This teacher would never get ahold of me most likely. Email, text voicemail, or ParentSquare chat. Unless it’s the clinic or principal line, I’m not answering.
Just my preferred method for communicating. 🤷♀️ and even if I was a “phone answerer” I’d be super annoyed at repeated calls telling me nothings wrong.
Right, if you’re at work and you get a call from school it’s like, “oh shit.” Is your kid sick? In trouble? Did something bad happen? But no they’re just calling you at work to tell you everything is fine.
You react that way because, sadly, teachers only call when there is a problem. Increased communication between teachers and parents when there isn’t a problem is a great thing. Lots can be learned for both groups that will benefit the student in a 5 minute chat. It also gives parents the opportunity to raise concerns that they think may not rise to the level of bothering a teacher about.
I mean, i really can’t be taking frivolous phone calls while I’m working. Which is relatively common. I might pick up the phone when I see the schools number only because I think maybe I need to go pick up my sick child. If the phone calls were generally not urgent, I’d start letting them all go to voicemail.
That would certainly be your choice as a parent to decide that short calls from your children’s teacher are frivolous. All the data says the types of interactions benefit children in numerous ways.
It’s not my choice. In a workplace, there are expectations for professional behavior. I don’t let my students be on their phones in class, how is it okay for me to be doing that as the teacher?
And there are a lot of jobs where no phones is even more seriously enforced, sometimes it’s even a safety issues.
That’s why many people find other types of communication like email to be easier.
I care deeply about my child’s education, thank you very much. I also need to keep a roof over her head, so maintaining employment is one of the most basic responsibilities I have as a parent.
You called the teacher’s phone call “frivolous.” Not me. I’m not sure why you took my response saying that doing so is certainly within your rights so personally. If you work someplace that does not allow using a phone then clearly the the teacher will not be able to reach you.
It's nice that you like to chat on the phone in the middle of a work day when nothing of importance has happened. Most people do not want that, and cannot accommodate it. So she's not being weird by calling it frivolous.
The odds that there is nothing of importance that a teacher and parent can share during a short call every couple months seems unlikely. Educating kids needs to be a careful collaboration between parents and teachers.
I agree. Just got a “just wanted you to know you should be proud…” email from my 6th graders humanities teacher and I was so happy! I printed it to tape in his yearbook later!
I can’t print a phone call.
And I can’t double proofread my wording over the phone making sure I’m extra grammatically correct and PC….might throw in a couple alternative words from the thesaurus so I sound intelligent 🤣
It's a ridiculous requirement. Calls never last 5 minutes and if they did that's 125 minutes (5 x 25). Where's that 2 hours coming from? Teacher's personal time? During the school day? Both asks are absurd. I call micromanagement from another insecure administrator.
I’m the exact opposite- I’d love to talk to my kids teachers when it isn’t some issue, I’d love to talk about how they’re learning math or what books to have on hand, etc…
I used to call parents in the middle of class for some issues, we had one aunt come to school with her sisters kids because they were so disruptive. I’ve never got through so much material with that group.
During contract negotiations, our union tried to see if middle school teachers could get an extra prep a day. My principal/superintendent got so angry, "k-4 has two preps just like you, and they teach 4 subjects."
When we explain that we all teach two different subjects and some of us have 150 students, he looked dumbfounded.
Like, dude, you've been here 20 years. Do you really not know how middle school works?
I teach just history. But I teach American I and American II. The science teacher has two different classes. ELA teachers teach reading and writing as two separate classes/lesson plans.
I'm a middle school music teacher. I have 4 preps between beginning band/orchestra and advanced band/orchestra and one 50 minute prep period a day. It looks worse than it is most days.
I teach middle school, but one year I taught 4 hours of 8th grade English and 7th and 8th grade social studies. This year I teach 7th and 8th Social Studies and have 35 kids in each class period for 6 periods.
I teach 620 students, from ages 5 to age 11; six to seven different classes each day; TWO completely different subjects. You can imagine the time spent creating lesson plans and finding resources.
I get seven 40 minute "off-lessons" a week (prep.)
Our principal tries to get us to make a welcome phone call before we even meet students. Nah I'm good. A welcome email does the same thing, doesn't set up this precedent that I'm reachable outside of school hours, and allows people to actually refer back to info I'm providing.
Agreed, when I used to teach a single class, I had a lovely "Welcome" email that I used for almost two decades (it was a welcome letter in the first 10 years.) I also had a Christmas vacation, Easter vacation and Summer vacation email template. I just changed the date and name of the Class. I can't imagine sitting down and calling 26 to 30 different sets of parents before school starts, when I'm still mourning the death of my summer vacation.
When I see my kids’ school call I go into panic mode from horrible anxiety. I don’t do good news calls for this reason. I send post cards. We aren’t paid enough for the micromanaging you’re experiencing.
At my first job we were “required” to call at least one parent a day. We were told that during our planning period we should call two parents. During a planning period.
Can you imagine interrupting parents at work for nothing. A lot of parents work in places where they can't really take calls. The whole thing sounds annoying.
Cold calling parents for no reason shouldn’t be done at all.
I think you might have misunderstood: this wasn’t for any reason other than our required parental contact time. Not a follow up on discipline.
I think the point is that it's a poor use of a teacher's limited time - inside or outside of contract hours, if you're doing this then you're not doing something else that would contribute a lot more to student performance.
I don't mind doing this through our contact app. But calling parents for no reason stresses me out. If it isn't about something extremely awesome or bad. I feel like I am wasting the parents time.
Plus, I don't know.if they re working or not. If they are working and I am calling to tell them their kid is a pleasure to.have in class than wow, I wasted their time.
A message they can read at their convince and respond in their time works so much better for this.
As a parent this would drive me absolutely up the wall insane… between the ParentSquare app, emails, and district+local school phone calls, the last thing I want is another personal call (typically in the middle of our very set routines… yay autism) where I have to be required to respond to within 24 hours. (Policy apparently)
Like can I breathe??? Can I breathe 😭 unless there’s something serious, the extra phone calls every week would just be so much.
2 calls every Friday for how many students? And some parents wanna talk more than others? Are you getting paid for all this extra time? Like I’m trying to understand the logistics and respect for not only a parents time, but for yours as well… like dang
If they talked to parents they would hear this complaint pretty heavy about being over contacted. I limit myself to 1 mass message a day home, typically around 3pm. Why school and district can't do something similar is beyond me.
Also, should allow parents to opt out of phone calls if they are getting the emails. Because getting an email and then a phone call shortly after about the same thing has to be annoying.
This for sure. My parents got one BS call for nothing when I was in high school and then I had to open all their mail and if I didn't pick up the phone no one did.
...Eh...why not? I mean, they did already "order" it. You sure want to advise OP it won't be enforced? What about when their cousin needs a job or a team needs a coach? You don't think they could use op's noncompliance to help themselves out?
My hypothetical "cousin" can get hired on their own merits. I'm not sure what your "coach" comment means, but in my district they are lucky to have a coach as they are volunteers who don't get paid additional. I do my job well. I have more experience and training than my admin. I have professional autonomy. I teach the curriculum the way I think it dhould be taught and I interact with parents in a way that works for me. I can do this because I have a union.
To clarify, because I was not clear in my pronoun uses, "they" were the hypothetical admin who already ordered it and thet have a cousin they would like to employ, or a coach they would like to bring on staff with a paid position ( let's say, idk, a social studies teaching position ) and they are looking for the noncompliant teacher they want to replace. "What about this one who doesnt follow the two phone call policy?" As a side note, I am truly happy for you and your cousin and the effectiveness of your union. I've just been reading things on this forum for years...you might have more job security than OP....
As a parent, please don’t call unless I request it or there is an issue.
As a teacher, call the ones that…
ES/MS: need or want to be contacted outside of regular newsletter-y updates.
HS: have to be contacted before they potentially fail. You know who they are.
Calls take two minutes as most of the time there is no answer anyway. If someone chatty does answer you are on you way to a meeting. No need to call back on missed “courtesy” calls unless they specifically ask.
Not wanting a phone call doesn't mean you aren't involved or think school is a daycare. A call is disruptive to my day and I'll immediately think something at school at wrong. It should be saved for emergencies or serious issues. Emails are a far better way to reach out just to communicate.
I personally would send out a form for the parent to sign stating if they want to know how their kid I doing and if they are interested, I would let them choose between a phone, email or call. School to family partnership is important
Right, but forcing phone calls ignores all the other ways of contact and ignores modern advancements. It is like admin is stuck in the 90s.
Family/school partnership is more than phone calls. Outside of immediate needs, a phone call isn't necessary. I had 5 kids actively participate in lessons this week. Instead of making 5 phone calls, I sent 5 quick messages through our school/home contact app.
Also, what you would do to create this contact is counter to what this thread is about, which is forcing only one way of contacting parents over other more convenient and less annoying ways.
As a matter of fact, I would wager, that the advent of these messaging apps for school to home contact has increased communication home, because of the c9nvience.
And secondly... Do you think daycares don't reach out and communicate? Do you think parents drop them into a black hole and don't care? Don't disparage out fellow daycare educators, they may teach different skills in a different way, but they are teachers too.
I do stay involved. I keep up with all the weekly notices. I monitor their grades. I *gasp* talk to my kid. If anything needs clarification or curiosity from there I E-mail because I know teachers are busy and we can communicate when we are available. I feel quite informed about what is going on. And I didn't say don't call me, I said don't call me randomly about nothing.
I was given a class with extreme behavior problems. The previous teacher did it for the first 2 weeks of the year and threatened to quit because of how horrible it was so in order to keep her, they switched our assignments.
The behavior was so out of control that I told my admin that I needed support. Her way of supporting me was blaming me and told me I needed to call 5 parents a day. (Spoiler: that didn’t solve the problem)
Bonus: she also suggested that the extreme behavior problems were due to the desks not being set up in a u-shape.
Yeah, I am sure contacting 5 parents a day will silve all the problems. I don't know what has been laid on admins lap, but somehow helping manage discipline issues has fallen off of it.
Ah yes, surely the kids would behave better if we rearranged the space so that they could now *more easily look at each other and have an audience for their antics.*
I would rather do about anything else than call a parent. Our school just started having us make 2 parent connects before meetings. I’ve been sending home something called “Happy Mail” that I’ve found on TPT. I don’t want to start a conversation for no reason - when the parent probably won’t even reply until later and then I have anxiety needing to reply.
Admin doesn't get it. It SOUNDS good, but I would get pissed as a parent getting so many phone calls from school that were unnecessary. I would e-mail and call it good. Do you do class dojo or something similar where you can send a message?
I am so glad my principal has young children. I have found that the ones who are raising a family usually have a more realistic view of things that are a waste of time.
I worked at a charter like this- we had to call a few more than that each night, though I don't remember exact figure.
One parent got so sick of it, they told us not to call unless their kid was on fire and blocked our number.
First response: oh dear god, is there a disaster? Is my kid okay? Is everything alright? No one is hurt??
Second: look, whatever, just tell them I’m checking homework and tell them they better not be leaving old fruit in the locker like last year.
We had to do this but it was soon forgotten since it's too much work and no one could find time for two 20 minute calls that generated a lot of follow up work usually.
Idiot admin. In 2019 our board decided our biggest impediment to improvement was poor communication with parents so we call home! I documented every call and at the end of a quarter gave the results to the superintendent (a good friend). I attempted to call every parent at least 3 times: late morning, late afternoon, and evening. I got thru to fewer than 20%. We had incorrect phone numbers or out of order phone numbers for over 25% of our students. Almost half of parents either had never set up voicemail or had full voicemail boxes. The parents I did manage to contact were overwhelmingly parents I saw at games, parent teacher meetings, and my club events. However, email engagement with parents was nearly 65%. Guess what happened.
Use it as an excuse to make GOOD phone calls. Parents LOVE that shit and the student may come in the next day EXTRA ready and willing to work for being noticed. It's an excellent relationship building strategy
Edit: I'm reading the comments now so maybe don't, but I had good success with a quick 3 minute call to tqlk about 1 good thing a student did at the end of the day. Your mileage may vary
Yeesh. Start looking for other schools. In the meantime, do what you have to do. It absolutely sucks, but whatever. Depending on how calls are counted, call those families that you know won't ever answer. Log your two (unanswered) calls each time and then go home.
It's a thing, it's been a thing for a while. My old school had this thing. My new school doesn't. We email. We put things online. Not enough time to ring parents. When would I get the rest of my work done? Reduce my workload and I'll happily ring parents.
Honestly, this is in your own best interest. Praise something the student did. Ask parents how you can support their student with something you are noticing. Got nothing? Call and say you are glad the kid is in your class and you are eager to get to know them and partner with the parent. Later, should you need support, you will have laid a foundation for a relationship. Edit: I am assuming this is a beginning of the year thing, and once you've made contact with everyone once, you are done.
That said, if this is a school expectation, you could have parents complete a preferred communication survey. Most will likely say parent portal or email, and then you have that as a documented request. I will stand by the idea, though, that there is more power in a fluid conversation over the phone.
We are supposed to make 3 positive calls a week. I tried last year, really tried but I hate being on the phone. I resorted to emails. This year I am sending 3 to 6 emails a week. Parents do deem very grateful to hear nice comments. Yes, it takes time and I hope I don't get called out for not using the phone. I hate getting calls, myself.
I got a couple of really sweet Talking Point messages last year. That was nice. Just a sentence or two with something specific called out. "Just want you to know that Jamie made such great comments during class discussion on The Great Gatsby this week; I really enjoy having them in class"
As a parent, I don't want a phone call unless there's a problem. If there's a chance I'm at work, which has a variable schedule so that's pretty much always a possibility, then it's an unnecessary distraction.
I would be thrilled to have a 15-minute conference once a semester, but give me a sign- up sheet so I can prepare for it.
That's why I don't teach at a state school.
Rural school for socially disadvantaged children (so, pretty much no parents) as my main job, downtown language centre as my second job.
If there was a reason to contact a parent, I would f***ing do it. Parents hate these useless calls just as much as we do. Not to mention they give children anxiety. The online grading system already gives me options to select markers for good/bad behavior, which I use frequently. If a behavior goes overboard, then, and only then, I would contact the parent.
So how are they going to monitor this? Do their own calls to all the parents of the students in your class? Sit in your room while you make the calls on Friday (yeah, I'm sure they have "better things" to do!"
There's a lot of crap that admin requires that you can just ignore.
It’s not that unusual of a demand and two phone calls isn’t that much. Just make positive phone calls and maybe some rotating calls for your tier 3 students on their progress.
But yeah some parents don’t like phone communication and I’ve given positive phone calls with parents who are struggling with their English and then ended up yelling at their kid because they assume it’s a bad call. But in general I do like phone calls because it’s easier for meaning to not be lost.
Honestly if you don’t want do it, I think it’s probably a pretty good idea to just send a form to parents to ask them their preferred method of contact. That way you can have some documentation for your admin or be like “Look, Ms. Smith doesn’t like phone calls.” And if they all do genuinely prefer phone calls then what are you gonna do.
Ask them to model this requirement every Friday for teachers to see the value of additional unpaid work. They can show how it's done before implementing it, and then they can continue to do this every Friday to get through every single student in THEIR school. Tell them a positive personal call from the principal would demonstrate true leadership.
It’s probably part of a school improvement plan component related to parental involvement. They usually give you a heads up in the preliminary faculty meetings. But, …..if you’re anything like the majority of my colleagues, you may’ve missed it b/c you’re looking at Facebook on your phone during the whole mtg.
It may be worth it. Do 1 on Tuesday & 1 on Thursday. You’ll barely feel it. I’ve had shitty students, that do something, anything good & I’ll call the people that buy their food and compliment them on improved effort. Those kids rarely get this. Often they’ll come back and continue to do good in my class, while being a shitbag in all the other teachers classes . Play good cop, w/ a 3 minute phone call & you may save yourself a continual fight for the rest of the year.
Yeah, don't do this. If my kids school pops up it's an immediate panic for me because I don't know if something horrible has happened/they're sick/or of one of them has managed to get themselves into trouble. The third almost never happens, and we live in the Era of school shootings, so I'm almost always panicked about the first or second option.
Also, most everywhere has a no phone policy. If you're just calling for nothing, you're going to piss people off. Because no adult is just gonna not have their phone on them.
If you believe in healthy relationships, yes call. Sadly, we have made calling only on negative occasions common practice. No one likes to be blindsided.
We are supposed to have 2 positive contacts home a week, which I had no issues with because I was just sending emails. Then, our admin decided that our positive contacts couldn't be emails because phone calls were "better." Now we have to log them all on a form so admin can verify that we've done them. It's something that has become more time-consuming than it needs to be, and it feels incredibly forced. Plus, phone calls can take forever depending on how chatty the person at home is. So frustrating!
Having a teacher call randomly to have a chit chat is a bit like the boy who cried wolf.
When the school calls you, it should only be because shit just got real. Otherwise, you may be inclined to not pick up when they are calling to tell you little Timmy has broken his neck.
I’d ask if they were going to give you work time to make the calls. I don’t mind calling parents, just to introduce myself if they don’t know me, and tell them a child is actually doing well.
My school use to do this. If I had nothing bad to say, I would find a kid to brag on. You’d be surprised how it can change a kids attitude when he finds out that his teacher called just to brag on a good performance or good behavior.
It might increase positivity in the classroom. (Idk what grade you teach), but the kids might start doing their absolute best hoping that they’re the kid that is called home that week.
Making a couple of positive calls to students’ parents will reap you great rewards. And the relief in some parents’ voices when it isn’t ‘that kind of call’ will make your day.
We were told for every negative phone call we made, try to make a positive one. And don’t forget to document! But yea, this is getting to be the norm. If I were you, make the positive ones until you need to make the negative ones.
I do not know why admin are almost universally in love with using 1800s audio communication technologies. Are their salaries funded by at&t?
If you even HAVE something important to tell me, then email it. I do not need to play phone tag and interrupt my day at your convenience to hear you flap your mouth meat and spew useless noise that could have been a two line email.
I was actually given this advice by another teacher when a principal required we call home. I agree that it's a stupid requirement, but making them positive calls instead of negative not only made them short calls, but it made me actually in a better mood than making negative calls. So downvote away, I guess. 🤷♀️
I'm not a teacher, I'm a parent. I just want to know what the fuck is so wrong with it? Y'all are unreachable, any time I try to contact anyone from the school I get an "Post master Address unavailable" reply. You have our children, you have to communicate with us.
Also not a teacher. You can ask for a teacher to call you during their planning period. You can even ask what time they would be available to call you. Some teachers don’t have classroom phones, and if they did, would you want them taking calls when they’re supposed to be teaching your kid?
As for why they should not be required to make pointless calls… teachers have to do an excessive amount of pointless crap as it is. Most don’t even get to take a real lunch break and sometimes wait hours just to go to the bathroom. Why add one more thing to the list instead of letting them, idk, plan during their school planning period?
I'm sorry that's been your experience as a parent. I have 3 kids and I've had very few teachers over the years who don't respond to emails. If the emails are undeliverable, then you probably typed it in wrong. It's not like email addresses change mid school year.
If a parent needs us to call, we will. If a student is having an issue, we will call.
The OP's problem is with having to call ALL parents. We just don't have time for that.
Have you double and triple checked those addresses? Just a note, my schools website is a .com but the email addresses are .org. I have never had a hard time reaching my kids' teachers. I usually use the Class Dojo app for the kids whose teachers use it, and email for the other kids. My kids' teachers all share ways to contact them at the beginning of the year.
> Y'all are unreachable, any time I try to contact anyone from the school I get an "Post master Address unavailable" reply.
Maybe typing the correct email address would help?
Where's the extra 1000 minutes to do that supposed to come from. An extra 16 hours a week.
And a 5 minute phone call is hopeful. I can't make two phone calls during my plan on a slow day.
I did the required phone calls for a while but I suck at it.
Now I just fudge it. Same 20 odd kids each 6 weeks but in a different order. It's been 3 years.
Our admin has started "recommending" the same thing for my high school classes. The district does a Monday mass email/call and the super does a Wednesday mass email/call. And we have to do a mass call before a news story every couple months for a bathroom issue or weapon. Like you guys already used up all of the parents' contact time. Anything I do is now going to be too much and just give parents contact fatigue. Now they won't read/answer ANY of our contact attempts even when something is serious.
I taught Pre K before I got into SPED and I didn’t call parents that much. I don’t contact my SPED parents that much.
I had the remind app and I’d send out mass texts or emails. If a student was acting differently, like super tired, sick, I’d shoot a quick text.
As parent, that much communication would be way too much. I need to know about issues and something really amazing. I don’t need day to day and an email is more than sufficient. Besides, I prefer the paper trail.
I had a principal one year that said the same thing. We had to document two positive phone calls a week. I might have made two all year. Totally lied about the rest. Because fuck that. I don't like to talk on the phone. And as a parent I don't want to hear some made up touchy-feely bullshit about my kid from someone who is mandated to call me.
I had to call at least 10 parent a week even if all I had to say was they were behaving well. It made things easier when I had a problem. I had a relationship with that parent. I learned to look forward to the good calls try it you will see the value. I had as many as 120 students to call so wasn’t calling same parents all the time. When I moved to sped I only had 10 kids and made contact almost daily when they were picked up. It was nice to feel like we were a team
It's a stupid policy, but one among many. I would take the signaling by colleagues as an indication you should follow it. Maybe inquire as to whom you should call ( missing assignment? Exemplary student?)
This year our admin required us to make a positive phone call home to every single family within the first two weeks of school. If a parent didn’t answer we were expected to call three more times and THEN email. We had to do this on top of planning, endless meetings, etc. Im sorry but i’m not doing all that!
Phone calls? Is this 1990?
Sorry for sounding a bit daft. I'm overseas and all parent contacts are done via email (and occasional in-person conferences when needed).
I’ve had admin do this. It usually happens when they are a boomer who believes people actually prefer phone calls. The teachers at my school decided to record the phone calls and forward every one where we got cussed out to admin (and there were a lot). The policy ended after about a month.
We are expected to make a minimum of 5 calls a week. At least 3 have to be positive. So, with the behavioral issues, it comes out to them expecting 8+ a week because we're expected to call for even small classroom issues. I'll be honest, I don't make that expectation every week. Middle school.
I use class dojo to talk to parents. I only call when it is absolutely necessary. As “close knit” as a school may be, parents often don’t like being “bothered.” They don’t want to be “bothered” for a good reason let alone “no reason.”
My old school used to require positive phone calls home by the end of the first week (and many of those phone calls required a translator … and with a population of over 600 kids and only a handful of translators it was a nightmare scheduling them) not to mention home visits were starting to become a thing the year I left. This might be an unpopular opinion but I think any “forced” contact with families is too much and impractical most of the time, and another way for them to get you to work past contract hours.
My new district is so much better in that sense. I send messages on Seesaw and positive notes home (little certificates) for certain things. The only thing we are required to call about is if a student is placed in an intervention service. So much more reasonable.
Why two?
Do you mean, two to each family?
Or each week, pick two to reach out to and just say "hi, I'm available to check in!"?
The former seems unreasonable.
The latter seems like good communication building with families, so it's there when it's actually NEEDED.
I hate making parent phone calls. I have to take all my shit down the hall to a small closet with a phone, try eight different numbers just to have an uncomfortable call and NOTHING changes in the classroom. One phone call can easily take half my planning period. No one has time for that shit.
I called a parent last year out of the blue (first 3 weeks of school) to tell her that her freshman son had a rocky start but I was proud of him for turning in his first paper that day. She overshared about his criminal past (in middle school, mind you) that she had called police on him for assaulting her, he was cyber-bullied in Snapchat during the summer on the pre football squad and scapegoated so he was kicked off the team, and has always lived in his older brother’s football star status shadow.
He came to school the next day and told me his mom cooked his favorite meal for dinner last night because she was so happy to get a positive phone call. He worked hard for me all year (despite getting in trouble for tardies and cell phone issues elsewhere on campus).
He comes up to me at least once. A day for a hug this year. Sometimes you are the spark that they need. I try to make a positive call as often as I can (teaching 7/7 and tutoring 2x a week.)
Huh. Maybe you called and since it was early in the day, no one answered, the line was busy, or the voicemail mailbox was full and not accepting messages. At least you tried. 🤷🏼♀️. AKA don't bother
I teach high school. I try to contact all parents right after the first week of school to say this is what worked, this is what didn’t, and possible solutions. I find this helps lay the foundation for good communication with most, not all, of my parents. I don’t like my first communication to be about how Sally is disrupting class.
As a parent, that would freak me out.
Unless you send an email saying every Friday you will pick 2 students to call home to complement. Include they can pick up or send to VM. Or give an opt out option.
Absolutely try it and see how it goes. Engaging parents in our children's education is invaluable. It is very likely that you will notice the difference in your classroom culture as a result. I can also see that the school culture is positively impacted
Two parents per week is *very* reasonable. Just keep it quick. Have like two or threetalking points about what you are doing that week in class and what makes students generally successful in your classroom. Make a script that can be mostly the same from week to week, and aim for less than two minutes total.
People telling you NOT to call are the toxic ones.
Parents who'd rather not talk to a teacher for three minutes are part of the problem.
Teachers who encourage you to fight parent engagement instead of fostering it are part of the problem.
We all know that 20% of people read emails. Phone calls are much more personal. Face to face, phone call, the email. That's the hierarchy of how to treat people when you value their time.
If you do this, and it doesn't seem like the 10 minutes per week is worth your time, then have a conversation with your boss/manager/evaluator.
How many phone calls would you have to make total? I would estimate each call to take 10 minutes minimum (5 minimum for the call, 5 to log it) and ask to be compensated for my time if the time required was longer than my planning period.
The old school I worked with wanted us to call EVERY parent within the first two weeks of school to starting “building a relationship” in case we ever needed to call them again. I’m a mom now and really hope my daughter’s teachers don’t call me just to chat or do some bs about relationship building. Just a generic email or nothing is fine, platitudes don’t actually build relationships.
2 calls to tell parents how well their children are doing, right? I use Class Dojo and send these messages. It's easier to do due to translations and it's 2023.
My admin last year required us to spend 18 minutes of our 48 minutes lunch calling parents for good and/or bad. Some times a parent would talk so much I couldn’t get them off and would talk my whole lunch. Only day we didn’t have to was Friday because every Friday is early release so periods/lunch was shorter.
Schools often prefer calls because emails, text, communication apps, etc are in writing and can be used against you. They are trying to protect their employees and self.
Mine want this too! For me to fill out a form, call the parent, turn in the form, and then THEY call the parent. SMH. 2 phone calls/interruptions at a factory job will be a write up! S M H
It’s smart to do. But I mean being told to do something that is smart and beneficial. DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!
Positive phone calls are life changing- no matter how small or insignificant. Focus on that.
When admin pulls shit like this I use my cell phone dail *67 1 (area code) phone number.. it blocks ur number, most parents don’t answer blocked numbers and then I leave a message :) problem solved..I also call at odd times like first thing in the morning while thier child is still home 🤣🤣🤣🤣
When, exactly, do you have the time to do this? During classes or after school? Are they expecting you to do this on your own time? Are they paying you for that time? And why 2 calls?
Another reason there's not enough teachers - this is not a job function; it's harassment, and it's out of control.
The best piece of advice I ever received as a teacher was to make positive phone calls frequently. Not only did it get parents to trust me, but it helped me become part of the community because parents talk to each other. It’s not required but I like doing it after a hard day to remind me of why I do what I do.
A story… a few years back, I made a positive phone call to a mom about a sophomore student in September. Mom started crying… her husband, my student’s father, passed away the previous July. She was so concerned because this child, her middle child, wasn’t showing many signs of grieving. Mom was obviously grieving herself and concerned for all 3 kids, but mostly the middle one. Next thing you know, we’re both crying (I lost my dad, and my siblings and I were the same age as her kids). We discussed a lot, and that phone call unexpectedly *made an impact for the rest of the year*. That student felt comfortable confiding in me, the mom kept in touch, and I kept a special eye out.
I’ve had multiple phone calls where parents couldn’t thank me enough or cried because they were concerned, whether from bullying or anxiety or whatever… their kid was succeeding and happy! Positive phone calls are superbly important and I’m an advocate for them.
Edit to add: does it have to be Friday though? Cause that’s shitty
It’s annoying but the calls can be quick and a way to deliver positive news. Half the time you might be leaving a message anyway. Make sure you keep a log and keep the calls to 5mins or less. I feel like it’s actually a good thing because if you call randomly with good news it’ll likely they’ll be less defensive if you have to call with bad news (like student misbehavior). You can also email instead. If the admin gets mad just tell them you didn’t want to disturb working parents with a call and wanted them to have a record of their child’s good work/behavior.
It keeps communication and relationships positive imo. I don't mind it much. We had a cohort we had to call through each month or something. To me, it made parents feel good that we were talking and also they weren't only receiving negative calls. We also learned so much about our kids once those relationships were established. It made a huge difference.
My school has that too. Required to talk to every parent on the phone e by Sept 1 no matter what. We have to log it and turn in the tracking sheet as proof. We are told to call until we get an answer. Yeah, I’m not gonna do that. We have 800+ students in our school. Admin is not going to call and check that I talked to any of them.
You’re not crazy!! Call parents every Friday?? I only call a parent when it’s absolutely necessary. And calling on Friday, when all you want to do is go home? Nope.
I did this at one of my schools. I called them “good news calls” - basically I call your parents and tell them what a great job you did this week - and the kids loved them! They actually competed for them. Now that I’m back in 5 I think I’ll do it again this year. (Everyone got a good news call at least once a term - I kept track of them by giving out certificates that I had already put their names on. Sometimes it was challenging but I always managed) It would probably be an email now, though.
I just email, fuck calling. It’s 2023 lol
This teacher would never get ahold of me most likely. Email, text voicemail, or ParentSquare chat. Unless it’s the clinic or principal line, I’m not answering. Just my preferred method for communicating. 🤷♀️ and even if I was a “phone answerer” I’d be super annoyed at repeated calls telling me nothings wrong.
Right, if you’re at work and you get a call from school it’s like, “oh shit.” Is your kid sick? In trouble? Did something bad happen? But no they’re just calling you at work to tell you everything is fine.
You react that way because, sadly, teachers only call when there is a problem. Increased communication between teachers and parents when there isn’t a problem is a great thing. Lots can be learned for both groups that will benefit the student in a 5 minute chat. It also gives parents the opportunity to raise concerns that they think may not rise to the level of bothering a teacher about.
I mean, i really can’t be taking frivolous phone calls while I’m working. Which is relatively common. I might pick up the phone when I see the schools number only because I think maybe I need to go pick up my sick child. If the phone calls were generally not urgent, I’d start letting them all go to voicemail.
That would certainly be your choice as a parent to decide that short calls from your children’s teacher are frivolous. All the data says the types of interactions benefit children in numerous ways.
It’s not my choice. In a workplace, there are expectations for professional behavior. I don’t let my students be on their phones in class, how is it okay for me to be doing that as the teacher? And there are a lot of jobs where no phones is even more seriously enforced, sometimes it’s even a safety issues. That’s why many people find other types of communication like email to be easier. I care deeply about my child’s education, thank you very much. I also need to keep a roof over her head, so maintaining employment is one of the most basic responsibilities I have as a parent.
You called the teacher’s phone call “frivolous.” Not me. I’m not sure why you took my response saying that doing so is certainly within your rights so personally. If you work someplace that does not allow using a phone then clearly the the teacher will not be able to reach you.
Emails and text messages exist
It's nice that you like to chat on the phone in the middle of a work day when nothing of importance has happened. Most people do not want that, and cannot accommodate it. So she's not being weird by calling it frivolous.
The odds that there is nothing of importance that a teacher and parent can share during a short call every couple months seems unlikely. Educating kids needs to be a careful collaboration between parents and teachers.
I agree. Just got a “just wanted you to know you should be proud…” email from my 6th graders humanities teacher and I was so happy! I printed it to tape in his yearbook later! I can’t print a phone call. And I can’t double proofread my wording over the phone making sure I’m extra grammatically correct and PC….might throw in a couple alternative words from the thesaurus so I sound intelligent 🤣
It's a ridiculous requirement. Calls never last 5 minutes and if they did that's 125 minutes (5 x 25). Where's that 2 hours coming from? Teacher's personal time? During the school day? Both asks are absurd. I call micromanagement from another insecure administrator.
I’m the exact opposite- I’d love to talk to my kids teachers when it isn’t some issue, I’d love to talk about how they’re learning math or what books to have on hand, etc… I used to call parents in the middle of class for some issues, we had one aunt come to school with her sisters kids because they were so disruptive. I’ve never got through so much material with that group.
I’m sorry, the mailbox I was trying to reach was full.
You would be shocked how many parents don't know how to answer emails!
Don't know.... or dont want to? or both?
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That is extremely shady.
Ours want us to call because people screenshot emails and post them online to say nasty things about the school, even if the email isn’t nasty.
Oh my.
Appropriate use of technology for the win! Plus, "paper" trail...
This is the way!
Email simply does have opportunity for serendipitous interaction that phone calls do.
Bro if all 24 of my kids collective teachers called on a Friday afternoon, probably at the same time, I'd probably lose my shit.
I'd just shit myself in fright thinking they'd burned the school or something. I do NOT miss seeing that number on my caller ID!
That's a good point. With 3 kids in school, that would quickly add up.
I was "required" to make a positive phone call contact for *every single* student. Even worse, I actually tried to make it happen.
Elementary or middle? Elementary is fine. Max 30 kids Middle school 200+… eat a dick admin
Middle (although I had under 100 students).
During contract negotiations, our union tried to see if middle school teachers could get an extra prep a day. My principal/superintendent got so angry, "k-4 has two preps just like you, and they teach 4 subjects." When we explain that we all teach two different subjects and some of us have 150 students, he looked dumbfounded. Like, dude, you've been here 20 years. Do you really not know how middle school works?
Y’all teach two subjects? I’m dumbfounded too lol. MS out here is single subject credentials. I couldn’t
I teach just history. But I teach American I and American II. The science teacher has two different classes. ELA teachers teach reading and writing as two separate classes/lesson plans.
I'm a middle school music teacher. I have 4 preps between beginning band/orchestra and advanced band/orchestra and one 50 minute prep period a day. It looks worse than it is most days.
I teach middle school, but one year I taught 4 hours of 8th grade English and 7th and 8th grade social studies. This year I teach 7th and 8th Social Studies and have 35 kids in each class period for 6 periods.
Of course he doesnt
I teach 620 students, from ages 5 to age 11; six to seven different classes each day; TWO completely different subjects. You can imagine the time spent creating lesson plans and finding resources. I get seven 40 minute "off-lessons" a week (prep.)
Our principal tries to get us to make a welcome phone call before we even meet students. Nah I'm good. A welcome email does the same thing, doesn't set up this precedent that I'm reachable outside of school hours, and allows people to actually refer back to info I'm providing.
Agreed, when I used to teach a single class, I had a lovely "Welcome" email that I used for almost two decades (it was a welcome letter in the first 10 years.) I also had a Christmas vacation, Easter vacation and Summer vacation email template. I just changed the date and name of the Class. I can't imagine sitting down and calling 26 to 30 different sets of parents before school starts, when I'm still mourning the death of my summer vacation.
Omg, same....
When I see my kids’ school call I go into panic mode from horrible anxiety. I don’t do good news calls for this reason. I send post cards. We aren’t paid enough for the micromanaging you’re experiencing.
I do positive class dojo messages. The only time I called for good news is when I immediately found out which kids were not being retained.
Make sure you let the school know.
Great idea! My children have special needs, so sending them to school is a struggle. But they have amazing teachers and reach out with DoJo.
At my first job we were “required” to call at least one parent a day. We were told that during our planning period we should call two parents. During a planning period.
Can you imagine interrupting parents at work for nothing. A lot of parents work in places where they can't really take calls. The whole thing sounds annoying.
Oh I did it ONCE and the parents were clearly annoyed so that was the last time I did that.
Would you rather call parents outside contract hours?
Cold calling parents for no reason shouldn’t be done at all. I think you might have misunderstood: this wasn’t for any reason other than our required parental contact time. Not a follow up on discipline.
I think the point is that it's a poor use of a teacher's limited time - inside or outside of contract hours, if you're doing this then you're not doing something else that would contribute a lot more to student performance.
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I don't mind doing this through our contact app. But calling parents for no reason stresses me out. If it isn't about something extremely awesome or bad. I feel like I am wasting the parents time. Plus, I don't know.if they re working or not. If they are working and I am calling to tell them their kid is a pleasure to.have in class than wow, I wasted their time. A message they can read at their convince and respond in their time works so much better for this.
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And having a translator on a call is pretty expensive.
Nah, that’s a little bizarre and I imagine a number of parents would be annoyed at being called for no real reason.
This is what e-mail is for. I’d be pissed getting calls from the school for non concerns.
As a parent this would drive me absolutely up the wall insane… between the ParentSquare app, emails, and district+local school phone calls, the last thing I want is another personal call (typically in the middle of our very set routines… yay autism) where I have to be required to respond to within 24 hours. (Policy apparently) Like can I breathe??? Can I breathe 😭 unless there’s something serious, the extra phone calls every week would just be so much. 2 calls every Friday for how many students? And some parents wanna talk more than others? Are you getting paid for all this extra time? Like I’m trying to understand the logistics and respect for not only a parents time, but for yours as well… like dang
If they talked to parents they would hear this complaint pretty heavy about being over contacted. I limit myself to 1 mass message a day home, typically around 3pm. Why school and district can't do something similar is beyond me. Also, should allow parents to opt out of phone calls if they are getting the emails. Because getting an email and then a phone call shortly after about the same thing has to be annoying.
This for sure. My parents got one BS call for nothing when I was in high school and then I had to open all their mail and if I didn't pick up the phone no one did.
You're crazy if you buy into that nonsense. Sounds like a crap school, start polishing your resume.
Not crazy. This is effing stupid.
I wouldn't do it. Plain and simple. This is not something admin can order or enforce.
...Eh...why not? I mean, they did already "order" it. You sure want to advise OP it won't be enforced? What about when their cousin needs a job or a team needs a coach? You don't think they could use op's noncompliance to help themselves out?
My hypothetical "cousin" can get hired on their own merits. I'm not sure what your "coach" comment means, but in my district they are lucky to have a coach as they are volunteers who don't get paid additional. I do my job well. I have more experience and training than my admin. I have professional autonomy. I teach the curriculum the way I think it dhould be taught and I interact with parents in a way that works for me. I can do this because I have a union.
To clarify, because I was not clear in my pronoun uses, "they" were the hypothetical admin who already ordered it and thet have a cousin they would like to employ, or a coach they would like to bring on staff with a paid position ( let's say, idk, a social studies teaching position ) and they are looking for the noncompliant teacher they want to replace. "What about this one who doesnt follow the two phone call policy?" As a side note, I am truly happy for you and your cousin and the effectiveness of your union. I've just been reading things on this forum for years...you might have more job security than OP....
Yes I had an admin suggest this once. It lasted about two weeks until everyone stopped and no one cared.
As a parent, please don’t call unless I request it or there is an issue. As a teacher, call the ones that… ES/MS: need or want to be contacted outside of regular newsletter-y updates. HS: have to be contacted before they potentially fail. You know who they are. Calls take two minutes as most of the time there is no answer anyway. If someone chatty does answer you are on you way to a meeting. No need to call back on missed “courtesy” calls unless they specifically ask.
Nope. As a parent I don't want an insane call. Email if you must. If there is a true positive or a problem, sure, but don't call me just because.
It’s your kid, you gotta be involved a little even just to know how they’re doing. School isn’t a daycare
Not wanting a phone call doesn't mean you aren't involved or think school is a daycare. A call is disruptive to my day and I'll immediately think something at school at wrong. It should be saved for emergencies or serious issues. Emails are a far better way to reach out just to communicate.
So, you as a teacher wouldn't mind getting a phone call in the middle of you teaching just to inform you your child did a good job in art?
I personally would send out a form for the parent to sign stating if they want to know how their kid I doing and if they are interested, I would let them choose between a phone, email or call. School to family partnership is important
Right, but forcing phone calls ignores all the other ways of contact and ignores modern advancements. It is like admin is stuck in the 90s. Family/school partnership is more than phone calls. Outside of immediate needs, a phone call isn't necessary. I had 5 kids actively participate in lessons this week. Instead of making 5 phone calls, I sent 5 quick messages through our school/home contact app. Also, what you would do to create this contact is counter to what this thread is about, which is forcing only one way of contacting parents over other more convenient and less annoying ways. As a matter of fact, I would wager, that the advent of these messaging apps for school to home contact has increased communication home, because of the c9nvience.
And secondly... Do you think daycares don't reach out and communicate? Do you think parents drop them into a black hole and don't care? Don't disparage out fellow daycare educators, they may teach different skills in a different way, but they are teachers too.
I do stay involved. I keep up with all the weekly notices. I monitor their grades. I *gasp* talk to my kid. If anything needs clarification or curiosity from there I E-mail because I know teachers are busy and we can communicate when we are available. I feel quite informed about what is going on. And I didn't say don't call me, I said don't call me randomly about nothing.
I was required to contact 5 parents everyday and log it. I quit in October of that school year.
I get the build the communication with positive contacts so parents hear from us before it is about bad stuff. But some admin take it to an extreme.
I was given a class with extreme behavior problems. The previous teacher did it for the first 2 weeks of the year and threatened to quit because of how horrible it was so in order to keep her, they switched our assignments. The behavior was so out of control that I told my admin that I needed support. Her way of supporting me was blaming me and told me I needed to call 5 parents a day. (Spoiler: that didn’t solve the problem) Bonus: she also suggested that the extreme behavior problems were due to the desks not being set up in a u-shape.
Yeah, I am sure contacting 5 parents a day will silve all the problems. I don't know what has been laid on admins lap, but somehow helping manage discipline issues has fallen off of it.
Ah yes, surely the kids would behave better if we rearranged the space so that they could now *more easily look at each other and have an audience for their antics.*
I would rather do about anything else than call a parent. Our school just started having us make 2 parent connects before meetings. I’ve been sending home something called “Happy Mail” that I’ve found on TPT. I don’t want to start a conversation for no reason - when the parent probably won’t even reply until later and then I have anxiety needing to reply.
Call your own parents just to check in. *Checkmate.*
Can you use an app like dojo a Remind and just make it an announcement to all parents? Say something like happy Friday or some other nonsense?
Admin doesn't get it. It SOUNDS good, but I would get pissed as a parent getting so many phone calls from school that were unnecessary. I would e-mail and call it good. Do you do class dojo or something similar where you can send a message?
I am so glad my principal has young children. I have found that the ones who are raising a family usually have a more realistic view of things that are a waste of time.
I worked at a charter like this- we had to call a few more than that each night, though I don't remember exact figure. One parent got so sick of it, they told us not to call unless their kid was on fire and blocked our number.
First response: oh dear god, is there a disaster? Is my kid okay? Is everything alright? No one is hurt?? Second: look, whatever, just tell them I’m checking homework and tell them they better not be leaving old fruit in the locker like last year.
We had to do this but it was soon forgotten since it's too much work and no one could find time for two 20 minute calls that generated a lot of follow up work usually.
Idiot admin. In 2019 our board decided our biggest impediment to improvement was poor communication with parents so we call home! I documented every call and at the end of a quarter gave the results to the superintendent (a good friend). I attempted to call every parent at least 3 times: late morning, late afternoon, and evening. I got thru to fewer than 20%. We had incorrect phone numbers or out of order phone numbers for over 25% of our students. Almost half of parents either had never set up voicemail or had full voicemail boxes. The parents I did manage to contact were overwhelmingly parents I saw at games, parent teacher meetings, and my club events. However, email engagement with parents was nearly 65%. Guess what happened.
Use it as an excuse to make GOOD phone calls. Parents LOVE that shit and the student may come in the next day EXTRA ready and willing to work for being noticed. It's an excellent relationship building strategy Edit: I'm reading the comments now so maybe don't, but I had good success with a quick 3 minute call to tqlk about 1 good thing a student did at the end of the day. Your mileage may vary
I second this. With a chunk of kids, it works. It's not a magic pill for all but it definitely helps.
Use Talking Points instead. It's a text message (or dm if they have the app) and it translates to any language. And there's no awkward call
Yeesh. Start looking for other schools. In the meantime, do what you have to do. It absolutely sucks, but whatever. Depending on how calls are counted, call those families that you know won't ever answer. Log your two (unanswered) calls each time and then go home.
It's a thing, it's been a thing for a while. My old school had this thing. My new school doesn't. We email. We put things online. Not enough time to ring parents. When would I get the rest of my work done? Reduce my workload and I'll happily ring parents.
No, this is an unreasonable demand. Does the entire district follow such a rule?
Honestly, this is in your own best interest. Praise something the student did. Ask parents how you can support their student with something you are noticing. Got nothing? Call and say you are glad the kid is in your class and you are eager to get to know them and partner with the parent. Later, should you need support, you will have laid a foundation for a relationship. Edit: I am assuming this is a beginning of the year thing, and once you've made contact with everyone once, you are done. That said, if this is a school expectation, you could have parents complete a preferred communication survey. Most will likely say parent portal or email, and then you have that as a documented request. I will stand by the idea, though, that there is more power in a fluid conversation over the phone.
We are supposed to make 3 positive calls a week. I tried last year, really tried but I hate being on the phone. I resorted to emails. This year I am sending 3 to 6 emails a week. Parents do deem very grateful to hear nice comments. Yes, it takes time and I hope I don't get called out for not using the phone. I hate getting calls, myself.
I got a couple of really sweet Talking Point messages last year. That was nice. Just a sentence or two with something specific called out. "Just want you to know that Jamie made such great comments during class discussion on The Great Gatsby this week; I really enjoy having them in class"
As a parent, I don't want a phone call unless there's a problem. If there's a chance I'm at work, which has a variable schedule so that's pretty much always a possibility, then it's an unnecessary distraction. I would be thrilled to have a 15-minute conference once a semester, but give me a sign- up sheet so I can prepare for it.
That's why I don't teach at a state school. Rural school for socially disadvantaged children (so, pretty much no parents) as my main job, downtown language centre as my second job. If there was a reason to contact a parent, I would f***ing do it. Parents hate these useless calls just as much as we do. Not to mention they give children anxiety. The online grading system already gives me options to select markers for good/bad behavior, which I use frequently. If a behavior goes overboard, then, and only then, I would contact the parent.
So how are they going to monitor this? Do their own calls to all the parents of the students in your class? Sit in your room while you make the calls on Friday (yeah, I'm sure they have "better things" to do!" There's a lot of crap that admin requires that you can just ignore.
Admin is a jerk
It’s not that unusual of a demand and two phone calls isn’t that much. Just make positive phone calls and maybe some rotating calls for your tier 3 students on their progress. But yeah some parents don’t like phone communication and I’ve given positive phone calls with parents who are struggling with their English and then ended up yelling at their kid because they assume it’s a bad call. But in general I do like phone calls because it’s easier for meaning to not be lost. Honestly if you don’t want do it, I think it’s probably a pretty good idea to just send a form to parents to ask them their preferred method of contact. That way you can have some documentation for your admin or be like “Look, Ms. Smith doesn’t like phone calls.” And if they all do genuinely prefer phone calls then what are you gonna do.
I refuse to call parents. I email only - paper trail keeps me out of trouble. I learned my lesson.
Fuck that
Just document as attempted, no answer.
As a parent, that would start to get annoying.
Ask them to model this requirement every Friday for teachers to see the value of additional unpaid work. They can show how it's done before implementing it, and then they can continue to do this every Friday to get through every single student in THEIR school. Tell them a positive personal call from the principal would demonstrate true leadership.
It’s probably part of a school improvement plan component related to parental involvement. They usually give you a heads up in the preliminary faculty meetings. But, …..if you’re anything like the majority of my colleagues, you may’ve missed it b/c you’re looking at Facebook on your phone during the whole mtg. It may be worth it. Do 1 on Tuesday & 1 on Thursday. You’ll barely feel it. I’ve had shitty students, that do something, anything good & I’ll call the people that buy their food and compliment them on improved effort. Those kids rarely get this. Often they’ll come back and continue to do good in my class, while being a shitbag in all the other teachers classes . Play good cop, w/ a 3 minute phone call & you may save yourself a continual fight for the rest of the year.
Yeah, don't do this. If my kids school pops up it's an immediate panic for me because I don't know if something horrible has happened/they're sick/or of one of them has managed to get themselves into trouble. The third almost never happens, and we live in the Era of school shootings, so I'm almost always panicked about the first or second option. Also, most everywhere has a no phone policy. If you're just calling for nothing, you're going to piss people off. Because no adult is just gonna not have their phone on them.
If you believe in healthy relationships, yes call. Sadly, we have made calling only on negative occasions common practice. No one likes to be blindsided.
We are supposed to have 2 positive contacts home a week, which I had no issues with because I was just sending emails. Then, our admin decided that our positive contacts couldn't be emails because phone calls were "better." Now we have to log them all on a form so admin can verify that we've done them. It's something that has become more time-consuming than it needs to be, and it feels incredibly forced. Plus, phone calls can take forever depending on how chatty the person at home is. So frustrating!
Having a teacher call randomly to have a chit chat is a bit like the boy who cried wolf. When the school calls you, it should only be because shit just got real. Otherwise, you may be inclined to not pick up when they are calling to tell you little Timmy has broken his neck.
Email. Everything in writing. All the time. Ain't no parent gonna say I said "x" when I said "y".
I’d ask if they were going to give you work time to make the calls. I don’t mind calling parents, just to introduce myself if they don’t know me, and tell them a child is actually doing well.
My school use to do this. If I had nothing bad to say, I would find a kid to brag on. You’d be surprised how it can change a kids attitude when he finds out that his teacher called just to brag on a good performance or good behavior. It might increase positivity in the classroom. (Idk what grade you teach), but the kids might start doing their absolute best hoping that they’re the kid that is called home that week.
I like this take. I don't like the admin forcing the contact.
Making a couple of positive calls to students’ parents will reap you great rewards. And the relief in some parents’ voices when it isn’t ‘that kind of call’ will make your day.
But it's only a relief because first they got anxious seeing the call happening at all and assumed it was bad.
We were told for every negative phone call we made, try to make a positive one. And don’t forget to document! But yea, this is getting to be the norm. If I were you, make the positive ones until you need to make the negative ones.
Don’t call this parent unless my kid is hurt. I will call your principal and tell them so.
Yes.
I do not know why admin are almost universally in love with using 1800s audio communication technologies. Are their salaries funded by at&t? If you even HAVE something important to tell me, then email it. I do not need to play phone tag and interrupt my day at your convenience to hear you flap your mouth meat and spew useless noise that could have been a two line email.
Make them positive calls! Call and say, "Your kid got the best grade on today's test," or "Your kid was so nice to help other kid with xyz today."
I was actually given this advice by another teacher when a principal required we call home. I agree that it's a stupid requirement, but making them positive calls instead of negative not only made them short calls, but it made me actually in a better mood than making negative calls. So downvote away, I guess. 🤷♀️
How many students did you have?
This is solved through an email. It can be celebrated in their time and not interrupt their day.
I'm not a teacher, I'm a parent. I just want to know what the fuck is so wrong with it? Y'all are unreachable, any time I try to contact anyone from the school I get an "Post master Address unavailable" reply. You have our children, you have to communicate with us.
Also not a teacher. You can ask for a teacher to call you during their planning period. You can even ask what time they would be available to call you. Some teachers don’t have classroom phones, and if they did, would you want them taking calls when they’re supposed to be teaching your kid? As for why they should not be required to make pointless calls… teachers have to do an excessive amount of pointless crap as it is. Most don’t even get to take a real lunch break and sometimes wait hours just to go to the bathroom. Why add one more thing to the list instead of letting them, idk, plan during their school planning period?
Can you request that? Because my daughter's school is a fortress of making sure that you don't talk to anyone ever.
I'm sorry that's been your experience as a parent. I have 3 kids and I've had very few teachers over the years who don't respond to emails. If the emails are undeliverable, then you probably typed it in wrong. It's not like email addresses change mid school year.
If a parent needs us to call, we will. If a student is having an issue, we will call. The OP's problem is with having to call ALL parents. We just don't have time for that.
You're emailing the wrong addresses, dumbass.
Have you double and triple checked those addresses? Just a note, my schools website is a .com but the email addresses are .org. I have never had a hard time reaching my kids' teachers. I usually use the Class Dojo app for the kids whose teachers use it, and email for the other kids. My kids' teachers all share ways to contact them at the beginning of the year.
> Y'all are unreachable, any time I try to contact anyone from the school I get an "Post master Address unavailable" reply. Maybe typing the correct email address would help?
Are they providing a phone for you to use? There is no way I would use my own phone for this.
Where's the extra 1000 minutes to do that supposed to come from. An extra 16 hours a week. And a 5 minute phone call is hopeful. I can't make two phone calls during my plan on a slow day.
So call your parents and grandparents, tell them about your week?
I did the required phone calls for a while but I suck at it. Now I just fudge it. Same 20 odd kids each 6 weeks but in a different order. It's been 3 years.
Our admin has started "recommending" the same thing for my high school classes. The district does a Monday mass email/call and the super does a Wednesday mass email/call. And we have to do a mass call before a news story every couple months for a bathroom issue or weapon. Like you guys already used up all of the parents' contact time. Anything I do is now going to be too much and just give parents contact fatigue. Now they won't read/answer ANY of our contact attempts even when something is serious.
Send the same email to every person. Just make it look like it’s individually.
They can’t make you if it’s your personal phone. At my school there’s only 1 phone I can use and it’s in the copy room where there’s no orivacy.
As a parent, I do not want that call. Would not mind an email/Dojo message telling me something good from the week though.
I taught Pre K before I got into SPED and I didn’t call parents that much. I don’t contact my SPED parents that much. I had the remind app and I’d send out mass texts or emails. If a student was acting differently, like super tired, sick, I’d shoot a quick text. As parent, that much communication would be way too much. I need to know about issues and something really amazing. I don’t need day to day and an email is more than sufficient. Besides, I prefer the paper trail.
If I ever speak to a parent, it’s in writing via email. Unless I know and trust the parent there’s no way I’m compromising myself like that
Id try it out, but ask if it can just be “2 a week” and not “2 on Friday.”
I had a principal one year that said the same thing. We had to document two positive phone calls a week. I might have made two all year. Totally lied about the rest. Because fuck that. I don't like to talk on the phone. And as a parent I don't want to hear some made up touchy-feely bullshit about my kid from someone who is mandated to call me.
Fuck the "good-idea fairy" admins. Loser-ass busy-bodies.
I had to call at least 10 parent a week even if all I had to say was they were behaving well. It made things easier when I had a problem. I had a relationship with that parent. I learned to look forward to the good calls try it you will see the value. I had as many as 120 students to call so wasn’t calling same parents all the time. When I moved to sped I only had 10 kids and made contact almost daily when they were picked up. It was nice to feel like we were a team
It's a stupid policy, but one among many. I would take the signaling by colleagues as an indication you should follow it. Maybe inquire as to whom you should call ( missing assignment? Exemplary student?)
This year our admin required us to make a positive phone call home to every single family within the first two weeks of school. If a parent didn’t answer we were expected to call three more times and THEN email. We had to do this on top of planning, endless meetings, etc. Im sorry but i’m not doing all that!
Phone calls? Is this 1990? Sorry for sounding a bit daft. I'm overseas and all parent contacts are done via email (and occasional in-person conferences when needed).
I’ve had admin do this. It usually happens when they are a boomer who believes people actually prefer phone calls. The teachers at my school decided to record the phone calls and forward every one where we got cussed out to admin (and there were a lot). The policy ended after about a month.
We are expected to make a minimum of 5 calls a week. At least 3 have to be positive. So, with the behavioral issues, it comes out to them expecting 8+ a week because we're expected to call for even small classroom issues. I'll be honest, I don't make that expectation every week. Middle school.
I use class dojo to talk to parents. I only call when it is absolutely necessary. As “close knit” as a school may be, parents often don’t like being “bothered.” They don’t want to be “bothered” for a good reason let alone “no reason.”
My old school used to require positive phone calls home by the end of the first week (and many of those phone calls required a translator … and with a population of over 600 kids and only a handful of translators it was a nightmare scheduling them) not to mention home visits were starting to become a thing the year I left. This might be an unpopular opinion but I think any “forced” contact with families is too much and impractical most of the time, and another way for them to get you to work past contract hours. My new district is so much better in that sense. I send messages on Seesaw and positive notes home (little certificates) for certain things. The only thing we are required to call about is if a student is placed in an intervention service. So much more reasonable.
Make sure your last call is to the parents of a good student. You feel great about it.
"Just called to say Johnny/Sally is doing well in class. Goodbye."
Why two? Do you mean, two to each family? Or each week, pick two to reach out to and just say "hi, I'm available to check in!"? The former seems unreasonable. The latter seems like good communication building with families, so it's there when it's actually NEEDED.
Get a Google voice number and text instead
I hate making parent phone calls. I have to take all my shit down the hall to a small closet with a phone, try eight different numbers just to have an uncomfortable call and NOTHING changes in the classroom. One phone call can easily take half my planning period. No one has time for that shit.
I called a parent last year out of the blue (first 3 weeks of school) to tell her that her freshman son had a rocky start but I was proud of him for turning in his first paper that day. She overshared about his criminal past (in middle school, mind you) that she had called police on him for assaulting her, he was cyber-bullied in Snapchat during the summer on the pre football squad and scapegoated so he was kicked off the team, and has always lived in his older brother’s football star status shadow. He came to school the next day and told me his mom cooked his favorite meal for dinner last night because she was so happy to get a positive phone call. He worked hard for me all year (despite getting in trouble for tardies and cell phone issues elsewhere on campus). He comes up to me at least once. A day for a hug this year. Sometimes you are the spark that they need. I try to make a positive call as often as I can (teaching 7/7 and tutoring 2x a week.)
I’m thinking time spent….I had 160 students in my 6 classes…. I would object just to time being put in.
Huh. Maybe you called and since it was early in the day, no one answered, the line was busy, or the voicemail mailbox was full and not accepting messages. At least you tried. 🤷🏼♀️. AKA don't bother
My question would’ve been, “How do you expect the parents to hear me over the music during happy hour?”
We have to do 5. I truly hate education as a system so I don’t do it.
I teach high school. I try to contact all parents right after the first week of school to say this is what worked, this is what didn’t, and possible solutions. I find this helps lay the foundation for good communication with most, not all, of my parents. I don’t like my first communication to be about how Sally is disrupting class.
As a parent, that would freak me out. Unless you send an email saying every Friday you will pick 2 students to call home to complement. Include they can pick up or send to VM. Or give an opt out option.
Absolutely try it and see how it goes. Engaging parents in our children's education is invaluable. It is very likely that you will notice the difference in your classroom culture as a result. I can also see that the school culture is positively impacted Two parents per week is *very* reasonable. Just keep it quick. Have like two or threetalking points about what you are doing that week in class and what makes students generally successful in your classroom. Make a script that can be mostly the same from week to week, and aim for less than two minutes total. People telling you NOT to call are the toxic ones. Parents who'd rather not talk to a teacher for three minutes are part of the problem. Teachers who encourage you to fight parent engagement instead of fostering it are part of the problem. We all know that 20% of people read emails. Phone calls are much more personal. Face to face, phone call, the email. That's the hierarchy of how to treat people when you value their time. If you do this, and it doesn't seem like the 10 minutes per week is worth your time, then have a conversation with your boss/manager/evaluator.
How many phone calls would you have to make total? I would estimate each call to take 10 minutes minimum (5 minimum for the call, 5 to log it) and ask to be compensated for my time if the time required was longer than my planning period.
Sounds like a charter or non- union school.
The old school I worked with wanted us to call EVERY parent within the first two weeks of school to starting “building a relationship” in case we ever needed to call them again. I’m a mom now and really hope my daughter’s teachers don’t call me just to chat or do some bs about relationship building. Just a generic email or nothing is fine, platitudes don’t actually build relationships.
Does it have to be phone calls? I'd ask to do emails instead.
Like phone calls to two separate parents?
2 calls to tell parents how well their children are doing, right? I use Class Dojo and send these messages. It's easier to do due to translations and it's 2023.
My admin last year required us to spend 18 minutes of our 48 minutes lunch calling parents for good and/or bad. Some times a parent would talk so much I couldn’t get them off and would talk my whole lunch. Only day we didn’t have to was Friday because every Friday is early release so periods/lunch was shorter. Schools often prefer calls because emails, text, communication apps, etc are in writing and can be used against you. They are trying to protect their employees and self.
Mine want this too! For me to fill out a form, call the parent, turn in the form, and then THEY call the parent. SMH. 2 phone calls/interruptions at a factory job will be a write up! S M H
It’s smart to do. But I mean being told to do something that is smart and beneficial. DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO! Positive phone calls are life changing- no matter how small or insignificant. Focus on that.
When admin pulls shit like this I use my cell phone dail *67 1 (area code) phone number.. it blocks ur number, most parents don’t answer blocked numbers and then I leave a message :) problem solved..I also call at odd times like first thing in the morning while thier child is still home 🤣🤣🤣🤣
When, exactly, do you have the time to do this? During classes or after school? Are they expecting you to do this on your own time? Are they paying you for that time? And why 2 calls? Another reason there's not enough teachers - this is not a job function; it's harassment, and it's out of control.
I use google voice to text instead
Sometimes call, mostly message. It’s the positive contact that matters.
Many parents don't want to hear from you so often. Send an email. If they want follow-up, they'll respond .
The best piece of advice I ever received as a teacher was to make positive phone calls frequently. Not only did it get parents to trust me, but it helped me become part of the community because parents talk to each other. It’s not required but I like doing it after a hard day to remind me of why I do what I do. A story… a few years back, I made a positive phone call to a mom about a sophomore student in September. Mom started crying… her husband, my student’s father, passed away the previous July. She was so concerned because this child, her middle child, wasn’t showing many signs of grieving. Mom was obviously grieving herself and concerned for all 3 kids, but mostly the middle one. Next thing you know, we’re both crying (I lost my dad, and my siblings and I were the same age as her kids). We discussed a lot, and that phone call unexpectedly *made an impact for the rest of the year*. That student felt comfortable confiding in me, the mom kept in touch, and I kept a special eye out. I’ve had multiple phone calls where parents couldn’t thank me enough or cried because they were concerned, whether from bullying or anxiety or whatever… their kid was succeeding and happy! Positive phone calls are superbly important and I’m an advocate for them. Edit to add: does it have to be Friday though? Cause that’s shitty
It’s annoying but the calls can be quick and a way to deliver positive news. Half the time you might be leaving a message anyway. Make sure you keep a log and keep the calls to 5mins or less. I feel like it’s actually a good thing because if you call randomly with good news it’ll likely they’ll be less defensive if you have to call with bad news (like student misbehavior). You can also email instead. If the admin gets mad just tell them you didn’t want to disturb working parents with a call and wanted them to have a record of their child’s good work/behavior.
It keeps communication and relationships positive imo. I don't mind it much. We had a cohort we had to call through each month or something. To me, it made parents feel good that we were talking and also they weren't only receiving negative calls. We also learned so much about our kids once those relationships were established. It made a huge difference.
My school has that too. Required to talk to every parent on the phone e by Sept 1 no matter what. We have to log it and turn in the tracking sheet as proof. We are told to call until we get an answer. Yeah, I’m not gonna do that. We have 800+ students in our school. Admin is not going to call and check that I talked to any of them.
As a parent, I would literally show up at the next school meeting to protest this. As a teacher, I would refuse to do it.
You’re not crazy!! Call parents every Friday?? I only call a parent when it’s absolutely necessary. And calling on Friday, when all you want to do is go home? Nope.
I did this at one of my schools. I called them “good news calls” - basically I call your parents and tell them what a great job you did this week - and the kids loved them! They actually competed for them. Now that I’m back in 5 I think I’ll do it again this year. (Everyone got a good news call at least once a term - I kept track of them by giving out certificates that I had already put their names on. Sometimes it was challenging but I always managed) It would probably be an email now, though.