Description
Ask any teacher about their relations with parents, and you will get the same, quickfire answer: “It isn’t as it was in the old times anymore!” As times change, so do teaching, parenting, and communication dynamics between teachers and parents.
However, as these are fundamental for supporting students’ life and academic success, it is also essential for teachers to update their capacity to connect with parents to contemporary standards.
This course helps teachers identify strategies for initiating and sustaining effective communication with parents and families of students. As a participant, you will examine the most accredited theories on the subject, discover the most interesting case studies, and show the benefits of parent and family engagement in a child’s learning.
This will motivate you to develop your own approach to promoting a positive learning environment in your school community. Through engaging role-plays and gamified activities, participants will also get practical experience in communication techniques and active listening.
The course will, hence, offer them an opportunity to explore their social and emotional skills in order to manage effective relationships with families and support them in difficult situations.
Moreover, the course will review intercultural communication strategies, providing participants with the essential competencies for interacting with families coming from very diverse cultural backgrounds.
Finally, participants will acquire practical knowledge about several digital educational platforms as tools to enhance cooperation between parents and teachers, and support students in their learning process.
Learning outcomes
The course will help the participants to:
- Apply effective communication strategies to foster lasting and constructive partnerships with parents;
- Become aware of their social and emotional competencies, thereby enhancing their relationship-management skills;
- Building a welcoming and safe environment in their school community;
- Support families in the face of most common parenting challenges.
Tentative schedule
Day 1 – Teachers and Parents in Educational Systems
- Introduction to the course, the school, and the external week activities;
- Icebreaker activities;
- Presentations of the participants’ schools;
- Most common communication barriers between teachers and parents: Is it really the same in every country?
Day 2 – Involving Parents
- The importance of parental involvement in the school community;
- An inspirational example: parental involvement in the Reggio Emilia Approach;
- Starting the school year off right: how to engage parents from the very beginning;
- Teachers’ and Parents’ Roles Construction.
Day 3 – Applying Effective Communication Strategies
- Emotional Intelligence as the Basis for Effective Communication;
- Exploring and Enhancing Emotional Intelligence skills;
- Models of Communication;
- Positive Communication Strategies.
Day 4 – The Challenges of Teaching Vs The Challenges of Parenting
- Handling conflicts: theory and practice;
- Supporting parents in challenging situations;
- Parent-Teacher Relationship in a multicultural community;
- Developing Intercultural communication skills.
Day 5 – What’s your idea?
- How to create effective Parent-Teacher partnerships;
- Teaching and Parenting in the 21st Century: useful digital resources for Educators and families;
- Designing an action plan for your school community;
- Presenting your project.
Day 6 – Course closure & cultural activities
- Course evaluation: round-up of acquired competencies, feedback, and discussion;
- Awarding of the course Certificate of Attendance;
- Excursion and other external cultural activities.