Intention: Communication

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"Communication is the lifeline of any relationship." - Elizabeth Bourgeret

"Communication is your ticket to success, if you...learn to do it effectively." - Theo Gold

"Good communication bridges the gap between confusion and clarity." - Nat Turner 

 

There is a reason you can find pages and pages of quotes about communication, effective communication, the power of communication, etc. If you sift through all of these wise words, the key take away is...communication is important. It's important throughout life, business, in personal relationships, and in education. There are 3 types of communication that can be useful in any classroom: POSITIVE, BEHAVIOR, and ACADEMIC. 


1) Positive communication

Your portfolios require 2 positives e-mail a week, but I hope you are inclined to send them as often as you feel warranted. These are messages that specifically tell parents when their kid is doing great! In your positive communications, share what you enjoy about a student- strive to find something to like about every student. Send home a funny or heart warming story every now and then, or positive progress update (with certain students, even the smallest sliver of growth is worth a celebration). The beginning of the year or semester is the ideal time to set up these positive foundations with families but it's never too late to start communicating positively and set or re-set that tone. 


Positive communication is important because most parents send their kids to school for 8+ hours each day with very little knowledge of what happens between drop off and pick up, so fill them. Take a moment to  let them know that their child is cared for and is valued, because grades aside, that's all most want. An email or a text "just because" can go a long way to build trust, form a critical home/school connection, and opens the door to future communication. Bonus: You'll also get a feel for parent personalities and who is open to a partnership. Knowing a parent's communication style or personality may help you know what to expect if you ever need to deal with an academic or behavior issue down the road. 

PRO TIP- 

For older students, try emailing the student directly and CC or BCC the parent. It can be a quick note- "I noticed you did really great staying on task during our work block today. There were opportunities to become distracted but I appreciate you keeping focused on your work. Thanks for being awesome!". The student gets happy mail and the parent also sees the note, as well as the effort you are putting in. It's an easy 2 birds, 1 stone situation. 



2) Behavior Communication

How often do you communicate behavior incidences? Have you ever had a student on your radar and maybe you were meaning to reach out to home but never did...and then BAM! The kid ends up in the office because things escalated too quickly? Instead of working to create a home/school partnership, your efforts are forced into doing damage control since the parents feel blindsided. Also, the student really doesn't get the appropriate consequence because as far as anyone else knows, this is their first offense of any kind. It happens, but this kind of situation can be prevented with a bit of purposeful communication.

To prevent a behavior situation from spiraling too quickly, communicate openly as soon as you see some kind of pattern forming. You want your first point of contact to open the door for a conversation, NOT in crisis mode. Ideally, you'd already have some kind of foundation laid via a positive interaction with a family but even without that, communicating early allows you to more gently ease into the situation. Communication at the early stages of a "issues" creates documentation, allows you to outline any interventions you have already tried in class, and also avoids luring parents into a false sense of positivity by thinking "no news is good news".  

EXAMPLE: Hello! I'm just checking in about [student name]. I've noticed he's been acting a little differently in class and was wondering if you noticed anything at home? I usually don't have a problem with him being rambunctious. He'll come in quietly, sit, listen, and get his work done; however, this week, he seems distracted and much louder during class. I've tried talking with him, moving his seat to get away from a few of the other boys, but it's becoming disruptive. I know what great work [student name] is capable of and this has been out of character lately. I would love to get some ideas about what motivates him or just any other information that you feel would be helpful for me to to best support him at school. I appreciate your thoughts on this and I'm available before or after school if you would prefer to meet in person to discuss.

EXAMPLE: Hello! I'm [student name's] [subject] teacher and I'm reaching out regarding our class phone policy. Phones need to be away (out of sight) and not in use in class. Lately, I've been noticing [student name] on her phone under the table, usually while I'm up teaching a whole group lesson. I've given several reminders and then had a private conversation on Monday; however, the behavior has not changed. Phones take focus away from classwork and the policy is simply to minimize distractions during the short time I am with each class. 

Of course I understand there can be emergency situations or circumstances where a student needs to be on a phone and we have talked about that, too. All I ask is for students to communicate a situation to me and then they are able to go to the office to handle whatever is going on.  For anything else, students have time between classes (and sometimes at the very end of my class), their lunch, as well as before and after school to catch up on personal screen time. 

Other than this issue, I really enjoy having [student] in class! She's creative and personable and has many great ideas to share when she's engaged in our lesson. I appreciate your support in reiterating our class phone policy in order to help me keep students on track and to uphold the high expectations of our school. As always, I'm available by appointment if you would prefer to meeting in person to discuss further. 

★With any behavior communication, my top tip is always lead with empathy. Assume every issue has a solution and go into your communication open minded and with the intention of seeking help. Beneath each child are layers that we may not ever be able to reach and we cannot pretend to know their full story until it's been told to us. 

★Pick up the phone for more serious incidents that require a more thorough explanation or when you want to be taken seriously. I like to shoot a text out as a heads up if possible/appropriate to arrange the phone call time so the parent isn't caught completely off guard and then I also like to follow up with an email to say thank you and recap any action plan discussed. This is mainly for documentation purposes and to make sure everyone perceived the conversation in the same way. If you're unsure if it's an email or phone call- think like a parent. Is it something you would want to open an email about or hear in person? 

★Don't forget to document behavior incidents and communication in Aspire! 


3) Academic Communication

  • Weekly | Monthly | Unit updates
A great opportunity for a neutral interaction with families is an academic update. This is a quick blast to share learning objectives, upcoming dates, bright spots, and important information at a frequency that makes sense for your classroom. Some elementary teachers send out a weekly or monthly newsletter. I've also seen Jr High teachers send out an overview for each new unit with a list of due dates, reading materials, and other important information. Even if a parent doesn't read in entirety, it's a great way to keep an open line of communication and gives parents an "in" because it's easy for them to RE: to an email that has already been received. It also shows that you are invested in creating a partnership.

NOTE: Updates are different than reminders sent via text or Remind App. Updates are more one-stop-shop for all important information at a glance. Text reminders are a great supplement to a comprehensive update. For example, an update is sent at the beginning of a month and then text reminders sent out as specific action dates approach. Updates can be fancy newsletters (Canva & Adobe are great) but not necessary. No frill updates can be sent directly through Aspire or you can take time to create an Outlook group of your parents. Sending via Outlook leaves a little more room for creativity in things like font, color, emojis, images etc. 

Example of a simple weekly update: 

Example of a simple unit update: 

  • Off Track | Missing Work
This is mostly for upper grades, but how often do you dig into your data or grade book? I'm sure you can tell me off hand which students are behind but do you know exactly what they are missing? How long do you let it go before reaching out for support at home? Creating a system to tracking progress frequently and right from the beginning is best because no student gets overlooked and you can lead your conversation with data. If a student is behind in your class, it's likely they are behind in other classes. Identifying missing work as soon as it's late and helping that student create a plan to get caught up on ONE assignment is more likely to be a successful effort than waiting til end of the quarter when the student is behind in several in your class and several more in several others. 

🗝 In order to communicate student progress, you must be tracking student progress. The key to creating a successful data tracking system is to have a clear vision for what your goal is (begin with end in mind), figure out what data to track, and get into a routine to consistently do it. A solid system should yield student outputs that warrants the time/effort you are inputting. If you are not seeing results, change your system. 

If you're new to tracking student progress, start with the basics. Ask yourself: 
  • What is my objective? 
  • What data do I need to track in order to support my objective? 
  • How frequently do I need to track this data? 
  • How will I organize and keep track of this data? 
  • How do I plan to communicate progress and action plan to students and families? 
  • What's my follow up for students who need more accountability?
Summit is awesome for data tracking so if you need help going through the system features, please Book Me! Last year, I was constantly tracking check point data (so I knew what students to target during project work days), Final Product submission, and I actually really liked to track PFA data. I used this data to plan mini-lessons in class and workshop instruction on Fridays. Here is a template I used for PFA progress updates, emailed to students (BCC parents): 


If you're not comfortable with communication, I encourage you to push yourself to grow in this area. Start with the easy one- positive communication. Build that bridge so that when you need to cross over into behavior and academic, the transition is smoother. I'm always happy to read over and give feedback on parent communication, can sit and help you compose an email, or even provide moral support for a phone call. Don't delay, communicate [with intention] today! 

 

"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." - George Bernard Shaw