When schools shut down in March 2020, I had to immediately begin calling, texting, emailing parents and students daily. It was not something that had been done quite so often. I set up a Google Voice account so that I could text students and parents without using my personal number. This helped me let students contact me with questions easily and send me assignments through pictures.
At the beginning of this school year, we started the school year online only. I needed to make sure parents and students were ready for the challenges. This year also made it impossible for parents to be involved physically when students did return to on campus classes. I had to make sure to continue to cultivate the relationships with those parents through the many resources available. Technology has been a great asset to help with this endeavor. The article, Can Texting Parents Improve Attendance in Elementary School? A Test of an Adaptive Messaging Strategy, is a study of how having a texting system of contacting parents can improve attendance. In the article Heppen et al. (2020) states that:
Almost 4 million elementary school students were chronically absent during the 2015–2016 school year. Chronic
absence is typically defined as missing 10 percent or more of school days. Missing this much school in early
grades is linked with lower reading and math achievement by Grade 3 and higher absenteeism in middle and
high school. In addition, chronically absent students are at greater risk of dropping out of high school, using
drugs and alcohol, and engaging in crime. (p. 1)
This is an example of how technology can enhance our jobs as educators for the betterment of our students. We want them all to succeed and improving attendance will help make that happen. This is an idea that I will probably implement in the next school year.
Through the use of phone calls, texts, emails, messages on our Learning Management System (LMS), and video conferencing, it makes keeping in touch with parents easy. The parents also have access to so many video lessons and grade reports weekly. "A substantial number of studies have found that parental involvement is a significant factor in students' academic achievement, engagement, and performance." (Krane & Klevan, p. 75) That is why building relationships with families and stakeholders is so important. Below is a great video about building relationships with our number one stakeholder, the students.
For my college courses this semester, I was required to read the book Digital Leadership: Changing Paradigms for Changing Times by Eric Sheninger. This book was a great read for learning about connecting with your stakeholders and changing your perspective on how to build those relationships. There is an entire chapter on communication. I think it is very helpful if you are not very familiar with using so many different ways to engage stakeholders. One of my favorite ideas is to create a school hashtag that will be used on all social media. This will make it so easy to find all school related content easily. Sheninger says, "Always return parent phone calls and emails in a timely fashions." (p.171) This is something I make sure to do whenever I get a phone call or email from parents. I also answer students as soon as possible to make sure they know that I care and am invested in them.
With the school year being nearly over, I am almost out of time to build much more relationships with stakeholders for now. I do have an idea of creating more ways to do this for the next school year. As teacher sponsor of the yearbook, I am going to create a yearbook Facebook page to share content that we might not have room for in the printed copy. I have already created an Instagram page and will link them together. This will be another way that our school will be able to tell our story before someone else does.
Sheninger, E. C. (2019). Digital leadership: changing paradigms for changing times. Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Leadership-Changing-Paradigms-Times/dp/154435083X.
TED. (2013, May 3). Rita Pierson: Every Kid Needs a Champion. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFnMTHhKdkw
Krane, V., & Klevan, T. (2019). There are three of us: parents' experiences of the importance of teacher student relationships and parental involvement in upper secondary school. International Journal of Adolescence & Youth, 24(1), 74-84.
Heppen, J. B., Kurki, A., Brown, S., National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (ED), & American Institutes for Research (AIR). (2020). Can Texting Parents Improve Attendance in Elementary School? A Test of an Adaptive Messaging Strategy. Evaluation Report. NCEE 2020-006. In National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance. National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance.
Hello Barbara,
ReplyDeleteI agree with the importance of communication. As educators, communication is vital, especially for building relationships. A study conducted by Conus and Fahrni (2019) concluded that parents felt "If the school staff and teachers want to favor reciprocal communication with parents, they cannot limit their role to telling parents their door is open should they wish to ask questions" (p. 17). Teachers need to communicate with parents even if there aren't any discipline issues.
Sheninger(2019) stated that " Parents, as well as teachers, have identified parent-school communication as a critical factor to promote children's school success" (p. 161). From my experience, the more involved you make the parents, the more minor discipline issues you will have.
References
Conus, X., & Fahrni, L. (2019). Routine communication between teachers and parents from minority groups: an endless misunderstanding? Educational Review, 71(2), 234–256. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2017.1387098
Sheninger, E. (2019). Digital leadership: Changing paradigms for changing times (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
The above comment that says unknown is from me, Johanna Morgan.
ReplyDeleteHello Again, Barbara,
ReplyDeleteCan I just say that I cry every time I watch that TEDtalk by Rita Pierson? I bet she was a fantastic teacher and assistant principal, and I would have loved to work alongside her. There is no doubt she made others around her better. As I read this blog post of yours, I was reminded of the part in Sheninger’s (2019) book where it discussed Fullan’s Six Secrets of Change (p. 62). Much like what the book mentioned for successful change, you did not allow Covid-19 to hinder you from communicating with your students and parents. You overcame potential roadblocks to change and evolve during Covid-19. Aagaard and Earnest (2020) conducted a study. They found that during Covid-19 and heightened stress, leaders who utilized connected leadership teams established with effective and ongoing communication saw a theme of positive public relations and teamwork as a by-product. Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts.
References
Aagaard, E. M., & Earnest, M. (2020). Educational leadership in the time of a pandemic: Lessons from two institutions. FASEB BioAdvances, 3(3), 182–188. https://doi.org/10.1096/fba.2020-00113
Sheninger, E. (2019). Digital leadership: Changing paradigms for changing times (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.