As a new teacher, you know how important it is to develop strong relationships with your students, colleagues and administrators. At the same time, your students’ families and caregivers will be crucial partners in your students’ education this year. Here are some tips to help you lay the foundation for good communication with your students’ families.

• Introduce yourself. Parents and caregivers, like your students, are curious about you! It’s a good idea to send home a letter or email in which you welcome families to the new school year. Many schools also invite parents to attend an introductory meeting in your classroom. “Welcome them in a professional, sociable atmosphere, and they can feel comfortable with you being their child’s educator,” advises Janice Sterling, a teacher at PS 153 in Hamilton Heights.
• Create opportunities to share your expectations. Will you want caregivers to sign reading logs every night? When should students expect to receive graded work from you? Just as you have expectations for your students and their parents, they will have expectations of you. It’s helpful to give parents a chance to hear your expectations and share their own.
• Use technology to stay in touch. Many teachers and families find it convenient to communicate with each other through email, so it’s helpful to set up an independent email account for your class. If your students’ families are particularly tech-savvy, you may want to create a class blog or website where you can showcase homework assignments, class projects, announcements, reminders and the like. Some teachers even keep in touch with families through apps like Remind101, which allows you to send texts to your students and their caregivers, and ClassDojo, which creates behavior-tracking reports that parents can access.
• Be proactive about reaching out. It would be unfortunate if a parent’s first interaction with you is through a phone call that his child is in trouble. “Before you might have to make the negative call,” says Shoshana Berkovic, a biology teacher at Brooklyn’s New Utrecht HS, “call with something positive, even if it’s just to say hello and introduce yourself.” You should always call parents from a school phone rather than a personal number.
• Be aware of language and cultural differences. “I taught at an English language learner high school with a 100 percent Latino population,” says Lydia Howrilka, a social studies teacher at the Academy for Language and Technology in the Bronx. “Make sure you know what the language spoken at home is.” Through the Department of Education, you can use translation services to help with letters and phone calls home. You may find yourself communicating through older siblings or other relatives, so make sure you are clear about how to get information where it needs to go.

There’s nothing quite like a grateful note or phone call from a parent to help you feel like your efforts have paid off. Here’s to being the recipient of many in your career!