What part do parents pay in their children’s education? How can you enlist their help?
How would you handle making a difficult phone call to a parent?
I think that it's so very important for parents to be involved in a student's education. When students see that parents take it seriously they are more motivated and encouraged to take it seriously too. And, on the flip side, when parents don't get involved, students don't think it's valuable to their lives. I think it's important for parents to know their students' grades. It is important for parents to keep their students accountable to do homework at home and check in on their behavior and academic progress in class.
I have a great set of parents that always ask for their students grade (via e-mail) and ask what he can and cannot make up. It's helped the student see how important the work is and its provided accountability at home.
I have also experience the horrible version of the "call home." I called a parent when I saw that her student had cheated on a project. They had copied it word for word from each other (whoever copied whoever). I told her that I was letting her know so that when he came home with a 0 on his grade report she would know why he had this. She proceeded to yell at me and tell me that I hadn't actually caught them cheating because I didn't see them copied it from each other. And I must be out to get him and I don't teach well enough for her student to have understood the material if he has to copy it. She said she was going to call the school counselor (whom she had just talked to the previous week because her student had continuously been sent to the dean's office by my master teacher.) In this case I told the mother, "ok. Feel free to contact the counselor and talk to (student's name). Bye." I just tried my hardest not to get emotion about it while I was still on the phone. Staying stable and showing her that she wasn't able to "get me" helped calm her down enough to say bye.
Sometime parent involvement is easy and sometimes it's hard (for teachers) but I think it's always worth trying.
