You are wanting to know how to communicate effectively with parents? Do you want to have positive communication with your students’ parents, but the day gets too long? Believe me, I have been there. I would be in class and the behaviors would wear me out. Then I would just run out of energy to make sure that I was sharing the great things from class. Parents love to see what their kid is doing in school. When you have a classroom social media account it can make it easy for parents to see what is happening in your class. It is also a great way to build trust and a relationship between parents and teachers.
Facebook is a way to influence how your school, your classroom, and you are seen by parents and the community at large. Wow, that is a lot. Are you ready for this? Because it does take a bit of work to plan for it, but the home school partnership is 100% worth it. (And in the long run better for the students too) So here is what to do…
Create a Facebook Group for your Classroom
Make a Facebook group instead of a page. A group is more of a community (which is what you want) instead of a page that is like a bulletin board (cute but not necessarily functional). The reason for making a group instead of a page is that you can create a sense of community for the families in your classroom. Once you create the group, you can schedule posts that will help you get to know the families.
Positive communication with parents or other important grownups helps you, your families, and the students build a level of trust faster. When I first started teaching the parent communication I did was newsletters. My communication with families was not as concise until I looped from 3rd grade to 4th grade. I had the same students and families with which I had built relationships and more natural communication with parents. Having the relationship built already helped me be able to focus on what a student needed from me, rather than building the relationship.
Make a plan for your entire school year, month by month
When you make a Facebook group for your classroom you are going to need consistent content. You want to make a group that is engaging families in the school. Your Facebook group will show up in parents’ Facebook feeds the most if you consistently post. It is tricky to plan for during the school year so I recommend getting your plan done in the summer for smooth use of social media in your classroom. Plan for a couple of posts each week. Some can be spontaneous because that will bring a personal view of your classroom. Once you get some of your content created, you can reuse it every year.
Some types of posts to include that may not be schedulable are the happenings that are coming up at your school. Make sure and share from your school’s Facebook page so that everyone is on the same page. Have fun with your posts, make polls, share tips, and post funny memes. Welcome every member to show them that they are important. Think about how to build trust between parents and teachers, what are the parents struggling with, what support will they need throughout the year. Show the things happening in your classroom and show regular everyday things, not just fun stuff or cute things. Parents want to know what reading, math, science, and social studies are like. They only remember what it was like for them. Show them what it is like now. Then they will even have something to talk to their child about.
Communicate effectively with parents by being consistent.
Once you have your plan and content created now is the time to engage parents. This Facebook group is not going to be one and done, part of the work of building relationships is showing up. I am not talking about responding to messages at 1 am but liking and commenting on posts goes a long way. This is all about that home-school partnership. Have at least one post per week so that your group stays at the top of parents’ Facebook news feed. The more you can engage them to interact with your posts the more they will see of your group.
Set up group rules that focus on the positive. You can set comments where you can moderate or not, depending on the control you want. If you set the tone of your group by making helpful and positive posts, parents will follow your lead.
Set boundaries for Yourself
I know that social media can take a chunk of time away from yourself and your family. I would recommend that you set a schedule for yourself that is easy to keep, such as making comments for only 10 minutes during PE on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Then the relationship connection is made but you still have time to use the bathroom and make those copies. One thing that I always (and still) struggle with is that consistency. I think of it as making those parent relationships a priority. Social media in the classroom can be another thing, but it is one of the things that most parents also do. Take time for yourself so you can balance taking time for your relationships.
How to Communicate Effectively with Parents
It can be tricky to have open lines of communication but making a classroom Facebook page can help out. Open lines of communication and keep it positive in the beginning so that if a constructive conversation needs to happen they will more likely have the action that benefits the student.
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