Communication Plan

Communication between school and home is incredibly important if you and I are to truly work as a team in helping your kids continue to grow and building healthy, joyful relationships. At CFI, each classroom teacher develops and shares out a communication plan detailing the particulars of communication between home and school. Here are important items of note for our classroom...

* This blog will serve as a public post detailing all important information about our classroom. This will include weekly newsletters, reminders of important classroom events, information about book orders, details on any homework assignments that may come home from time to time, photographs and videos of the kids at work, and links to sites that contain content the kids may want to access at home.

* Newsletters will be posted later in the week (Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday) depending on how my schedule plays out. As of right now, I'm planning to post the newsletter on Thursday evenings but once the flow of the school year is established I may come to find out it's more convenient to write it a day earlier or a day later. We'll let that naturally evolve as we move through the first few weeks of school. In any case, I'll always email you to let you know the newsletter has been posted (just in case you haven't subscribed to our blog). Please note, however, I most likely will not post a newsletter during the weeks we have Curriculum Night since we will be sharing information with you  in person regarding the work we've been doing.

* If you ever need anything at all from me please don't hesitate to email me. I will respond to you as soon as I possibly can though there will be times, depending on when you sent the email and what responsibilities I may or may not have after school, when I may need to get back to you the following day. My goal is always to respond within a 24 hour time frame. When contacting me, please do not ever leave a recorded phone message on the school's phone system. It's likely I will not receive it. However, you can call and leave a message with a live person at the front desk (most likely, Mrs. Angie) for me to call you back, if need be.

* Any change in your child's dismissal plans should emailed to me before the school day begins. If you try to email me later in the day there is a chance I will not see it until the day has ended and the kids are all gone. If you do need to change dismissal plans after the school day has begun you can simply call the front desk and let them know. They will pass a note to my classroom to ensure I am aware of this change.

* If you are soooo happy with the way things are going in the classroom and your child's excitement about learning and school please let me know. I'm always happy to receive positive feedback. Working closely with kids and families is what I love the most about teaching. That said, if there is ever a concern or an issue that develops let me know about that as well. I want to make certain I'm doing everything I can for your child as well as supporting you at home. In such cases, just be mindful of the fact tone-of-voice is sometimes difficult for me to read within an email (though in my fifteen years of teaching there has probably been one or two emails, sadly, that were written in ALL CAPS or contained twenty-seven exclamation points after an angry sentence). Having four children at home I know what it is like to have an emotional response to something my child has experienced at school - even in the most wonderful of classrooms. For my part, I do my best to assume parents are writing to me with the very same care and respect I will always use when writing to them. We both want what's best for your child and will work together to ensure we're supporting each other in every way possible.

* I really do not want to begin the school year talking about discipline sorts of things, though please know our classroom will certainly work in deliberate ways to ensure we have created a space that is calm, welcoming, caring, and purposeful. Of course, there will inevitably be instances in which we experience break-downs with behavior. That's just part of being seven and eight years old and learning about relationships, expectations, and so on. Behavioral miscues serve as teachable moments to help the kids become increasingly aware of how to operate within the world around them. During these moments I may send you an email letting you know what happened so you can continue discussing it at home knowing we did the same at school. There may be other times I'll ask a student to write a letter home letting a parent know about an issue they had. Either way, my goal is to make sure you are aware of what is happening at school. Believe me when I say it is never because I am at my wit's end or expecting you to magically create a change in a day's time. Some issues do get resolved quickly. Others take time. Building on the theme it seems I've developed throughout this post, we'll work together to get it figured out. No worries!

* Lastly, I always enjoy invitations to birthday parties, soccer games, recitals, etc. I can't always promise I'll be able to make it because my kids have a whole lot going on as well but I do promise to do everything I can to be there if at all possible. I love opportunities to get to know the kids better by seeing other parts of their lives that are important to them.

That's it. I hope I covered it all. If not, there's plenty of time to tack on. I hope you all have a great eclipse viewing tomorrow and I'll see the kids on Tuesday. Take care!

Chris