You should hold conferences with your students' parents several times throughout the semester. Plan to schedule the first conference either just before the start of the semester or within two weeks of the first day of classes so that you can communicate to the parents your expectations and goals for the students. Time the other conferences at strategic points in the semester so that you can inform the parents of any adjustments you and they need to make to ensure the academic success of their children.
Encourage your students' parents to visit your classroom at least once per semester. Let them know that they are welcome to sit in on a class if they are interested and available. This will allow them to see firsthand how you run your classroom and what their child is learning. You can even use the parents for a "Career Day," a day on which various parents come in and speak to the class about their work to promote awareness among students of potential career paths.
The advent of social networking sties such as Facebook and Twitter has revolutionized the way parents and teachers can communicate. Use of social networking allows you the ability to instantly contact parents to notify them of any issues pertaining to their child. You can use social networking to send progress reports, query parents for sources of behavioral problems or even notify them of upcoming field trips.
Creating and publishing a newsletter on a regular basis will help keep parents informed about their child's progress as well as what you are covering in class. In the newsletter you should give various awards or honors to students for exceptional progress such as an "Outstanding Class Citizen" award or an "Outstanding Academic Achievement" award. You can even ask parents to return the newsletter to you signed so that you know that they received the newsletter and are concerned about their child's progress.