Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/the-untapped-opportunity-of-families-as-collaborators/5024420/
If you were planning a trip to a distant and unfamiliar city, and a close friend had lived there for many years, would you reach out to learn more about the area? And, if your friend offered advice and helped you plan, would that improve your trip?
The answers here in most cases are, obviously, yes! In fact, your friend would most likely love the opportunity to give you advice and practical help, if not act as your tour guide and collaborator. This article makes the case that this same opportunity exists for early educators and their relationships with the families in their programs. Are we taking full advantage of the insights and helping hand that most parents are all willing to provide?
Best practice in building relationships with parents includes parent-teacher conferences, program-wide meetings and events, daily reports, warm greetings and departures. We have also begun to embrace technology that supports family communication. In fact, the phrase “family engagement” has come to mean using many strategies that include personal interactions and online communication. Unfortunately, the term “online engagement” is often wildly misinterpreted and frequently implemented by offering collections of “Pinterest moments” and getting “Great pic!” comments back from parents as confirmation they ...