Conflicts

I recently met with my student teachers for our weekly review. I had a few parent complaints and needed to go over those with the student teachers. It is important to communicate to our student teachers just as effectively as we do with our parents. I am the student teachers instructor but I am not the mentor teacher to all of them. I understand the importance of parent/teacher communication especially when it concerns an accident or small incident between children throughout the day. Parents need to know when their children got scratched or had a potty accident. I communicate this to my student teachers in my room, but not all mentor teachers do this. In the meeting I had a student teacher who disagreed with me about who was to tell the parents. The student teacher felt the lead teacher should do all the communication to the parents. A parent had a big concern about her child the next morning and it involved her simply not knowing that her child had a potty accident during the day. The parent paper was in the cubby and it informed the parent of the accident. The parent did not take it home because she picked her daughter up when she was outside. The parent did not stop by the room to see if she had any papers so she was unaware of her child’s accident and unaware of her wet clothes in the cubby. The student teacher did not communicate or discuss with the parent any information about the child with the parent. The student teacher felt the parent’s information about her child should come solely from the daily parent paper which was written by the lead teacher. I explained to the student teacher how important respect, reciprocal, and responsive information is between parents and teachers. We have to show respect to the parents by greeting them and by keeping them informed about their children. We should let them know that we understand how important their children are and that we take the time to talk and discuss concerns or highlights about their children with them. The student teacher felt that it was not her place to discuss information with the parents because she was not the lead teacher and it was not her place. I informed the student teacher very calmly and very nonjudgmentally without displaying irritability and frustration that we are all responsible for these children and for the information that the parents receive. When working with children it is everyone’s job to be aware and informed on the children in the classroom. I told the student teacher it was the mentor/lead teacher’s job to inform her of any information that is pertinent for the parents to know at the end of the day. I also informed her that she must greet and acknowledge the parents when they enter, drop off, or pick up their children. The job of any teacher whether a student teacher, asst. teacher, or lead teacher, is to respect, be responsive, and be reciprocal to the parents. Be aware and share information with the parents to show respect and be responsive of the information they share with you. One of the most important parts of the first teacher to leave is to relay information about the children to the next teacher in charge. We cannot provide parents information about their children unless the information is passed down to us. Communication between teachers in the same room is one of the most reciprocal forms of communication that gets forgotten. I stress and preach the passing down of information from teacher to teacher throughout the day so that everyone is informed about the children as the day progresses. Two strategies that I used was to remain clam and not to become frustrated or irritated when the student teacher did not agree with how we should handle the situations of talking to parents. The student teacher new she would have to talk to parents but only when she was a teacher in her own classroom. I informed her that she was the teacher, especially during her lead weeks. I also used the strategy to remind her of the 3R's: respect, reciprocal, and responsive. We have to respect the parents, be reciprocal to the other teachers and parents, while we are also responsive to every parent, teacher and child. If we follow the 3R's and remember to successfully implement them throughout the day then we will have communication that is more productive and positive.