Teacher-parent communication is so important for developing relationships with parents, but it can seem daunting with 25 to 30 students. Several years ago a teacher that I worked with showed us the calendar system that she used to keep in touch with parents on a DAILY basis. When she first showed us the system I thought that’s going to be too much to keep up with. BUT, once we established the routine and procedures for it, it became one of the best systems in my classroom.
The Calendar System Overview:
My students have a folder that they bring back and forth to school every single day. At the end of each day, they get a sticker if they had a great day. If they were tardy, or had a behavior problem, I mark that on their calendar. If they were absent, I will write absent on their folder the next day. Parents are asked to initial the folder every day so that I know they have seen it. Then on Fridays, students who had a great week are considered VRPs. That stands for Very Responsible Person. I’ll describe what I do for VRPs at the end of the blog.
Preparing the Calendars for Teacher-Parent Communication
The first thing you need to consider is what information you’d like your parents to have about your classroom. I have an example of the calendar I use below. Let’s take a closer look at it. On the left-hand side (under Sunday), I list the skills we’ll be covering each week. This way parents can see the target skills. Of course, we teach so much more, but at least they have an idea.
For each day of the week, I include the letters A (absent), T (tardy), and the numbers 1, 2, and 3. Students who come in late, circle the t and write tardy in the square along with the time they came into class. When students are absent, they bring me their folder the next day so I can circle the A and write absent.
The 1, 2, 3 stand for whether or not they clipped down on our clip chart that day. I know there are lots of people that aren’t fans of clip charts but they seem to work really well for me. Students only clip down if I’ve already verbally reminded them of a rule and they continue to choose the wrong choice. It serves a way better purpose to have students clip up as positive reinforcement, but that’s a whole other blog post. 🙂
On Fridays, students turn in their folders so I can check their homework and circle how their week went. If students earned a sticker every day (no absences, tardies, incomplete work, clip downs, etc.) then I’ll circle Great Week. If students had incomplete work, were missing their homework, were absent or tardy, or had behavior problems, I circle the corresponding term.
Everything included in my set of calendars is editable so you can include terminology from your own classroom or change anything you’d like.
In my class, it’s a huge goal for students to earn the Great Week status. At the beginning of the year, some students don’t understand why they have to work hard all week and why they can’t get Great Week if they’re absent or tardy. We discuss how this is something they need to work for and it’s not given to them. They have to be accountable for their choices. Soon, I’ve had parents call me and tell me their student refused to go to Disneyland and miss school for a day just so I would circle Great Week on their folder.
Two Ways to Stay on Top of Your Teacher Parent Communication Calendars
- This is the way I’ve used for several years now and it works great for me. Students keep their folders in their desks from Monday-Thursday. At the end of the day, students who need to “conference” with me because they were absent (the day before), tardy, or made bad choices will meet me at my desk and we take a minute to discuss what happened and how they can do better. While I’m conferencing with these students, my two teacher helpers go around and put stickers on student calendars. The rest of the class know they need to pull their calendar out of their folder and have it ready if they want their sticker. Once they have their sticker, they can finish the rest of our dismissal procedure. On Fridays, I collect their folders first thing in the morning and take their homework out along with adding their stickers for the day and circling their weekly status. This really only takes a few minutes.
- Most of the teachers in my grade level collect the student folders when they arrive every morning. Then they put the stickers on during recess or lunch. If a student clips down after, they can peel off the sticker and then write what happened.
I tend to like the first way for two reasons. First, the students are responsible for taking care of their folders. Second, I like to conference with students as needed about why they didn’t earn their sticker that day rather than passing it out to them already recorded.
Parent Initials
This can be an issue at the beginning of the year until parents get in the habit of checking their students’ folders. I am somewhat flexible at the beginning of the year, but not too much so it doesn’t become a habit. When I circle their status for the week, I may circle responsibility if their parent hasn’t initialed each day by Friday. Sometimes, parents will initial ahead which is super frustrating! Either way, it tends to work itself out after a couple weeks.
Why Daily Teacher Parent Communication is Important
Have you ever called a parent regarding an issue, either absences and tardies or behavior problems, and they told you they had no idea it was happening? Sometimes it’s a daycare provider bringing the child to school late and the parent has no idea. But, once they have initialed the calendar, they cannot say they didn’t know what was happening.
Same thing goes for when you need to talk to your administrator about a problem you’re having with a student. The most commonly asked question is “Does the parent know you’re having problems?” You can pull out these calendars and let your admin know you’re keeping daily contact with all your students’ parents.
I also collect these at the end of each month and use them during parent conferences. It’s great record-keeping for you without you having to do anything extra. You will also be able to see consistent problems such as missing homework every week.
How Teacher Parent Communication Calendars Help Students
One of my favorite things about these calendars is they help students monitor themselves. Students know they will get several verbal reminders before I have them clip down. Once they have clipped down, they know it will be written on their folder. This is a great time to talk about how to make better choices. They are responsible for themselves and can make better choices tomorrow.
Since implementing these calendars, I rarely have students who don’t finish their homework. They realize that part of being a VRP is to finish all our work, not just classwork. Since not all students have someone to help them at home, the only requirement is for them to try.
Great Week VS VRP (They mean the same thing)
You may have noticed I talked about VRPs at the top of this article. That stands for Very Responsible Person. As mentioned, I’ve been using calendars like these for many years and have figured out over time what makes them work. On the calendars I have available for you, at the end of the week it says Great Week, but you can easily change it to VRP if you’re interested in this system.
In my class, students who have great weeks are considered VRP’s. This comes along with many advantages the following week. VRPs get to join me in the classroom and eat lunch with me on Mondays. They also get to be our class leaders and hold jobs since they’ve shown they’re responsible. Another perk is bringing a SMALL stuffed animal to keep on their desks they can play with during certain times of the day. Finally, I reserve special supplies for the VRPs. Most of the time, my first graders can only use regular crayons, but VRPs get to use things like smelly markers, colored pencils, or glitter crayons on certain assignments.
Some students will be upset when they find out they’re not a VRP or Great Week wasn’t circled. I let them know that it’s something they need to reach for and isn’t automatically given to them. They realize it’s up to them to take responsibility for themselves and make sure they’re doing what they can to achieve their goals.
There is of course flexibility for students making progress. If you have an extreme behavior problem and maybe they will never get a perfect week, you can always allow them to be a VRP or achieve Great Week status, by earning a sticker on 3 out of 5 days. That’s what I love about this system. There’s something for everyone and it can be adjusted accordingly. At the beginning of the year though, I have pretty strict guidelines so they know I mean business.
If you have any questions about using the calendars or have used something similar, comment below.
