In order for parents to believe that we honestly want them to be involved, we must treat them as respected peers.This means that we must treat them as we would want to be treated ourselves. Communication must be positive, ongoing, early, and trusted (POET)

 Positive. Each year, I have asked student in SPLED 404 to describe an incident from their past in which a teacher made them and their family feel valued, and an incident which strained family-teacher relations. I have included some examples (both postive and negative) below.

Positive experiences Negative experiences

 Ongoing. You have the best chance of establishing a positive relationship with parents if you communicate with them frequently. Frequent communication builds a "bank of trust"; the more they know about you, the more likely they are to trust your judgement.

 Early. Ideally, the first communication you will have with a parent will be about something positive. This means that you may want to get a positive message to the parent before you have even met their child (see "Welcome letter")

  Trusted. As a teacher you will learn confidential information about your students, their parents, and your co-workers. You will be tempted to gossip. Please remember, however, that by gossiping you lose the respect of the person you are gossiping about, and probably the respect of the person you with whom you share the gossip. After all, would you trust someone who tells you information that is supposed to be secret?

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