Keeping in contact with teachers

[Girleymom3]

How do you guys keep in contact with your kids teachers? I know that I am a familiar face around the kids school! I try to walk each one up to her classroom by herself at least one day a week and I volunteer in Brooklyns kindergarten class at least 2 times a week, if not more. I'm in Jordans class at least 2 times a week as well. Its harder with Sydney now that she is older and her teacher doesn't need so much "help", I do go in and touch bases with her teacher though at least once a week or more. I also go and check the charts in her classroom, they keep track of all the assignments and if its not marked off you know what your child needs to work on and she lets the kids turn in late work, so that is good. I think its important that we keep in contact with our kids teachers, I believe that it lets the teacher know that we are on the same side and that we want what is bet for our kids and it also lets the kids know that we can and will show up at any time and we expect that the rules are being followed and we will talk with the teacher...KWIM? I do know that as the kids get older it will get more difficult to just walk into the classrooma nd volunteer our help, but there is always email at the Jr. High and High School!

[Twill]

I am in the school so much that the staff think I live there!

I help in Mr Busy & Miss Mischief's classrooms for a couple of hours each, every week. I don't help in Miss Sunshine's class. She's in yr 5 and they just don't have the same requirement for parent helpers. I've introduced myself to her teacher (he was new to the school) and have offered to do one-off jobs to help out here and there. Because I'm at school over a lunch time break quite often I see him in the staffroom...so he knows I'm around. One of the great benefits of helping out in their classes is that the teachers point things out to me as a matter of course....without having to make an appointment to do so.

Once the kids get into the secondary school, I imagine the way that I help out will look at lot different to classroom helping. But being that ours is a prep-12 private school, by the time we get there we'll have gotten to know a lot of the secondary teachers....and I'll still be living at the school doing other stuff!!!!! I've already helped last year with the yr 8 cafe thing they did as a class project. They needed parents with a food safety certificate....I happened to have the time and the certificate.

[coltsmama]

I've been a little frustrated wit ths particular subject this year. My dd's are in middle and hs,so I don't expect to be able to be there as much. I d go on all field trips and help with special projects and such. On the other hand my ds is only in 4th grade and his teacher does not want parent helpers. She also doesn't have parents come in for parties. My son will bring home a note stating what they need for the party. This is so frustrating for me because I would have liked to help out . I find that I know so much more about his work and the general feel for the class when I help out. I really have missed out this year

[prmom]

Just make sure your daughter dates a teacher's kid then you will know everything that is going on.:lol banner: .

Honestly, we were so fortunate that our elememtary school was wonderful about letting parents help in anyway they wished to. Being a small town, I also see the teachers in social situations all the time. My kids used to joke that I knew anything that they got in trouble for before they even got in the car at dismissal.

At the HS level it is a bit different.. all the teachers provide their e mail addresses and that is how I keep in touch with them if need be. Again.. I know so many of them as friends that it makes it easy to check in with them.It was a big adjustment to go from being in the classroom almost everyday to not being involved in school.. but that is what the kids need at this point. Emily's best friends dad is the principal so even at this level.. if something is going on, I will know about before she even figures out what kind of story to tell me to cover up what she did.:giggle:

[kansascrochetmom]

I email the teachers on a regular basis. They email me too. It seems to work for us. :)

[jab300]

When ds1 was in grade school I was either the "class mom" and of course in there a lot, or volunteered elsewhere in the school like in the lunchroom or office. It helped that he attended the same school dh and I went to as kids and we knew everyone and vise versa.:lol banner: Now in highschool we go to the yearly open house to meet all his teachers and use the email thing. His school has a website where you can check their grades and assignments as well. I don't even do that, ds and I talk about those things just about daily. It also helps that one of the assistant principals was not only one of my teachers in highschool (different school) but a good family friend...he knows that she will report anything to his pawpaw or me.:rotflol: You make a very good point, though, that we really have to keep involved and in touch, even if it's difficult sometimes.

[annamarie]

I don't have an issue with my 2 elementary school-aged DKs because I work in the school cafeteria and have wonderful contact with the teachers there. For my DS1, email is the greatest way to communicate with his middle school teachers. I try to let him handle things himself (teaching responsibility is hard for me - I just want to figure it all out myself and then tell him exactly what he needs to do - I am working on it though). But if I need to contact the teacher, they are just an email away. I always thank them for their quick reply. I also try very hard to be pleasant in the email because so much can be misunderstood in an email versus saying it in person. I am a much better communicator when I am talking than when I am writing.

Anna

[Twill]

Coltsmama, not all teachers know what to do with parents helpers. It's really not so much about you, but about the teacher. If you're at the classroom when school is over you could snatch a little bit of conversation then, if the teacher is inclined to do that.

Miss Sunshine's Prep teacher would only allow parents to help with reading. Half an hour before the end of the day and out in the corridor...not in the classroom. Well, at least I got to know the kids! And she would NEVER step outside to chat to the parents there. I learned that she was great with the kids, but wasn't much of an extrovert. Miss Mischief's current teacher took me 6 months to train last year :giggle: She really didn't know what to do with parent helpers....NOW she knows!!!!

[okgoatgal]

i'm a teacher at the school my 3 youngest go to, so.....and i actually teach my 2nd oldest, and next year i'll have the 3rd. be a couple more till i have the youngest....but anyway, contact w/teachers is pretty easy. the oldest is in high school, different district, but i trust her to be honest with me, cause she knows how absolutely livid i will be if i ever catch her lying to me. about anything. and a few of those teachers know me, so, i'll hear stuff, anyway. :)

[Jbug]

We HSed all four through graduation. Whenever I would start talking to myself the kids used to love to say "I was having a parent/teacher conference."