Sunshine calls a great idea, but one that I have never fully embraced over the dozen years that I have been teaching.

It’s just so time-consuming to call the parents of every single child that I teach.

I follow Chris Pearce on Tumblr because he has some great insights into teaching and he does so in comic form.  He is an advocate for regular phone calls home and here’s why.

3 Reasons Why Teachers’s Should Make Regular Calls Home

Here are 3 reasons you should call home on a regular basis.

1) Parents are used to having an adversarial relationship with staff and administration at school.

It’s up to us to try to build that bridge between home and school, to make it a good relationship where we can communicate with each other and help the students work to their potential.

2) It’s always bad news.

Most teachers only get in touch when Jane is flunking or Johnny lights the desk on fire. They see that school phone number on the caller ID and they think “Oh god…” but it doesn’t have to be that way!

3) Start the year with a good first impression

Make your first round of phone calls at the beginning of the year. Make them “get to know you” phone calls where you say “Hey, I’m your son/daughter’s teacher this year. S/he seems like a very nice kid and I’m looking forward to working with her/him.” One call in September can make your next seven to eight months a whole lot easier.

How do we find the time? 

If we divide up our classes and into four groups and make an effort to call one group of parents a week, we would be making a monthly call home. Ten times to communicate with parents over the course of the year could indeed do wonders.

Teaching Tip Tuesday – weekly tips, tricks, lessons, resources, and inspiration for teachers everywhere!