Friday, September 28, 2012
Communication
We all know there are vast mediums to communicate with students, parents, and colleagues. It seems today that most people prefer to use email, phone, text, and face-to-fact conversation. However, with such limited time in the day how do we best communicate with parents and our colleagues? On average, my inbox fills up with 10-15 an hour - with 8-10 of those messages requiring a response. When do we have time to respond to those? Personally, I am an early bird so I've dedicated my 7-8 AM time (our start time at Sweeney is 8 AM) to answering emails, and then I try stay away from email during the day, as that's taking away from student support time. However when I see an average of 50-70 emails a day, and our hectic schedules, I don’t feel I always have the time to return communication in an efficient way.
Do others have a systematic approach to communication? If so, are there particular ways you prefer to receive communication, and then organize it? At any given time I have support staff, general education teachers, and related service providers coming to me as a student's case manager consistently. I have moved to a paraprofessional tracking sheet this year where our paraprofessionals track some data, but there is room for narratives - which serves as some of this essential communication. Other than that, I am looking for any suggestions that others may have!
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I am also a Sped teacher. The data sheets with the comment sections work great for specifics about a kid in a specific area. Do you meet with your para's weekly? Above taking time to meet with them here and there each and every day, we are trying to set up a weekly meeting with them. They flex there time and we do it for 15-20 minutes at the end of day. That is a good time for student or teacher concerns and brainstorming ideas of fixing them.
ReplyDeleteAs far as parent/general ed teacher communication, I check my email as often as possible throughout the day. A glance here and there. Within Outlook I created a main file called student correspondence and then under that file I created a file for each student. I use the files for both parent and general education teachers, etc. If it is a strain of emails, I try to just put in the last response one, so it has the strain but is only one email. That way too if you don't have time to write it in the correspondence log on IPlan you can get to it later or print them out and put them in their file!
Bottom line though is there isn't enough time in the day! Hence I am responding at 4:20pm on a Friday:)
I also check in throughout the day, a glance at the end of the hour when kids are filing out or during prep or lunch. It's never enough time but when I need to respond, I flag my e-mails. That way I have a glance at which ones I need to make sure to follow up on. When I first meet parents and students, I let them know how to best contact me and I won't be able to respond most likely until the end of the day, unless there is something urgent or an emergency.
ReplyDeleteSuch a great question! I look forward to reading about more sucessful strategies...
ReplyDeleteI really like the early morning idea. I've found myself coming in earlier and earlier as my brain is fried at the end of the day. If I know I have to make a phone call, I usually try to wait until after school so I can properly prepare and gather my thoughts.
ReplyDeleteI would suggest keeping your Website filled with a weekly calendar and a description of assignments, that way you can refer the parents to the Website, and you don't always have to explain things that are happening. I would also suggest a mass email weekly to all parents with an outline of the weekly assignments. That may also cut through some of the questions, and also if these parents are asking for that much contact, they may need to know that you are thinking of them, and if you automatically include them in communication, then they may not feel the need to ask you for as much information?? Just a suggestion!
ReplyDeleteAnn
I feel this same way about communication and it is something I still struggle with as well. As far as the emails go I do check them throughout the day so I don't feel overwhelmed at the end of the day but also so I don't miss anything important that I may need to know during the day. I also have a rule that once I read something I need to do something with it. I either respond then if I have time, delete it if it is something I only needed to read, or flag it if I need more time to read and respond later. I only check my email once or twice during the day while students are in my room and only for a minute or two so I don't take away time with students; I feel that helps with the emails building up. I agree with Ann about getting a lot of information out about class be it in a newsletter, online, or as notes home to all parents about things from class. This prevents a lot of the communication about classroom routines or expectations, or what we are learning. I do always leave some time at the end of the day to communicate anything I need to to parents if there was something that happened during the day. I personally like the end of the day because if something happened I know that the student will probably go home and say something to their parents and then I might get an email from them, and I also need to let parents know the day something happens so it is fresh in my mind and I don't forget.
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