Sometimes teachers go the extra mile to help a struggling student. The article offers advice for teachers who desire to form a positive relationship with the student’s family, in order to affect the academic success of the student.
How to Influence the Life of a Student: The Significance of Connecting with Parents
Empowering students is a teachers greatest work. A student may face academic challenges for many reasons, including changes in school, lack of motivation, low self-esteem, loss of a loved one and falling victim to bullying. Nevertheless, hope exists for such students. That is because many teachers are willing to go the extra mile to work with a struggling student.
Reaching out and helping parents to empower under- performing students who passionately wants to learn is always a worthwhile choice. Such choice is a heroic quest to positively affect future of both the child as well as the family.
Commitment
However, teachers who want to work closely with parents must make a commitment to stick with it. The family of a student can be difficult to work with if there is much instability occurring at home. Teachers can become extremely frustrated over a school year by attempting to get parents to cooperate with the program.
Many parents are single and have to work two jobs. Some are caught up in a web of psychological and physical abuse by a spouse. Therefore, before working with a student’s family, a teacher must be willing to cope with such upheavals.
Maintaining Connection
After a teacher makes a commitment to work with a family, staying connecting with parents is critical for success to occur. A teacher can maintain a connection with families in a variety of ways, including phone calls home, flyers, twitter, Facebook, texting, teleconference, and interpersonal conferences.
With so many ways (both traditional and modern) to stay connected, there should be little reason why teachers and parents can’t stay connected. They must work together for the betterment of the child’s education, no matter what obstacle seem to stand in the way.
Empowering the Student
Teachers and parents must work together with the student. Class work and homework must be given top priority. Progress and evaluation must be done on both ends of the agreement. The student must be constantly encouraged and empowered by patient explanation, demonstration, praise, and rewards.
When teachers and parents both show sincere interest in a child’s education, motivation to succeed within the child will most likely be developed. The key is to emphasize the importance of an education in the pursuit of success.
The benefits of working with parents of struggling students may include enhanced parent/teacher and teacher/student relationships, academic partnership and collaboration as well as increased student achievement and growth in both character and academics.
When teachers dedicate themselves to the education of students who no one thought could even succeed, that teacher will always be a hero in the mind of the student as well as the family.
Keeping Professionalism
Teachers who decide to work closely with a family for the sake of the student’s education must keep a certain degree of professionalism. The focus must always be on the best interest of the student. Such things as becoming angry with parents or students for not cooperating are following an immature approach.
Teachers must avoid participating in events unrelated the student education, such as going to festivals, parties, and movies with the family. This could be a distraction to the real goal of the connection.
