6 Things Teachers Want Parents to Know

Here are 6 things teachers want our students’ parents to know and understand.

 As a parent, the most important role you will have is your child’s teacher.  Your home is your classroom.  As a teacher, I see the parents of my student’s as my teammate. Our job is to raise kind, smart, thoughtful human beings.  It truly takes a village.  

 You see your child’s education through one lense.  As a teacher, I see your child AND all the other student’s education through multiple lenses.  As a parent, you are partial to your child.  As a teacher, all of my students are a priority.  

 From a teacher’s perspective, there are a few things I wish parents knew.  So, here is my advice….

 1.    Ask your child questions if their story doesn’t seem quite right.

 Say your kiddo comes home with a story that another kid was picking on them.  The story also includes an anecdote that the other child didn’t get in trouble at all and the teacher didn’t do anything about it. This may come as a shock to some, but kids do lie.  Even the most perfect angels can have their version of the story.  Before you believe them, ask questions.  Does it sound like pieces of the story are missing?  Teachers have your child’s best interest at heart. Remember this before you send an all caps email accusing the teacher of something.

 2.    Learning doesn’t just take place at school.

 As I mentioned earlier, teachers and parents are on the same team.  As a kindergarten teacher, I don’t expect your kid to come to school knowing how to read.  I do expect that you spend quality time with your child and are teaching them life skills.  If you are always on your phone when your child is playing, your kid will be attention seeking and distracted at school.  My students whose parents spend quality time with them are engaged and focused in the classroom.  Don’t expect the teacher to teach your child everything.  It’s not a realistic expectation.  Just like we don’t expect your child to know everything before they start school.

 3.    We will not talk about another child with you, just like you wouldn’t want us talking to another parent about your child.

 If an incident happens at school, we get it, you want to know what the consequence was for the other child.  Trust that the other child was dealt with and it’s none of your child’s business what the consequences were.  Just like you wouldn’t want your child publicly disciplined and talked about with other parents, respect the boundaries that the teacher has in place to protect privacy of all children.  Confidentiality is important and it also happens to be the law.    

 4.    We are not picking on your child.

 There are times your child may seem like they are in trouble A LOT.  Trust me, we are not out to get your child. Our job is to teach your child and all the other children in class.  This includes correcting unacceptable behavior.  When your child is 1 out of 20 in a classroom and has disruptive behavior, it impacts the learning of all the other students.  Remember, you see your child one-on-one, we see your child in a group of 20.  We would not risk our job to pick on one kid.  We really don’t have the time or energy for that.

 5.    If we don’t get back to you right away, we are truly busy.

 Think about all the times you’ve been on the phone and your kid is pulling on your shirt saying “Mom, mom, mom…” multiply that by 20 and you have what an elementary classroom looks like.  I can’t tell you the number of times the school nurse or principal has called to tell me something important and I can barely hear them because the kids use that opportunity to be silly and loud.  So, if we don’t check our email all day, it’s because we are busy teaching your kids OR in meetings.  Teacher have zero free time during the day.  When I get home from school, the LAST thing I want to do is reply to an email or text message.  Respect our free time and personal boundaries.  We will get back to you.  

 6. We love your child!

Teachers really do love their students.  We spend quite a few hours with them each week.  We want them to succeed and we want to be on the same team as you.  

Hopefully that was informative and not pushy! Parent teacher conferences are right around the corner. What kinds of questions do you ask your kid’s teachers?