The home-school connection

These past days we have been talking in class about the importance of involving parents in their child's learning process.

Nowadays, some dramatic situations happen between teachers and parents:

And also between children and parents at home:

It is very clear that these problems must be solved by creating a....

(home-school connection)

During our lessons we have concluded that there are some important reasons for home-school connection:

- It helps parents feel involved and informed

- Children can keep on learning out of the class.

- Students feel proud of their learnings by showing their work.

- Teachers can be aware about children's family background.

- Parents and Teachers are partners in children's education, is an invitation to participate.

- Synergy among teachers and parents.

- Showing develops memory.

So, it is very important to create a home-school connection because children can benefit tremendously if we connect their most important two worlds. Researches show that children whose parents and teachers are involved in their learning process have more possibilities to succeed.

"Good communication between parents and teachers has many benefits. When parents and teachers share information, children learn more and parents and teachers feel more supported. Good communication can help create positive feelings between teachers and parents" (Kreider, Mayer & Vaughan, 1999).

But, what can we do as teachers to support the home-school connection? 

It's pretty easy today, we have lots of resources and ways to communicate with our students' parents. As Theresa Zanatta mentions in her article, we have to create classroom routines to keep parents involved, such as sending home hands-on student-made learning tools; so that the students can feel proud of their learnings by showing and parents feel informed regularly, and know what their children are doing at school. 

Also the students' individual portfolios are very useful to keep their learning organized, clear and accesible. They can do one for every term and then bring it home to show to their parents all what they have been doing. Parents can see their children's progress, improvement and also their difficulties in order to promt them for their work but also to be aware of their weakness and be able to help them to solve their learning difficulties.

To conclude, I would like to remind that nowadays, teachers have lots of tools to keep on communicating with parents like Internet, it is very easy for example to create a classroom blog to show what it is happening in class or to send them information by e-mails. For instance, I have found a printable newsletter to send the parents with tips and advices and which helps creating a home-school connection since parents feel supported with their children education: newsletter home-school connection