“Hours!” she said. “I spent HOURS on my Sunday afternoon grading just late work alone, and then you want to know what I had to do the rest of the week?” I could almost guess what it was, “call parents” she said, exacerbated. My teacher friend went on to explain how as it was the end of the quarter and grades were due soon, it was that time of the year that comes around four times per year to communicate to parents whose child is near or actually failing a course.
I squinted and turned my head to the side to lessen the blow of her answer as I asked, “how long did it take to contact parents?”
Three days after school, she said, until well past 5pm. And I never got to them all.
We’ve all been there. We’ve all been in a place where something in our teaching lives is taking up way more hours than we want it to, or than is healthy. Whether that’s because we’re new at it and haven’t developed the processes to make it a quick process, or we just straight up don’t like doing it. Either way, it’s not helping you continue to love your job.
In this episode we’ll be talking about all things parent communication, and we are going to get very practical and even take you step by step through a particular system that I think will help you get a handle on it a bit more. Now, those steps may seem a bit much listening to it on a podcast, so I would encourage you to take notes if you’re able to, but if you’re driving or on your run and can’t - no worries… be sure to catch the show notes where it’s all laid out for you with pictures and everything at the link in our show notes where you’re listening. Here we go.
SUSTAINABLE TEACHER SHOW NOTES: https://www.teachonamission.com/blog/parent-communication-systems