Meaningful Connections

Bridget GenglerBlog, Connect Better, Engage Better, Lead Better, Manage Better, Teach Happier

TL;DR:

  • Parents want teachers to see their children and notice great things about them.
  • Send an email at the start of the year introducing yourself.
  • Ask parents to tell you about their child.
  • Periodically check in with parents to see how they feel things are going.
  • Celebrate children!

Meaningful Connections: What Parents Want

When my children were younger, I wished for them to be seen and noticed by their teachers. That happened more often for my daughter, but I can count on one hand when that happened for my youngest son. I know that he had great teachers, but very few tried to make that connection with him.  Many did not take the time to ask me about my son or tell me things about him that they noticed.  

Parents want to know that teachers care. They want to know that we notice their child and we take the time to see them and celebrate them. Since that seemed to be something lacking in my kids’ educational experience, I try my best to make sure that I notice ALL my students. No matter the student, there is always something we can celebrate. It is important that we are intentional with those actions and those thoughts. Most importantly, we need to share those celebrations with the parents. 

Building strong relationships with the families of our students is just as important as building relationships with our students. 

When we make connections early on with parents, we create a level of comfort and trust for future encounters. Click To Tweet

Meaningful Connections: How do we do that?

Opening Email

I begin to connect with parents and students before school even begins by sending an opening email with a slide deck that introduces me and gives them a peek into my life. I create a very short video that grabs their attention and gets them excited for the new year. This is often the beginning of connections that become very meaningful to all of us. I think it is important for them to see me and who I am outside of the classroom. It helps build a community of trust. They see me as a human being and not just a teacher. 

Parent Surveys

In that opening email, I also ask the parents to fill out a survey. In this survey, I ask them a lot of questions about their child’s strengths and weaknesses. I encourage them to share their perspective on their child’s academic abilities and also their character.  This gives me a lot of insight into the child and their life. This also allows me to make connections with their child that maybe I would not be able to without learning from the grownups at home.

When my son was a freshman in high school, his English teacher asked for parents to share some things about their child so that she could connect to them. Wow! I was thrilled but also dumbfounded that I had to wait until his freshman year in high school to have a teacher ask me that question. For someone like my son, he needed someone like this in his school career to ask those questions in order to truly connect to him. For children who are quiet and more introverted, this is essential to building relationships. That is why making those connections with my students and their parents is imperative to the success of the year. 

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Beginning of the Year Check-Ins

I reach out to every parent in the first two weeks of school to check-in to see how they all are feeling about the new year. This helps to grow our relationship and gives me insight into where they stand in these beginning weeks of school. I continue those check-ins throughout the year. It really builds that trust and lets parents know that I truly do care about their child. 

Celebration Messages

I also am intentional with taking the time to notice what each child is doing and what positives that I can draw out. No matter what, every child can be celebrated in some way. It is important that we notice the goodness they bring to the class community. And, it is even more important that parents know about it. It needs to be shared with them. Every few weeks I take time to send celebration messages. I pick out something that I am noticing about the child and I share it with their parents. These celebration messages have become ingrained in my connection building. 

Meaningful connections are so integral to the success of a student. When students see that their teacher and parent are working together, they are more apt to do better and work harder. 

When we make connections early on with parents, we create a level of comfort and trust for future encounters.  This enables us to make a bigger impact, not just on the life of our students but also on the life of their parents. Family connections are just as important as student connections.  It is worth the time and effort to make these meaningful connections. They can lead to a lasting impact on all the lives involved.

About Bridget Gengler

Bridget Gengler is a fourth grade teacher in Long Beach, California. She has taught bilingual education, general education, and GATE for the past 26 years. She’s passionate about building relationships and a strong classroom community that opens up doors of success for her students. She strives to empower all students to share their voices and their stories. Her class motto is “ You matter! You are important! You have a story to tell and we want to hear it!” She brings her love of reading and writing to the classroom in the hopes that it will promote lifelong readers and writers.

Bridget believes that self-care is essential in an educator’s life. She takes time to focus on gratitude, mindfulness and kindness during the day. She contributes this balance to her success in the classroom.

Family is number one for her! Her most precious job is being a mom to four young adults, an energetic lab puppy, and a wife to a wonderful husband. When she is not teaching, writing or reading she is creating memories with them. They love to travel, discover new restaurants, and watch professional baseball.