Teachers need your Help

Teachers play a huge part in the development and growth of our children, but parents need to make sure that they're doing their part too.

Research shows that when teachers and parents work together to play a consistent part in a child's support system, better results are achieved during the school-career.

With new ways of communicating, parents and teachers are able to keep each other up to date with the various happenings in a child's school and home-life.

In some schools, parents and teachers are keeping each other informed via various messaging systems, such as Whatsapp and email, allowing for open channels of communication out of school hours or when need be. This also means that it is now easier for parents and teachers to work together and for all parties involved to remain consistent when it comes to educating the growth of our children.

By understanding exactly what your child is going through at school, academically and socially, you have a better chance of enhancing the learning processby reinforcing the same opportunities at home.

Teachers will interact with your children on a different level at school and there are things they might pick up on that you aren't already aware of. With this in mind, there are aspects of a child's life that teachers need your help with when it comes to facilitating.

A high school teacher and mom suggests five ways for parents to actively be involved in the process. 

1.       Your children want you to support them.

Even if they say they don’t want you to watch their sports match or to come to the school play or phone the teacher who they have issues with, deep down they really do. They want you to be visible but they also don’t want you to be that parent who makes a spectacle out of themselves.They need to know that you are there for them, for the highs and the lows. That they are a priority.

 2.       Your teenager needs flexible boundaries.

They need to know what they can and absolutely cannot do. They also need you to trust them to make the right decisions and if they break that trust they need consequences and then the opportunity to win your trust back. It’s how they grow, if they never experience making their own decisions and a safe way to figure out their boundaries they will battle to develop into an adult who knows who he/she is.

 3.       They need you to listen.

Not just to what they are saying but how they are saying it. They often communicate without talking and how they feel shows through their behaviour, their attitude and their words. Be aware that sometimes they don’t actually know how they feel and will act out without meaning too. They need to fight with you. Be patient, it does get better.

 4.       Let them make mistakes

And then let them take responsibility for those mistakes. If your child does not do their school project let them take the consequences of it. It’s the only way he/she will learn. If you keep catching them before they fall they will never know the reality and satisfaction it takes to get back up again. Failure can often be our greatest asset in terms of success.

 5.       Work with me.

I genuinely care about your child and I want them to be happy, secure and successful. Just like you do. I’m not only teaching them content from a syllabus but through their interactions with me and at school I hope that they learn various social skills and life skills that they will battle to learn elsewhere. I cannot perform miracles but if we work together we can help a miracle to happen. If I make a mistake, I am only human, talk to me and we can figure it out before you lambast me to other people and run my name into the mud. My responsibilities at school are far greater than you can imagine. Your child is one of them.

Do you keep up-to-date with your child's teacher?