I thought it was appropriate to post on my Judaic Studies blog tonight as we come together for Parent Orientation. After all it is through events like tonight and others through out the year that we build this important partnership between home and school.
In “Ethics of Our Fathers” it states that there are 3 partners in creating man; Father, Mother and G-D. I tell my Teachers there needs to be three partners in a child’s educations; School (Admin + Teachers), Parents, and Students. If I would draw a diagram it would look like this:
All of the circles need to overlap and be on the same page if you will for this partnership to be effective.
How do we achieve this?
The first key is that all parties need to be able to listen and hear the concerns of one another. Listening isn’t enough. We need to listen and really understand where the other person is coming from and take their concerns seriously.
In real estate they say “Location Location Location”. In Parent school relations they say “Communication, communication, communication. I believe with open lines and true two way communication many problems could be averted if we are proactive and just communicate. We need to communicate in a way the fits the needs of each individual. For some email may be great, while others may prefer a phone call, and some may need a face to face meeting. I do think teachers should communicate with their students as well and the students need to have a clear understanding of the teacher’s expectations.
Finally I believe there needs to be involvement. Students need to be involved in their own learning and teachers need to involve and get input from parents.
Bottom line we all want what is best for our Children/ Students and if we work with that goal and keep these few keys in mind I think we can have an effective partnership and an effective school and learning environment for our children.
This post was originally written for the “Creating A Home-School Partnership Wallwisher initiative by @Thanks2Teachers
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