The importance of effective communication in reporting or informing the progress of their child. Most parents are very appreciable and value our efforts once we let them know schools activities and specially sending them the progress of their child. There are many platforms that we can use to inform them and we can also do it by sending them letters for those parents who have no internet signals. And of course there are tips to conduct communication to parents so as to make our communication clear, concise and effective.  

What I will not forget about this lesson:

          It helps me realize the substance of communication plan and guide me enough on how to do it.

How will I apply or connect this lesson to my actual practice:

          I already make and practice this, perhaps refinement and enhancing my way of communication is I what I need to apply. Giving those tips will help make well to polish everything before sending and informing parents.

 

This lesson is relevant and valuable. This reminded me about the importance of communication between the stakeholders and the school. When there is an open communication, there is a greater learning opportunity. When the issues and concerns of the school are transpired and communicated, there is a shared accountability and shared responsibility. The stakeholders as the partners of the school will always be our greatest strength. They will always the extension and the helping hand of the schools in terms of solving the problems within and outside of the school. The financial and material support of the BLGU and parents are indeed a manifestation of their support because they share when the school openly communicate their concerns and needs.

 

More importantly, communication builds trust and confidence especially when the achievements and recognition achieved by the learners and the whole school are shared and communicated to the stakeholders. Also, when the involvement of the parents becomes a school culture and climate, it will lead to a better support to the institution.

 

 

 

What I will not forget about this lesson:

 

The line from Ed 2020 says that “if the educators view students as children, they are likely to see both the family and the community as partners with the school.” This statement struck me most because I often regarded my learners as student wherein in fact, they are supposed to be regarded as our children. When we become the loco parentis of our learners, it signifies a more relational connection among them. The intent and the desire to help them becomes more committed and obligated because that is what parents usually do. 

            Indeed, when we treat our learners as our children, it demands for more responsibilities. It is now more than the intellectual and mental development of the learners, but also on the holistic development including the attitude, values, and skills of the learners. It requires more sacrifices.

            Therefore, being a teacher is not just a profession, it is also a parenthood. When we communicate this to our learners that they are viewed as our children, it will build a better trust and understanding.

 

 

How will I apply or connect this lesson to my actual practice?

 

Communication must be prompt, correct and positive. These are the important guides I have learned from this module and opt to apply these whenever I make my communication either in verbal or written mode. The cohesive communication practices like the annual open houses, conferences, digital platforms are some strategies that I will intensively implement in the opening of classes and in all school other related activities. I have learned that when there is always a better channel of communication, these will lead to a better and greater opportunities to the school, stakeholders, and community. 

            What I will not forget about this lesson is the importance of communication to parents. Teacher-Parent communication develop good relationship and trust to each other. By maintaining that, it can boost the parents to support whatever programs and activities conducted in the school. Dealing with proper communication to parents will also improve the learning of the pupils because the parents are well informed about the behavior and learning progress of their children. So, using these different kinds of communication to parents will have a positive effect to the learning progress of the learners by attending the meeting the parents are aware about what is happening inside the classroom and also the learning situation of their children in the classroom.

           
  How will apply or connect this lesson to my actual practice. Every time I have a meeting with the parents of my learners, aside from giving a traditional communication letter, I may now use digital platform to relay my communication letter to the parents. I can create a Group Chat (GC) exclusively to parents to give updates, to send a communication letter, or even queries regarding to the learning progress of their children. By applying this, I can easily relay my message to the parents and they can immediately give their reactions, comments, reply, and feedback through our Group Chat. 

I particularly like the inclusion of Tips on How to Conduct Communication. Such tips as Make it Clear, Make it Prompt, Confidentiality Matters, Devise Tools to Track Communication and Look at the Brighter Side are for me, really effective and efficient ways to ease up communication, deal with matters that require confidentiality, create tools by which communication can be tracked and communicate not only areas of concerns but also areas of progress and achievement. These tips remind me that communication is really essential in any human endeavor and it is a tool to get my message across and achieve understanding between myself and the parents. 

Post for You Not to Forget- this part of the topic reminds me of the need to consistently apply skills in the effective communication of learners need and progress by means of sample agreement between the teacher and the parents, learners’ test results signed by the parents, learners’ performance records, etc. Although they are inherent aspects of classrooms, I sometimes put them along sidelines and overlook their value. But from now on, I shall strive to regain and maintain smooth flow of the processing, organization and proper storage of these pieces of evidences for ready reference and realistic reporting.

I will connect this lesson to my actual practice by constantly applying the learnings from this to my regular duties and responsibilities as master teacher.  I will establish rapport with parents as well as open and respectful communication with them via FB page, chat or text messages, either through one-way or two-way communication. This may sound challenging because not all parents are well-versed in handling technology, but like they say, practice makes perfect. So, though daunting as it may seem, we will keep pushing. Many parents are willing to try, and some who are not are just discouraged by their lack of self-belief. These are curable and can be remedied. I will keep the parents posted about school activities that directly involve them or their children. I will apply the tips on conducting communication, and I will keep track of records of communication that transpire between and among us. Through these, I will be able to demount the walls that divide us, and build a bridge that connects us together- for the welfare of the learners and the protection of the future that awaits them. 

Effective feedback is equivalent to effective communication. It is not enough that teachers know how to make feedback. What is most important is how this feedback is communicated with the right persons. 

 

The part that I like most in this lesson is knowing how important effective communication can be. Communication can be one-way or two-way and either of the two is effective. There are even times that both types are needed to have more meaningful engagements. There are a lot of things that we prepare to let stakeholders know of the learners’ needs and progress, such as learner’s performance record and signed report cards. Letters, records of dialogues and anecdotal records can also be used to communicate individual needs and progress. Parents-teachers conferences are the most useful and practical way if the reports to be made are common to all the learners. Other platforms can be used in communicating, especially if the locality has available technology and internet signal is strong. 

 

It is interesting to know these possible means of communication. However, my current place of assignment has weak internet connections and telecommunication signal that only a few can be reached by phone and by messenger. This lesson helped me to recognize the importance of communication, especially in this time of the pandemic. It would have been easier to address the needs of learners if communication lines are readily available.

 

2.    What I will not forget about this lesson?

The need to communicate learners’ needs, progress and achievements to key stakeholders will always be possible if only we exert our efforts to reach out to them. 

 

I will not forget that the possibilities are many, and we only need to explore which among the available means is applicable in our own situations. One of the most convenient ways is utilizing digital communication strategies for two-way communication. However, some parents and learners have poor telecommunication signal and low internet connectivity that the more traditional ways are still useful, such as the written communication and inviting them for a conference. Parent-teacher conferences are very useful whether done one-on-one or by group. 

 

I will never forget that communicating with both parents and students is necessary if we have to address difficulties and concerns met by our learners, especially in terms of their lessons. Our learners gain a lot more confidence in accomplishing their tasks in the learning activity sheets if they are able to communicate with their teacher. Having an open communication line with teachers is the key to successful and meaningful learning. 

 

Parents need to know how their children are faring in their subjects to be able to help them or seek help for them. They need to check out the work of their children, if they are working on assigned tasks. They need to ensure that learning activity sheets are answered completely. They also need to have access to their children’s scholastic records to be aware of their class standing. They have to know and understand the policies, guidelines and procedures of the school to be able to provide support for their children’s learning. All these require that there is proper communication between parents and the school through the teachers.

 

3.    How will I apply or connect this lesson to my actual practice?

This lesson serves as a validation of my own belief that communication is very important if we want to achieve our goals. Our learners need to be able to reach us whenever they find difficulty in their performance tasks. We also need to communicate our expectations to them so that we can evaluate them better.

 

In a school where students and parents belong to small communities, it is imperative to let one of the members know information for dissemination. The informed member takes it to himself to tell his neighbors any update received. In this type of communities, news travel fast and are easily disseminated among its members.

 

It is important that a PTA is organized so that parents are the ones taking charge of information dissemination in their communities. Having one or two parents connected with me through social media or by phone is sometimes adequate to reach out to parents. Therefore, it is important to build a strong parents-teacher relationship so that parents will trust bearers of information. 

 

Constant engagement with the communities in the form of monitoring and intervention also help in forming bonds with the parents. Our intervention activities in the different sitios of the barangays near our school is a manifestation that we give importance to our learners’ needs. We are able to provide help to our learners and motivate them in answering their modules as well as communicating our concern for their progress.