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How a Teacher Can Deal With Parents Who Are Upset Over Student Discipline

Discipline is an important aspect of maintaining a positive and effective learning environment. However, because discipline strategies often vary greatly from person to person, as well as between parent and teacher, coming up with effective ways to maintain discipline in the classroom that please everyone can be a challenge. When parents get upset about your discipline strategies you will need to work hard to enable them to understand your approach.
  1. Parent-Teacher Conference

    • When parents become upset over the way you are disciplining his child, holding a parent-teacher conference can help. Contact the parents and ask them to come to a parent-teacher conference. Listen calmly and respectfully to their concerns and express your apologies for any confusion. Calmly and thoroughly discuss the reasoning behind your discipline and the evidence you have found to support using this type of discipline.

    Seek Parents' Opinions

    • Before the school year starts, communicate with your students' parents and get their opinions about discipline and classroom management. Send out an email or newsletter, encouraging parents to get back to you with their opinions. Hold an open forum in your classroom the week before school starts and host a friendly debate over proper discipline. Remind parents that their opinions are extremely important to you, but that ultimately you must make the final choice when it comes to proper discipline in the classroom.

    Work with Administrators

    • As a teacher, you may sometimes be confronted by parents who are so upset about your disciplining their child that it is better to have a third party mediate for the two of you. Speak with your school administrators about the issues you are facing. Explain the reasoning behind your strategies, as well as the reasons why the parents are upset. Work together to come up with a solution or come to an understanding.

    Open Lines of Communication

    • Remind the parents of your students that you are interested in communicating with them through email and phone conversations. Let them know that you expect them to come to you with any concerns they have throughout the school year. Set up a classroom website, social media page or weekly newsletter and include a specific section on discipline strategies. Encourage parents to make responses to each of your outreach attempts and to let you know about any strategies that they might find interesting.

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