Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Classroom Clashes

Tuesday's Commercial Appeal ran an important article on handling clashes between teachers and parents. The sidebar provided the following list of dos and don'ts:

Don't: Discuss serious concerns over e-mail. And don't make your child a messenger service.

Do: Use a brief e-mail or phone call to schedule a school conference.

Don't: Use a conference to fire off accusations or to make threats about transferring or involving the principal.

Do: End a conference by summarizing the game plan, scheduling a followup and thanking the teacher.

Don't: Insult school staff in front of your children.

Do: Make sure that your children hear you compliment their school, teachers and principals.

Don't: Assume that a personality clash signals that the teacher is incompetent.

Do: Teach your children problem-solving techniques they can use at school.


Click here to read the story in its entirety.

No comments: