Shannon J. Holden is the founder of New Teacher Help, which provides information for new teachers to help them be successful, especially in those first few crucial years.  However, it never hurts for "old" teachers to review some of the tips and tricks of the trade!  On the Website, Holden gives free access to many helpful tools and one I found particularly interesting was the information on "Lines of Communication".

Holden states unsuccessful students thrive on the lack of communication between the adults in their lives.  With that in mind, he gives the new teacher several methods of communication and explanations for how each either works well or not.

*Letter sent home – The least effective form of communication, especially if you send the note home with the student. Mailing the letter home costs you money for a stamp, and will be thrown away if the student is the one who checks the mailbox every day.

*Phone call (home phone) – Effective if you reach the parent…but effectiveness goes way down if you leave a message on the answering machine. Kids check the messages before their parents get home, and your message is “accidentally” erased.

*Phone call (parent’s cell phone) – Effective if you reach the parent, and leaving messages are just as effective because parents rarely let their kids check the messages on their cell.

*Parent conference – Effective when you can get parents to come to the school. Some parents will make appointments to see you, then have “something come up” to cancel the meeting.

*Email – My favorite mode of communication. You can say everything you want to say without being interrupted…and you can print out the email to put in your files. Perfect! Well…almost perfect, as parents can use the old “I didn’t get your email” excuse.

*Text message – Many teachers are using text messaging to keep in touch with parents. You don’t have to use your phone…set up a free email account with Yahoo! and use their “texting” feature on your home or school computer! Simply type the parent’s cell phone number in the address line, then type your message in the box and hit “send”.

*District ListServ – My district has an apparatus to text message parents in the event of an emergency, school closing due to weather, or other important event. Students and parents sign up for the service, which opens up an opportunity for you to access those important cell phone numbers for your professional use.

*Teacher Website – There is no substitute for the teacher Website. You can post educational video clips that you download, you can post educational podcasts that you can download from any of 20 different sites…and all of this material is FREE! You can also post a calendar with information such as assignment due dates, lesson notes, and other valuable information. Most teachers will say that they do not have the time to build and update a Website. The reality is that having an UPDATED teacher Website saves you tons of time answering student and parent questions over and over.

*Computerized grade program with parent access – This may be hard to believe, but there are parents that do not fill out the proper forms to gain access to their student’s grades via the school’s computerized grade program. Find a way to give an incentive to students whose parents sign up for access. Remind them to write down their user name and password or you’ll be getting phone calls from parents who forget!

*Progress reports/report cards – Many of these are accidentally lost on the way home from school. The only way that progress reports/report cards are effective is if the students are required to bring SIGNED reports back to school the next day, or be subject to a parent phone call.

*Student planner – The person who thought of this idea was well-intentioned, but the planner is a microcosm of how the lines of communication can break down. Here’s how the planner works: The teacher provides material (lesson objective & assignment) for the students to copy in their planner, the student is to faithfully put the objective and assignment for each class in the planner and take it home to be seen by their parents. The parents must check the planner every night, and sign the planner once a week. The student is to bring the planner back to class, where it is checked by the teacher to make sure that the message is making it home. That’s a lot of moving parts! If just one of the people involved (student, teacher, or parent) fail to live up to their responsibility, the system breaks down. What makes the failure even harder to swallow is that the school bought the planners (at a cost of approximately $3 per student)…what a waste of money!

You probably noticed I highlighted one sentence of Holden's statements.  For parents and students who have Internet access, building a useable teacher Website is a wonderful way to keep everyone up-to-date and informed.  Many teachers have also considered using social media as a way to communicate.  However, Holden says:

Facebook/MySpace/Twitter - These social networking sites can be a valuable tool for educators...or a recipe for disaster!  Be careful about using these sites, "friending" your students, or posting unprofessional material on a page.  (For a list of about 100 teachers who have been suspended or fired because of their stupidity, just Google the phrase 'teacher Facebook trouble' and start reading!)  If you want to harness the power of the Internet, I recommend building your own Website...it's a lot safer!

Well said!  Holden has a lot more to say and I hope to highlight some of his other ideas and suggestions for making all of us better in the classroom and in our respective offices and positions in the coming weeks.  Thanks for reading!