants to be involved in their child's education. Parent-Teacher collaboration is more than just a connection, it's a bond between the two that will together tackle any issue that a child may be facing. The parent has the ability to make sure that students stay on task at home and school. Where as a teacher can only provide accessible instruction to students. When the two collaborates and becomes a driving force, it is almost impossible for children to fall by the waistline. Today, technology has made it so easy for parents to stay on top of their children progress and be able to communicate with teachers. The school I work at uses a system named Skedula. Skedula is the teacher platform to enter attendance, grades, anecdotal and so much more. The data then transfers from Skedula to Pupil Path. These systems are so accessible, all you have to do is download the app on your phone. I literally do attendance on my phone! How great is that? When an anecdotal has been written up, parents are notified immediately. Usually when this happens, students get the "talk" at home and come in with a different attitude the next day. It is a beautiful thing to have parents and teachers on the same team.

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Growing up my mother for the most part attended teacher's- Parents meetings. She tried her best, so with my own kids I did the same. Before I started this new career, and attended my own kids teachers-Parent conference I remember teachers complaining about the lack of parents involvement in school affairs and even coming in for report card was a struggle. Now that I am a teacher a High school teacher at that, I can see the urgency in meeting most of my students parents. But then I am reminded that not every student have a normal family household, where there's structure and a everyday normal routine. Reading some of the IEP's I have learned some of students are homeless so they live in shelters, some abandoned by their parents so they live with other relatives, and some students their parents are just not all their, meaning their parents are going through personal issues. So taking this consideration how do we create that relationship with student families when the closest thing to a normal family they have is us?

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"Family involvement in educational experiences, as facilitated through effective communication, can help
promote student learning" (Nagro, p256). From reading the texts there are many ways to actively engage in communication with parents. The first (in which I have discussed with my co-teacher before doing) is using mobile apps as suggested by Sawyer. These apps allow your personal information to not be used but allow parents a way to reach out to you other than by calling the school. Personally when professors give contact numbers to where they can be reached after school and on the weekends if needed I feel like they're more invested in their students. Another way to connect with my families is my getting to know them. This is known as the family system approach. a "family system approach in which families' needs to support are define according to resources, interactions, functions, and the life cycle" (Bryant p 204). Getting to really know the family allows them to feel like you understand them and that you're there to help. Although there are many things I can do to collaborate, having positive phone calls home can also build a positive rapport with families in which they are willing to help with their children, as opposed to always calling for negative things. At the end of the day everything is centered on the student, and it has been proven that family involvement helps youth in school. Research has demonstrated that successfully involving families in school can lead to
increased homework completion, improved attitudes toward learning,
and better grades for students (Arguea
& Conroy, 2003; Epstein, 2011)" (Nagro p 246)

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Parent teacher relationships are extremely important in a special education and general education students lives. Staying connected and having constant communication with parents can really have a positive impact on a student’s educational career. One thing I can do as a teacher to connect with parents is use apps for anonymous texting as Sawyer says on page 174 “use cell phone numbers, there are apps available for anonymous texting via smartphones and personal computers”. For the most part everyone uses a cell phone and not many people talk on the phone as much as they used too. Texting is quick and easy and it allows keeping in constant contact with the parents. On page 60 from the article by Staples he states, “The week before open house, teachers should contact the parents via telephone or personal contact and invite them to attend the open house activities”. My second step in becoming more connected with parents is to encourage parents to come meet with me on parental outreach days. In doing so I believe this will build a better relationship with parents and make them feel the importance of being involved in their child’s education.  My third way I can connect with parents is through BRIDGES. Sawyer says on page 173, “The purpose of this article is to outline

the BRIDGES framework, a model through which teachers can develop and implement strategies to facilitate various types and levels of parent involvement. BRIDGES stands for Build, Recruit, Individualize, Dialogue, Generate, Empower, and Strengthen.” I feel that BRIDGES can be extremely beneficial for the student, the parent and myself. BRIDGES will combine all the important strategies and aspects of the child’s learning and allow me to build a strong communicative relationship.

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One technique I think that would be very helpful for the parents, teacher and even the student is putting in writing the responsibilities of the student. For example, I gave my 9th and 10th grade students a syllabus that included a parent and students contract. When I introduced the contract I assure the students that their parents and they must read everything in it's entirety and then sign. In the contract I pinpointed the  specific expectations, rules and regulations, and reassured them before they signed that signing the agreement is agreeing to adhere to all of the aspects in the contract. This not only could help gain trust between the student and the teachers but also with the parents as some time students do not go home and tell their parents what their teachers expect. However, giving the parents a chance to read and also sign the contract will serve as an explanation for things like the students grades and such. This idea represents a shared responsibility with the teachers, students and parents, where "Each member of the collaborative team is equally responsible for ensuring that tasks are accomplished during the process" (Bryant, p. 178).  Secondly, to address "bad" behavior I would get in contact with parents before I give consequences to the student. I would most importantly start the conversation off wit positive news then the negative news. Nonetheless, I would like to come up with a plan for intervention with the parent before I punish the student (depending on the behavior). A plan that includes the parent to help reverse the students bad behavior must include all people involved with the student to decrease conflict as much as can be. Lastly, I would help set up support systems for the whole family and not just the student. Educators often surround the attention and importance towards the students however, the parents of students especially of those students with special needs need supports themselves.  To support the parents of students with special needs, during parent-teacher conferences I would implement a portion of the meeting where I can provide a list of resources in a folder they can take home. Specifically as a high school teacher as I prepare students for the "real world" I would include resources parents could use to help their child after high school. "As part of the family systems approach, educators must come to understand that families of children with disabilities will probably need support systems that change as the children mature" (Bryant, p204) , thus as the child gets older things will change from the way things were for students when they are younger. Helping the students and parents advise a plan for students after high school to specifically adhere to the family systems approach.

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This past month teaching has truly showed me the importance of building a strong relationship between parents and teachers. a section in the text that I found to be useful was located on page 204 " For families of children with behavior problems, school may be just another arena in which difficulties surface, misconduct occurs, and negative encounters with authorities result. these families may not view the schools as partners in their child's education if encounters focus on what the child is doing wrong rather than on how we can help the child. " This was something that stood out to me because of my own issues with one of my students. Although hes super bright he often is disruptive and can be very disrespectful to teachers and students. this has made me rethink how I approach the situation. I've learned to try and not get so frustrated with this students and try to build a better relationship with him. Everyday we start fresh and I think hes come to appreciate that.

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One technique I think that would be very helpful for the parents, teacher and even the student is putting in writing the responibilities of the student. For example, I gave my 9th and 10th grade students a syllabus that included a parent and students contract. When I introduced the contract I assure the students that their parents and they must read everything in it's entirety and then sign. In the contract I pinpointed the  specific expectations, rules and regulations, and reassured them before they signed that signing the agreement is agreeing to adhere to all of the aspects in the contract. This not only could help gain trust between the student and the teachers but also with the parents as some time students do not go home and tell their parents what their teachers expect. However, giving the parents a chance to read and also sign the contract will serve as an explanation for things like the students grades and such. This idea represents a shared responsibility with the teachers, students and parents, where "Each member of the collaborative team is equally responsible for ensuring that tasks are accomplished during the process" (Bryant, p. 178).  Secondly, to address "bad" behavior I would get in contact with parents before I give consequences to the student. I would most importantly start the conversation off wit positive news then the negative news. Nonetheless, I would like to come up with a plan for intervention with the parent before I punish the student (depending on the behavior). A plan that includes the parent to help reverse the students bad behavior must include all people involved with the student to decrease conflict as much as can be. Lastly, I would help set up support systems for the whole family and not just the student. Educators often surround the attention and importance towards the students however, the parents of students especially of those students with special needs need supports themselves.  To support the parents of students with special needs, during parent-teacher conferences I would implement a portion of the meeting where I can provide a list of resources in a folder they can take home. Specifically as a high school teacher as I prepare students for the "real world" I would include resources parents could use to help their child after high school. "As part of the family systems approach, educators must come to understand that families of children with disabilities will probably need support systems that change as the children mature", thus as the child gets older things will change from the way things were for students when they are younger. Helping the students and parents advise a plan for students after high school to specifically adhere to the family systems approach.

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Bridges: Connecting With Families to Facilitate and Enhance Involvement by Mary Sawyer was a very informative read that gave me ideas on how to cultivate better relationships with my students’ parents. Firstly, Sawyer emphasizes how crucial it is for parents to be involved in their child’s education, “When parents become involved, they convey to their child the powerful message that school is a valued institution,” (Sawyer, p.172) Then, Sawyer lays out the steps for the BRIDGES—Build, Recruit, Individualize, Dialogue, Generate, Empower, and Strengthen— framework that any teacher can implement to help build better relationships with parents.

Although, some of the suggestions seemed better suited for the younger set, I teach high school, I found some really great tips that I can try. The first suggestion related to communicating with parents that I liked was using an app to call a parent, so that they won’t have your personal number. I started doing this just recently, and so far it’s going well. It’s like now I don’t have to stress about a parent calling me at all hours of the night.

Another tip I liked a lot was to call parents with positive news about their child. I think this is a great idea to help the child feel proud of their behavioral or academic efforts when they see their teacher take the time to personally call and inform their parents. For parents, I think it must feel good to know your child is improving instead of getting worse behaviorally or academically. It must be really hard to answer calls from multiple teachers telling you your child is not doing well or is being disrespectful in class. I’m sure this is why some parents eventually stop answering the calls from teachers, as they feel that they have already heard the bad news you are about to share with them.  I will definitely start making happy calls to my parents.

The other suggestion that I liked from the article was, keep a communication log for calls to parents. This can help for future reference and to help with monitoring suggestions and their efficacy. I will absolutely start doing this as well. I didn’t think about it before, but it makes so much sense and it will help me to be able to quickly recall conversations with parents and make note on when I have to follow-up with conversations to parents.

Something else that I liked that was in Guidelines for Successful Parent Involvement by Staples, was calling a student’s parents when they are not in class. (p.4) I think it’s a great idea and I would like to start doing this as well, because I have a lot of students that barely come twice a week to class. Like the article mentions, it shows that the teacher cares for the student’s wellbeing and it will foster parent-teacher collaborative relationship—something I desperately want.

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My professor over the summer encouraged us to make a parent outreach letter for students to take home in the beginning of the year.  She told us, "no one knows these children better than their parents" so we should work to make them our allies.  "An initial survey with the letter allows the teacher to gather important information concerning parents’ communication preferences,
such as whether they prefer to
communicate via text message, e-mail, phone, or in person" (Sawyer, p.174). I had great success with this. I was able to gain useful information about my students early on, I was able to get contact information from the parents right away, and what I think is most important is the families feel welcomed as a partner in their child's academic success.
I was glad that Bryant emphasized the importance of parent involvement in the IEP process as well. "Most parents want to participate in their children's education, but sometimes they do not understand the educational system" (Bryant, p.183). This is something a lot of educators overlook. I feel like we forget how much education and training we have to get in order to prepare these IEP's, and we may tend to gloss over the details of them when speaking to parents. I liked the suggestion of parent's making a list of questions to ask at the IEP meeting, but I would take that one step further. Parents may not know what questions they should be asking. It would be great for IEP team's to provide parents and families with a checklist or question guide to help them navigate the IEP information.
I felt the 2 subtypes of parent involvement in the Staples article restrictive. There are households where parents work multiple jobs and/or crazy hours.  Parents may want to be volunteering at school events or helping their kids with their homework, but be unable to.  Sometimes parent involvement may be creating a culture within the home that values education.  So even if the student goes home to an empty house, they know that the expectation is they're doing their homework.  This is not a perfect solution, and I know it's not always the case, but I think it is important to acknowledge these outliers.  However, I do agree that there needs to be a schedule for parent communications.  I feel very fortunate that the school I work at emphasizes the importance of parent involvement so much that they plan 45 minutes a week into our schedules specifically for parent outreach only. So I try to decide which parents I will contact and how frequently so that during that time I know who needs to called. Additional online systems, such as Skedula, have made parent involvement and awareness so much easier. During an IEP meeting I showed a parent how to download Skedula/PupilPath right to her phone. She can now track her child's attendance everyday and see her grades as teachers enter them. Additionally, she can send me, and other teachers, notes on Skedula about the student. I love stuff like this!

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Connecting with parents has been probably the single most challenging part of my teaching experience thus far. The time just does not seem to be on my side. Although I believe it's important I honestly have not been able to give this area the attention it deserves. I've been fortunate to have students in my self contained classes who are for the most part well behaved and complete their assignments. My area of worry are the ones who have poor attendance. Making phone calls to parents is ideally the way to letting parents know what's going on with their kids but I literally am tapped out on time. My school also have an online system to reach out to parents for any reason at all but again making the time is problematic. I am already working an insane amount of hours putting together lesson plans for 3 grade levels of English - one of which I co-teach which has its own challenges. The traditional and antiquated route of sending letters home is not even on my radar again for the reasons I've described above. I truly don't see how I can make this a priority when seemingly everything is a priority. Something is either wrong with the school system I'm connected to or perhaps I'm not right for this job. In constant thought over this.

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Connecting with Parents as a teacher

1. Build parent rapport (Staples & Diliberto, p. 60) Mention having an open-door policy for communication. Call parents with good news and bad news, not just bad news. You don’t want to call parents with only bad news, it will then become a thing where they see your call and they know their child did something wrong.

2. “It is particularly important that parents of students with disabilities are involved in their children’s education.” (Sawyer, p. 172) Involving a parent in their child’s academics will improve academic achievement for the child. An IEP has more impact when a parent is included; the parent has information that us teacher do not readily see at times. Once the parent feels like an integral part of their child’s education they will act as a home-based enforcement for the educational values we try to teach at school. Plan for unique families, all homes are different and each parent will be involved at different levels, some not even at all. The point is to make an effort to involve the child’s family in their education.

3. Encourage parents to help their child with the homework. This is from my personal experience, my self-contained students are at a very low level in math, oftentimes my homework is meant to build basic math skills such as multiplication and division. I want students to be able to practice at home and with some of the parents I have spoken with I have asked them to help their child with the homework. It serves as bonding time with their kid as well as a reinforcement of their education. Education should not just start and stop at school, it should consistently be happening throughout a child’s day.

The parent-teacher connection is very important because a teacher and a parent are the two adults who see a child the most in a day. If they build a relationship that’s meant to further a child’s education, the child will flourish. Having an absentee parent makes it hard for a teacher to connect with a student who is doing poorly in class or having behavioral issues. I had a student tell me, “Mr. Batista, my mom really liked you” and that told me that’s a parent I know I can rely on to make sure their child will respect me and do well with their classwork. I need to build a rapport with my students’ parents because I am a special education teacher. The bulk of my students have an IEP and those parents need to be made aware of their child’s progress. All parents want their child to succeed and parent-teacher communications is one way that can be ensured.

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It is important to develop a collaborative teacher - parent relationship because first and foremost, it is necessary to create a level of trust between yourself and the parents. As Sawyer states" Meaningful relationships begin
with a foundation of trust and understanding. Parents must know they can rely on teachers to advocate for their children and establishing this trust requires teachers to examine and set aside their own biases, cultural norms,
and beliefs."  As a teacher I think that some things I can do to establish this report with my parents is:
1. Constant communication so parents feel as though they are a part of the learning environment ( through phone calls and letters sent home.)
2. Invest more time in getting to know the family, outreach should not be limited to when student is misbehaving.
3. Adopting the BRIDGES model as outlined by Sawyer which includes individualized strategies that are specific to the needs of the family.

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Making a connection with Parents is a vital component that all teachers should add to their weekly schedule. Having only taught for less than a month, I’ve come to the realization that having an ongoing dialogue with my student’s parents helps in not only my classroom management, but it also gives me insight into my student’s family dynamic from the adult’s perspective to which I can corroborate some of the information I received from my students as I made attempt to get to know them better.

After this week’s reading I plan to utilize strategies from the BRIDGES model, as it is suggested to be a better model for secondary school settings. Step 2 Recruit where the author suggests that recruiting input from families as a way for them to buy-in is a great suggestion as we teachers work to building a connection with families (Sawyer P.173). Sawyer suggested something as simple as a quarterly survey so parents can feel they play an active role in their child’s educational experience. This is also great for the Sped Parents because they can have a survey that speaks directly their child’s unique needs.

Step 4 Dialogue in the BRIDGES model will more than likely become one of the things I start immediately. Before the school year began I purposed in my mind that I wanted to be the type of teacher that reached out to parents to make regular positive phone calls because as a parent those positive phone calls help to build a trusting relationship between parents and teachers and it makes it easier for teachers to call when they may need to share when the child is having a bad day (Sawyer P.174). The parent is less likely to feel like it’s us versus them and they will see that we are all on the same team, doing what is best for the child.

Chapter 5 Developing Collaborative Partnerships in Schools and With Families points out two insightful details and this serves as the third thing I plan to do as a teacher to build a stronger lasting connection with my student’s family. First, I want to invest more time in the family so I can learn more about the family dynamics. In most cases you can learn more about the root of the child’s behavior (positive and negative) by learning specific details about the most influential persons in the child life and how the family functions and understanding their value system. That is indeed something that comes through time, but it allows teachers to develop an approach that will effectively reach the student. The second insightful takeaway comes from Table 5.4 that points out potential barriers and solutions for teacher to keep in mind as we work towards a partnership. Language differences is often an overlooked component but it’s accompanied by a very simple solution which is to jut have an interpreter present (Bryant, Bryant, Smith P.203)

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Developing a communication system that encourages daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly parent contacts can lead to student success.  “This system fosters communication between the parent and teacher and bridge the gap between home and school.” (Staples & Diliberto - page 60).  Clear lines of communication with clear expectations for students leads to more accountability for all. Less is likely to slip between the cracks if the lines of communication are open between parent and teacher.  Concerns can be dealt with as they arise rather than waiting until the end of the marking period to discover and address a problem.  That is why it is vitally import for Teachers to establish contact with Parent's early on in the school year.

A collaborative partnership between Parent and Teacher can lead to “Shared Problem Solving” [...] (Bryant - page 178) where problems can be identified and addressed and a plan can be developed. “”Shared Responsibility” [...] (Bryant - page 178) where the Parent and Teacher collaboration leads to accountability to see that plan through.

Through an open, positive relationship, a trust can be developed.  Parents need to know that the Teacher has the student's best interest in mind.  “Meaningful relationships begin with a foundation of trust and understanding.” (Sawyer - page 173).  Teachers and Parents as well as Students, all need to be on the same page. The best way to ensure that is to have open pathways for communication.

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In this constantly changing educational environment there is always one constant that is so important for the academic success of our young scholars, that is the communication between the families and the school. There must be a strong connection between the parents and the team that oversees educating their children. In the article BRIDGES, Mary Sawyer tells us:

“Specifically, parent involvement has improved literacy of K–12 students (Egbert & Salsbury, 2009) and elementary school students coming from ethnically diverse, low-income backgrounds (Dearing et al., 2006); academic success of middle school students (Hawes & Plourde, 2005); homework completion of elementary and high school students (Patall, Cooper, & Robinson, 2008); and classroom behavior and emotional well being of elementary school students (Nokali, Bachman, & Votruba-Drzal, 2010).”

It is incumbent upon the teachers to initiate and maintain this connection between school and parents; that is because the nature of our job is to help students reach academic excellence, help them become contributing members of our society which is very easy to say, but difficult to achieve. Teachers must have a plan on how to cultivate a relationship between themselves and the families of their students.

The first thing a teacher should do, is to start calling the families of the students; the teacher should find out first if the parents speak English, if not he should make arrangements for the school translator to be there and help relay the message. “Making regular, positive phone calls is an extremely effective strategy to facilitate dialogue with parents” (Sawyer, 174). Another effective way to initiate contact is drafting a contract of behavioral and academic expectations, and have the students deliver it to the parents. I did that and it was successful, but next time I will have a copy in Spanish as well. Most of the parents at my school are ELLs, it is something I did not consider and it made things a little difficult for the parents. In the contract I included a section with information about me, and preferred ways of communication. Finally, something that I am looking forward on doing to establish that connection with the parents, is a monthly newsletter of the classroom. This time, and based on my contract experience, I will make sure to use the PROSE checklist by Sarah A. Nagro to ensure successful communication.

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According to Pugach and and Johnson (1995) "students are all members of families first and students second." This quote, made me say exactly (out loud) when i read it. As an educator I tend to go into my classroom with the mindset that my students are someone''s children, and if I was a parent would i be satisfied with the way I am teaching for my child.
In the reading, Developing Collaborative Partnerships in Schools and with Families, defines family systems approach, and this is basically when families' needs and support are defined according to resources, interactions, functions and the life cycle. Without really getting to know the families of the students you teach and their neighborhoods in which they may live in and around the school, how can you be an effective teacher? As a family of a child with a disability, they need as much support as possible, and these families trust you with their family member, so building that rapport and relationship by being genuinely concerned you can connect with your student's parents.
Another way to build a relationship with parents, is find out if your students parents are not English speaking. This is very important because we as teachers send things home for the parents (majority of the time in English). How can the parent feel connected to what is going on in their child's life, if what you send home their not able to read. Oh, and do not depend on your students to translate the message. I learned this recently, when my co-teacher and I had our students write a letter to their parents discussing their goals for the state test this year. My student said, Ms. Smith, can I write my letter for my mom in spanish? Me, being oblivious said why, and he said because my mom does not speak English. My mistake was that I did not give my students with non English speaking parents that option, because I would not have understood it if i wanted to read it. But, what I had to effectively realize was that it was not about me but about my student and his family, being able to be connected to what I was doing in school with my students that day.
Lastly this connection is important because all foundations require some type of support, and my classroom is a foundation and I need support from my parents, and they need support from me. Without me connecting with my students first and the families second, I will have nothing to hold my foundation together!

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After reading this week’s assignment readings, both texts and the article, what are three things you can do as a teacher to connect with parents?  Why is this connection important?  Be sure to reference the text in your response.