Comments on: Three mistakes I’ve made when talking to parents

By: Teacher Tom

Teacher Tom — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:28:27 +0000

I’m sorry Cindy, that must have been hard not being supported by your fellow teachers! I’ve been lucky, I guess, to have had the opposite experience with parents who are teachers or former teachers, but it would have absolutely crushed me to have found myself in an adversarial relationship with them.

Do you have the ability to invite parents into class to help out? I’ve found that best way to get them to understand what their child is learning is to be right there in the classroom where they can see what’s happening for themselves. If you can get them to participate, especially those with teaching skills, all the better. The side benefit is they get to see how hard you work and the challenges you face.

By: Deborah Stewart

Deborah Stewart — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 05:44:50 +0000

Did you see the link that Ayn shared on facebook? http://prekinders.com/community-theme/

By: Cindy Woolard

Cindy Woolard — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 22:24:27 +0000

I am looking for something interesting to do for “community helpers,” week!
Cindy

By: Cindy Woolard

Cindy Woolard — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 22:23:09 +0000

Hello Ms. Deborah,
I appreciate that you have taken the time to answer my concerns. The answer that you gave I find to be timely and appropriate. I do have the tendency to withdraw a little when I feel that parents are expecting more of me; or for me to move much further ahead than what the curriculum is calling for. I was just beginning at my current school when a parent brought her child in late one morning and began yelling and sreaming that I was picking on her child because I made a decision to move his seat closer to the board. I do believe that you are right about the fact that I may know more than what I give myself credit for. I would love to gain more confidence in my knowlege of children and education in general.
Thanks so much for everything. I will take your advice as given.
Cynthia

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 22:04:07 +0000

Hi Cindy!

You don’t need big fancy words, or quotes from the latest scientific research to sound professional and knowledgeable. At the end of the day, noone is spending more time educating the child than you, so whether or not you realise it, you’re the expert on that particular child’s education (but don’t say that to the parents!).

If parents bring up some aspect of education which you’re not familiar with, there is no harm in asking them to explain. If they brought it up, they are certainly interested in it, and they’d probably be more than willing to share their knowledge.

You can then try to apply what they said to their child. I.e. if they start talking about Vygotsky’s theory of socio-cultural development theory on children’s internalisation of dialogue (not so simple), it’s alright for you to just say oh, yea, your kid’s been talking aloud to himself, but is beginning to think about things in his head as well. (simple)

You could also just learn more about it after they’ve mentioned it, and bring it up at a later date. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with just saying sorry, I’m not very familiar with what you’ve just mentioned. I like it when people admit to their short-comings, rather than blatantly pretending that they’re perfect in every way.

On that note, I’m no expert either, but I hope you’ll find what I said to be helpful. I hope I’ve not been too long-winded!

Nobody’s out to deliberately hunt you down and make you look like a fool, so don’t worry too much!

Regards
Mark
http://earlychildcare.wordpress.com