I have found even in my few months of teaching that it is crucial to have open lines of communication between the parents and school. Parents need to be involved in the lives of their children, and most especially in the area of school. I have established a few strategies that I feel have worked well for me so far in trying to keep in touch with parents. Although it can become time consuming, I feel this is an important part of helping our students to be successful. Below are some ways that I believe would be useful to keep in touch with parents.

* Phone calls should be made home informing parents of their child's progress in class. Phone calls need to be made for students that are doing well as those doing poorly. By contacting parents it allows me to stress the importance of staying involved in their academic lives. I try to encourage parents to ask their students about their homework and about what they are doing in class. When a child tells a parents that they have no homework or they have nothing to do, then this should be a caution flag.

* E-mailing with parents is another way to stay in contact. Many families have e-mail now, and this is a fast way to inform a parent of a concern or tell them how well their son/daughter did on a test or project. It is important that this is not a teacher's only means of communication since all families may not own a computer.

* Sending home newsletters once a month is a way for me to inform parents as to what their child is learning in my math class. It can inform them of projects that may be coming up, and this will encourage them to ask their kids about what they are doing.

* Sending quizzes and tests home with students to have them signed by parents is another good way to inform parents of how successful their child is doing in math class. By requiring that students have all tests and quizzes signed by a parent, then the parents should constantly know how successful their child is in my class.

No one of these methods can be done on their own. It takes a combination of all of these to have positive open lines of communication with parents. All of these methods do take some extra time, but in the end they are all worth it. I have noticed that all of the phone calls that I have made and e-mail I have written have been useful. I have noticed improvement in the work of my students. I think students realize that I really care about how they are doing, and they appreciate the time I take to make sure they are doing well and succeeding.

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