When I was a beginning principal, I possessed the same social media/email narcissism that can grip even the best-intentioned. If I had a thought, I would send an email. My poor faculty members suffered under the tyranny. I would send out 2-3 emails to the staff every day, perhaps the same number to parents.
Then my oldest son went to preschool. It was a 2 day a week program for 3 hours a day. I would receive 4-5 emails every day. I couldn’t keep up! I began to ignore then delete the emails before even reading. There had to be a better way, I thought. How can I balance the need to communicate with all the other tasks?
So I began sending out one email every week to parents on Thursdays. Then I sent out one email to staff on Mondays. It was difficult to train myself to only send out a general email once a week. But eventually I found that I received a better response when I was consistent. I tried to make it personal, relevant, and scholarly. Parents don’t have much time and so I feel like it’s my responsibility to be the lead learner and share what I’ve come across that might interest them.
This was the origin of Catholic School Matters. I’ve been collecting articles about parent communication and they are divided up below. I find exceptional value looking at the articles about problems and conflict since conflict makes up so much of our daily life. Paying attention to perception and tone has been an area of growth for me and continues to challenge me.
Parent Communication Philosophy:
- What Parents Want in School Communication in Edutopia
- How To Communicate with Parents About Homework by Matt Harrell of MemberHub
- 4 Crucial Elements for Effective School Communications by Matt Harrell
- 7 Effective Parent Teacher Communication Tips by TeachHUB
- Strategies for Teachers to Communicate with Parents by Matt Harrell
- Make it Easy for Parents to Communicate with Teachers by Matt Harrell
- 7 Easy Ways to Improve School-Wide Communication by Edutopia
- Communicating Like a Grown-Up by Farnam Street
- 3 Keys to Effective Leadership Communications by Byron Ernest
Parent Communication Problems:
- How to Resolve a Breakdown in Communication with Parents by Matt Harrell
- Catholic Educators and Combatting the Abusive Parent by CommDigiNews
- 3 Ways to Stop Communication Breakdowns in Schools by TrustED
- How to Listen Without Agreeing by Justin Baeder of the Principal Center
- Slowing Down to Speed Up: Leadership Communication in a Crisis by SmartBrief
- Common Communication Mistakes to Avoid by Lolly Daskal
Parent Communication Tools:
- 3 Tech Tips for Parent Newsletters by Class Tech Tips
- 6 Tech Tools that Boost Teacher-Parent Communication by Graphite Blog
- 9 Effective Strategies for Parent Engagement at Your School (eBook) by MemberHub