If you teach children or young adults, you should also get to know their parents. It's important for them to see the progress their child is making and be able to help them (whether with discipline, organisation, or getting a private tutor) when necessary. Two situations will be discussed below. How to make parents a part of their child's learning experience and dealing with upset/overbearing parents.

How to Make Parents a Part of Their Child's Learning Experience

With our busy lifestyle, being overworked, and the fact that many children who study English do so because their parents can afford it, means that parents aren't as involved as they should be. Many times they don't even know the names of their child's teacher. With internet, email, and cell phones, there's no excuse that a parent shouldn't know about their child's progress, after all, they are paying for it. Below you will find a couple of tips on how to let parents know what's happening in their child's class.

Hold a general meeting: Pick a time that will be convenient for most parents to attend. It might be later at night, or on a Saturday, or maybe both. At the meeting tell the parents about the books that you use, the syllabus that you follow, and show them some of their child's work. If you don't speak the parent's native language, make sure you have someone available who does.

Parent-teacher conferences: Although they can take a toll on the teacher, they are beneficial to both the teacher and the parent. By meeting together, they can talk about the child's strengths, weaknesses, and goals to be achieved. Just as in the general meeting, make sure that you have the child's work, grades, and tests available for the parent to see. These can be held once a semester or once a year.

Communicate regularly: I would argue about sending bulletins or newsletters home. There are a couple of reasons, first off, it's bad for the environment. And second, many of the parents may not even get them. Children lose them or simply forget to give them to their parents. The good news is that with email, communication is easy. And if your email system allows it, you can tag the emails and be notified when the parents read the email. If your school has its own intranet, you could try posting the information there as well.

There are a couple of things that you should keep in mind. First, be consistent. Whether you're going to communicate once a week or once a month, make sure you keep to your word. Second, avoid sending notes on Mondays and Fridays, those are usually the busiest. Aim for the middle of the weeks. Third, summarise what has been done in class and what will be done in the future.

Be available: If parents have questions, they should be able to reach you. I'd advise against giving them your personal email or phone number. However, they should know your work email and phone number and times when you can be reached.

Dealing with Upset/Overbearing Parents

Every teacher will have to deal with one or two of them during their teaching career. The opposite of the busy parent who doesn't know much about their child's education, this parent seems to know too much. Don't despair, there are ways to deal with them.

Stay calm: Parents can get angry over just about anything: the way you teach, too much homework, too little homework, other children, etc. You name it, and they'll find something wrong with it. I know it's hard when a parent is shouting at you and accusing you of being a horrible teacher. But, the first thing to do is stay calm. Don't become defensive. The parent will probably expect you to get angry and when you stay calm, you gain the upper hand. More likely than not you didn't do anything wrong, so there's no need to get upset.

Stay in charge: You're the teacher so based on your experience and education, you should know how to teach the child. If the parent is a teacher, or former teacher, you might run into difficulties. However, you need to explain your approach and reasons behind it.

Have a time limit: Some parents will wait for you outside the classroom ready to pounce on you and ask how little Johnny is doing. Every once in a while is ok, however, it can easily get out of hand. If this is the case, be firm and tell them that you have another class/have to prepare class/have a meeting and that you would be glad to discuss the issue, but first they must call the secretary and set up a meeting. Smile and walk away.

Get help: Sometimes things just get out of hand. If this is the case, don't hesitate to ask your principal, DOS, or director for help. S/he has probably dealt with parents like this before. In addition, parents tend to become more timid around heads of schools.

Sharon de Hinojosa (naturegirl321) has lived and worked in the US, Scotland, Spain, the Czech Republic, China, Korea, and Peru. As well as teaching short-term in Venezuela and Taiwan.

She has created TEFL Tips which has information for teachers from writing a CV, to giving a demo lesson, learning the local language, teaching tips for the classroom and more.

Since living in Peru since August 2004, she wrote The Ultimate Peru List http://www.theultimateperulist.blogspot.com/. With 80 pages it's a comprehensive guide for those living in or moving to Peru.