Welcome back to you, this is a Tuesday edition of the show. If you didn't see yesterday's show with Dr. Carter, I wholeheartedly recommend it. He talked about the importance of setting expectations as kind of a function of really being able to anticipate your child's behavior and then helping them by setting realistic expectation.
So, now that said, if you didn't have a chance to see that, please do tune into it. Today's show, though, we're going to turn the focus back into the Back to School transition time, really looking at how to build a powerful relationship with your child's teachers this year.
So, if you're thinking about middle school, if that is the realm that you are now entering, of course, making the transition from elementary school with one teacher per classroom, now you're at least five, if not six, seven, potentially eight teachers that your child would see on a daily basis. So the relationship that you build with these four, five, six, seven, eight teachers is going to be critical to your child's success this year.
Now a lot of schools put together a kind of “Meet and Greet” where you go and meet all the child's teachers. I think, the intention originally was a good one. We want to kind of ease the transition back into school for parents who want to give an opportunity to meet the child's teachers.
The executional, poor, poor for the most part. Think about this for a moment. If I put you in a room with 20 people and I gave you ten minutes to introduce yourself, shake hands with everyone, how many people's names would you remember? How many people's names would you remember ten minutes later? How about a day later?
Now I teach you, I put you into a new room with 20 more faces. I do that every 20 minutes for the next two hours. Now how many people do you remember? Folks, that was really -- that's the reality of going to the Back to School Night or the Meet the Teachers Night.
In execution, schools, I think, are needing to do something a little bit different, if the vision is to try and build a more supportive, more cohesive relationship with parents in the community. It's just not going to happen in 10 minutes, 20 minutes of shaking hands.
So, that being said, if that is still the plan of your child's school, you've got to go with it, right? Because that maybe your only opportunity, so a couple of ideas to share with you here. Number one, acknowledge. When you do make your way to the front and live, you actually put the hand out, shake the teacher's hand and introduce yourself, that your name is first of all is all blur, nobody is going to remember that, until you say these words, thank you for the role that you will play in my child's life this year, I certainly appreciate it.
Again, my name was, now your name is in there, right in stone. Why? Because nobody does that, number one, number two, how often your teachers actually give acknowledgment or recognize the efforts? So, right away you're going to put yourself on a whole different level as far as how supportive you're going to be as a parent.
So that's number one, acknowledge, through a simple thank you, it's a powerful recognition. Number two, notice the small things. Teachers are notorious for collective things, sometimes frogs, sometimes cows, sometimes roosters, who knows? Notice the small things that are into something.
Why is it's important? Because later, as you continue to build this relationship, that gives you something personal to reference, okay? How is that frog collection coming? Right? May not be those exact words, but when it comes down for the holidays and you're concerning the teacher's gift, you're not going to get another tie or a coffee mug, you're going to get the frog because you know that that belongs in the collection. You know what I'm saying? It's the small things.
Number three, follow up. Two to three weeks after that initial meeting is when you send the email or you leave the voicemail, whatever is going to be preferable on the teacher's end, with again, another short acknowledgment: thank you for a wonderful start to the school year, we're looking forward to the weeks to come. Done! Right?
You do not, and this is my encouragement for you folks, please don't do this, as a former teacher I can tell you, this right away pegs you as the overzealous parent, that is going to become the problem and not the supportive parent that you hope to be. Do not go to the syllabus line by line, and offer your critique as an educational expert.
The tough thing about this is, is we've all had an experience with education, we've all been to the classroom, we've all had the model teacher, the one that we hope every teacher is going to live up to, right? That is not the reality. However, your son or daughter will have a teacher that is going to put in incredible effort if they know that they are supported by you.
So after the words of encouragement, the acknowledgment recognition, save the critique for later. Again, similar analogy, you invite the plumber over to fix your pipes, you're not going to stand there and give the critique. This is the professional that you're dealing with. So hand over the reigns. It doesn't mean that you step back and step completely out, but you continue to offer the recognition, the acknowledgment, the support and you build the relationship. That way your child is learning gain ground with each year.
So those are pretty simple ideas. Continue to build the relationship, go ahead and shake the hand in the Back to School Night, knowing that your face is kind of a blur, but that powerful acknowledgment, that's what sets you apart. Have a great day in your Tuesday. Take care!
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