Dive Brief:

• Strong lines of communication between teachers and parents are part of promoting student achievement, and elementary school teacher Camille Cavazos shares several of her best practices for starting the school year off on the right foot. 
• Cavazos writes in eSchool News.that educators should use face-to-face events to their advantage as much as possible, and that establishing expectations from the beginning of the school year are great ways to lay the groundwork for the rest of the year.
• She also recommends bonding with students and helping them build bonds with their peers, getting parents involved in activities in or out of class, and developing a course of action for interacting effectively with families who don't speak English. 

Dive Insight:

When people think of parent-teacher communication, their minds might immediately go to the need to let parents know where their student is falling behind or perhaps having disciplinary issues. But there's far more to it than that. If a student is performing better than average, parents can be informed of additional opportunities available to them. And sometimes, they might just want to volunteer for various school activities. Generally, feeling in touch with what's going on at school and the expectations for students can give parents a greater sense of comfort.

Administrators can get in on building these lines of communication in a number of ways. A variety of apps now exist to help teachers maintain relationships with parents and students, but social media platforms like Twitter are also valuable tools. At the administrator level, a superintendent or principal can use these tools to give parents and other members of the community a view into what's going on in classrooms, promoting exciting things students are doing and attracting potential partnerships with local businesses and organizations. Encouraging teachers to do so can have its own benefits, helping to provide parents a sense of what daily life is like for their child. Setting policies and guidelines is key, however, to making the most of these platforms.