Every Montessori classroom has a few families who want more: more reading, more worksheets, more updates and more of your time. They want the best for their child, and many of their questions come from not seeing what happens in the classroom all morning. This post covers how to answer those questions early and on a schedule you set, using the tools in FutureNerds that families already have.
The questions behind the messages
Most anxious messages come down to a few questions:
- Why isn't my child reading yet when a friend's child is?
- Why does my child spend so much time pouring water and washing tables?
- Can you send work home?
- What did my child do today?
An AMI question-and-answer page notes that many parents of children in the 3 to 6 classroom don't see the value of practical life and want their child on language and math right away. Its advice is to keep explaining the approach, starting at the admissions interview. AMS material for parents makes a related point about the three-year cycle: children build skills at different times across three years, and not every five-year-old reads fluently.
You'll answer each of these questions many times. Answer them in writing once, in advance, and point families back to it.
Write the communication policy down
Agree a few rules with your head of school and write them into the parent handbook:
- When you reply. For example: "Teachers read messages after dismissal and reply by the end of the next school day. We don't check messages during the morning work cycle."
- What goes where. Questions about your own child go in a private message to the teacher. Concerns about a relationship, a pattern or another family go to a meeting.
- What's urgent. A same-day pickup change goes to the office phone, because a message may not be read until after dismissal.
- How progress is shared. Say how often you share observations, and when reports and conferences happen.
Your administrator can upload the handbook as a PDF. Families can open it from the Handbook page in the app at any time, and you can link to it when a question comes up.
Post once a week to the whole classroom
A short weekly post answers "What did my child do today?" for the whole class. Write it on the same day each week. In Posts, choose Create Post and set the audience to Classroom Only.
Describe what children worked on and what you're presenting next: "This week several children started the golden beads, and the older children are setting the snack table for the group. Next week we'll begin the botany cabinet." Add one paragraph that explains a single part of the method, such as why practical life comes first or how the three-period lesson works.
For something families must read, such as a policy change, turn on Parent acknowledgement. Each family types their name to confirm, and you can see how many have acknowledged. For short-lived notices, such as a reminder about boots for a muddy walk, set Expires after so the post disappears when it's no longer true.
Families see posts in the app. Mention in your first-week letter that this is where the weekly update lives.
Let parents see the classroom
Under Classroom Observation Times, choose Add Observation Time and offer a few slots a month. Each slot is one date and time, and one parent can reserve it.
Send written guidelines with the booking. Schools such as Somersfield Academy and the Montessori School of Toledo ask observers to stay in the observer's chair, avoid starting conversations with children, take no photos, and book a follow-up meeting for their questions. A child who approaches can be greeted and asked to return to their work.
Offer conference times before families ask
Conferences in fall and spring, plus office hours in between, give a worried family somewhere to go. Open Office Hours and add availability, either for a single date or repeating weekly. Families pick a slot and write a Reason for Meeting, so you know what's coming. Put both conference weeks on the school calendar at the start of the year, using the Parent-teacher conference event type. Your administrator can share the school calendar's feed address, and families subscribe to it in their own calendar app.
Keep the classroom board on topic
Parents in a classroom can post to the Classroom Message Board, and every family in the classroom reads it. Set a few rules in the handbook: the board is for classroom logistics, questions about one child go in a private message, and concerns about a child, a parent or a teacher go to a meeting. When a concern does appear on the board, reply once to move it: "Thanks for raising this. I'll message you directly so we can talk about it."
Staff can pin a message on the board. Pin one with your response times and a link to the handbook.
Share observations on a rhythm
Share an observation for each child every week or two, using Share with parents when you record it. Families also get an email for each observation you share. If your administrator turns on the daily parent digest, the day's shared observations also go out in one evening email.
Pick a rhythm you can keep through the whole year, and write it in the policy.