Patti Pilat Buono

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Increase Your Family Engagement

Gaining the support of the home can be an extremely powerful way for teachers to reach students. When the adults in the home can understand and support your efforts in the classroom, you can truly make magic happen with your students. Family engagement can be key.

Research shows that parents are far less involved in their child’s school experience, particularly the older the child gets, than they have been for decades. This makes it even more important that you reach out as the professional and garner their support. By enlisting them as partners in the child’s education, we will empower them to have a greater voice at home to back up everything you are trying to do in the classroom.

It takes work. Extra work that you may not think you have time for with all of the ridiculous and important things your administration is forcing on you as an educator in the 2020’s. But the small efforts you make in this arena will potentially pay big dividends throughout the year.

Know Your Stakeholders

Through some of the programs I have completed in my professional career, the biggest and the best becoming a National Board Certified teacher, I have been forced to do a deep-dive into the demographics of my students and their families. I strongly suggest that you take some time to look into the demographics you are working with, paying particular attention to the anecdotal records you can find for your school. Not only was it very eye-opening for me, but it helped me formulate ways to connect with the families.

For example, many of my parents work in the hospitality and tourism industry here in Las Vegas, which is an extremely interesting career. However, it is also not a “nine to five” career, because that industry is twenty-four hours, every day of the year. This makes it particularly challenging for families who are working the swing or graveyard shift to become active in their child’s life. This single piece of information changed how I pictured the homes of my students.

Reach Out To The Family For Early Engagement

This is standard advice to all teachers every year: Reach out to the home early in the school year. I can not stress enough how valuable and powerful this can be in gaining their support throughout the year.

In my class, everyone starts the year with an “A”, and I immediately begin assigning projects and other assessable deliverables. By week two, I’ve already got about seven to nine assignments in the gradebook. At this time, I immediately reach out to every parent to let them know how successful their students are already in my college-level class. I copy the student on the email, as well, so they feel part of the team. By doing this, if I need to contact the home later in the year concerning grade or behavioral issues, they already associate my name with positive interactions, leading to a better relationship overall.

Be A Good Listener

I get many responses from my initial “Your child is a superstar” emails. While some people simply accept the email at face value and do not respond, a large number of people—not only adults but students as well—respond positively, appreciating getting some good news so early in the year.

Then, I always get some long responses. When this happens to you, make sure you read the response—twice—because I virtually guarantee that it will include some very valuable information you might need in the future. Anyone who takes the times to respond in detail about themselves or their child has earned your attention, and is probably imparting information that will help the student be successful in the future.

You need to listen. You need to process the information they are sharing with you. You need to respond, so they feel validated and heard.

Keep It Very Simple

We are trying to engage parents and whole families in the education process, which is often confusing and frustrating for parents. Keep your communications—and your asks—very simple. My early year email is quite short, simply letting the families know that their child has already shown a strong work ethic and good employability skills by starting the year off positively. That’s it. Don’t get into the weeds on your communications.

Every adult is just as busy, and just as tired, as you are, so you need to treat them with the same dignity and respect you would want for yourself. A short message, perhaps giving them a suggestion if they want to get more involved, is all that is necessary to engage parents at the base level.

Now let’s talk about your next steps to keep all parents informed, and encourage some parents to become more involved.

Use Social Media To Your Advantage

There are a wide variety of technology tools you can use to encourage engagement by the families in your classroom, and I suggest you try more than one. One of the ones we use in my district is Remind, which allows you to communicate with everyone in your group, and for them to communicate with you. Remind does not allow them to post group messages, so you don’t need to worry about monitoring it for inappropriate content, but allows you to reach out individually or en masse. Even better, anyone with your class code can join your Remind group, so parents will have the same information as their children.

Be sure you are following the guidance of your school district with use of social media, particularly pictures, since authorizations for those things can be quite complicated.

Maintain An Active Class Website Or Blog

Continuing to use technology, you should try to maintain a website or a blog that everyone can access so they can have information about what is going on in the classroom. In addition to having a department website, we use Canvas in my district, allowing the parents to log into the platform with their own account. By using Canvas, parents can know exactly what is happening in every class every day, including assignments and anything coming up.

My Business Management program has many intern opportunities for my seniors, and maintaining the department website is one of the things I have an intern responsible for. This way, I know that information is being uploaded and kept current, but it does not add any additional work or responsibilities to my plate. It’s a win-win.

Invite Parents Into The Classroom

Significantly more difficult in this post-Covid world, consider having parents come into your classroom. Unlike elementary school, it is not usual to find parents in a high school building, but this might be the perfect way for parents to feel involved in their child’s education using their own skills.

One of the ways that we do this is, obviously, having parents come in to talk about their careers. We do this in every class we teach, and we have a secret weapon: We invite parents to speak in classes that DO NOT include their own child. We have found that by engaging parents as professionals, instead of as a concerned parental unit, we get the benefit of having a professional guest speaker, and the parent can be part of the action without imposing on their own child.

Be Open To Accepting Help

Some parents really want to help, but want to stay as far as possible from the school building. I get it—my high school experience was traumatizing, too!

There are definitely ways families can contribute to the education of their children without ever setting foot in the classroom. We have had parents host students at their business location for short programs, or even “hiring” our students as interns to work for them. Some parents are great at grading papers or other assignments, returning them with their child the next day. Hosting certain event days, we have parents volunteer to donate snacks or prepare things when we travel with FBLA and DECA.

Once you establish that open line of communication, you will be surprised what your families offer!

Keep Trying—It’s Worth It

No matter what, everything you do to increase family engagement will pay good dividends. You might not hear from the parents, but all of a sudden the student will make better eye contact and smile at you, or the kid will thank you for telling their guardian they were doing good in class.

And, hopefully, you will build relationships that endure the passage of time. I just had an alumni from 1993 come to speak to my classes.

THANKS FOR READING THIS FAR!!!

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