As a teacher in the middle of a pandemic, there is a constant focus around the “learning loss” occurring among our students. I’m finding though, there is often a hole in the conversation where we fail to mention the phenomenon of losing entire groups of students completely. Although attendance has been a constant struggle with my students since the beginning of my career, I know I’m not the only teacher who is seeing large groups of students completely vanish since schools went virtual back in March. The situation is frustrating, but more than that, it’s frightening. I worry about where these kids are, if they’re okay, if they’re healthy, and if they know they’re supported and thought of at school. In a time when students are dropping out in mass exoduses, it’s extremely important we make a continual and intentional effort to build relationships with parents and families and remind them there is someone on the other end of a Zoom Call who genuinely cares about them.
I am a woman who does not have kids myself, so I certainly can’t begin to imagine what parenting during a pandemic might feel like. When I’ve spoken to parents and guardians this year, I can feel the shared frustration through the phone. I feel the frustration of uncertainty, the fear of a deadly virus, and the exhaustion of navigating virtual learning while trying to survive during COVID-19. We know that our students’ families and our community members are integral parts of our team in the education system, and yet that mutual teamwork has in many ways broken down in light of the changes and challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now more than ever, finding innovative ways to strengthen our communication with students’ families and communities is absolutely critical.
In my conversations with parents and family members recently the biggest request parents have made has been for more consistent and clear communications from teachers and schools. Many of the families I have spoken with are feeling alone in virtual learning, and as their student’s teacher, it is imperative that we do everything we can to ensure these families that we are still fighting the same fight on behalf of their child. Part of the remedy for this can be an educator just taking the time to ask some simple and helpful questions that ensure parents feel seen and heard during this time.
“How can I best support your child?”
“Is there anything you would like me to know about your child or your family?”
“How can we help your students maintain their attendance in the education system?”
“How can we support you?”
“What do we need to do to empower your voice and the voice of your child?”
In the midst of all the constant changes and overwhelming tasks placed on educators, it’s easy for student and family relationships to get placed on the back burner. There are deadlines, lesson plans, to-dos and team meetings that are required consuming us and we are all doing our best to survive. But we must keep in mind how much student/teacher relationship impacts a students desire to not only participate, but to succeed.
Ensuring that communication to parents is easily accessible is equally as important as asking the right questions. Sometimes, educators have the right intentions and desires to be in communication but time and language barriers can be a hindrance. At my campus where there is such a wide variety of languages spoken and preferred by my students, this means making sure all communication is translated properly so that the onus is not falling on our parents. Talking Points is a great translation app and resource that models Google Voice in many ways, but allows you to enter a preferred language when inputting parent contacts. You can send messages in your preferred language, and the app will directly translate them to the preferred language of the parent. The parent then can converse in the language they chose, but you will receive the message translated back into your language. This has changed the way I’ve been able to communicate with parents entirely. Just reaching out to them once a week to ask how they are doing and how we can better support them in a way that is accessible has allowed me to build more positive relationships with my parents in the virtual world.
At the end of the day, parents and educators alike are doing the best that we can to adapt to the technological environment we are in now, despite all its challenges. In light of a pandemic, curriculum is often put at the forefront of education, but I think educators would see massive benefits from being intentional about adapting to these changes with parent and community partnership in mind. I’m alongside you, trying to figure out for myself how to establish ideal communication, but I believe making our efforts accessible and inclusive for our families is a great start. Our communities certainly deserve to know that educators are focused on teaching their children academic material. Even more than that though, our communities deserve to know that right now their educational team is working to ensure that we are best supporting them in the way they need and prefer, and that we are always stronger together.
Abby Rufer is a mathematics teacher, ESL teacher and team lead at Emmett J. Conrad High School in Dallas ISD. She graduated from Emory University with her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Sociology and received her Master of Arts degree in Education from Southern Methodist University. Abby is passionate about empowering students through community involvement, and has been teaching for 5 years with a specialization in ESL. When she is not in the classroom she enjoys volunteering on the TEC Educator Advisory Board, taking her little brother to events for Big Brothers Big Sisters, and fostering dogs for local rescues.