Communicating with a student’s family is crucial for a child’s success and growth.  It is the family that has raised the child and the family that knows the child on a level that teachers may never reach.  Therefore, it is important to communicate with the family as well as to use the family as a valuable resource when creating a classroom environment and specific lesson plans.
Stemming from this belief, I would use the following plan.

1. Use the family as a resource by sending a questionnaire home at the beginning of the school year.   This questionnaire would include questions about the student’s hobbies, likes, dislikes as well as information pertaining to parents, siblings and other influential people in the child’s life.

2. Communicate with the family by phone, traditional mail, e-mail or personal visits.
    Phone:  This form of communication allows for the parent to communicate with me as well as for me to initiate the communication.  I would set up an answering machine so that parents can leave a message if they are unable to reach me and need to leave a message.  I would also leave a recording on this “class” machine about homework, upcoming events and other pertinent information that the parent can receive easily and quickly.
    Traditional Mail: I would send a letter through the mail or set up a post office box for parents to send letters to me if they are unable to reach me by any other method.
    E-mail:  Some parents find it convenient to use the Internet as a form of communication.  Parents would be able to reach me via e-mail as well as via a web site that I would set up for my classroom.
    Personal Visits:  Personal visits can be set up either by my initiation or the parents’ initiation.  Parents are available at different parts of the day, so it might be necessary for me to travel to their homes, come before school begins or stay after school ends or to meet on the weekends.

    These methods should be a good beginning in communicating with student families.  However, as all students and families are different, these may need to be modified to meet the needs of the families.  Parents and teachers should work together in establishing effective methods of communication.