Communicate with parents

I use gmail all the time to communicate with parents.  One of my professional goals is to write to the parents of each of my classes once a month.  I provide an update about our current unit, what fun things we have recently done or have coming up, and an invite to ask any questions or stop by any time.  it is a great way to keep lines of communication open with busy people.

I agree, and this helps parents stay connected when the communication between them and the children may be disrupted by other things. Many parents have complained to me that they don't get much of an answer when they ask what their child did in school that day. This helps to solve that problem and perhaps it could also give parents some ideas for how to ask open ended questions so they would get better answers from the kids too.

I agree that communicating with parents is one of the biggest advantages of using gmail with our students.  Besides just providing information and resources for academic work, it can also be used as a way to help support and encourage parents in the jobs we are all trying to do together: raise healthy, respectful young people who are good citizens in the community. Sharing a story: "our students witnessed a bullying incident on the playground today, so we talked as a class about how it feels to be bullied and thought about times when we haven't been very respectful to others.  It's critical that students feel safe at school and at home; here is a list of conversation starters that might help provide an opportunity for you and your child to discuss how safe he/she feels:  etc"  OR address a current event: "On the news they are talking about the latest terrorist attack.  Sometimes this can make children fearful in ways we might not recognize.  Let me know if you would like some help discussing this with your child" etc... OR confront a specific concern: "I've noticed many of our students are very sleepy and I am concerned that they may need more rest, more exercise, healthy food options.(etc)... Students at this age (generally) need 8-10 hours of sleep per night for optimum healthy development and so they can benefit from classroom learning.  If it is difficult for your child to get this on a regular basis, please let me know.  Together I am certain we can come up with strategies that will help  etc"
Obviously, these need to be addressed respectfully, and you have to be able to follow through on your offer, but, lets face it, some adults need help being parents and this could be a non-threatening way to give them support and information they need.