‘As a school administrator and teacher, I have learned that parents are our most valuable asset. This book provides tremendous lessons to help school personnel maximize this priceless resource and positively impact the lives of students and families. Thank you, Marlyn, for a wealth of ideas and strategies for parents and teachers across the nation!’
—Lindsey Pollock, Principal
Houston Independent School District, TX
Discover strategies for positive partnering with all parents—even the difficult ones!
This must-have resource helps educators work effectively with all parents, even the most difficult ones, and prevent problems before they happen. Maryln Appelbaum offers targeted strategies, solutions, and skills to establish positive and harmonious relationships with all parents, overcome adversity, enhance the home-school connection, and boost student performance.
How to Handle Hard-to-Handle Parents helps develop specific skills for communicating with all parents, including parents who are difficult, angry, overprotective, or overbearing. Packed with sample forms, letters, scenarios, and vignettes, plus techniques for involving families whose first language is not English, this guide helps educators:
- Establish relationships with parents of all backgrounds
- Recognize, and work with, characteristics of difficult people
- Be proactive in getting parents to cooperate and follow through at home
- Conduct expert parent conferences
- Handle all types of parents, including ‘Know-It-All′s, ‘ ‘Blamers, ‘ ‘Helicopter Parents, ‘ and more
Indispensable for teachers, school leaders, counselors, and all educators, this will become a much-referenced resource for building cooperative parent-teacher relationships that positively impact students′ academic success.
Table of Content
List of Figures
Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Introduction
1. How to Reach Parents and Prevent Problems Before They Happen
The Changing Face of Families
What Parents Want From Teachers
Reasons Parents Do Not Come to School
Prevent Problems Before They Happen
Making Diverse Groups Feel Welcome
Opening the Doors to the School for All Families
2. About Hard-to-Handle People
What Is a Difficult Person?
Characteristics of Difficult People
The Six ‘Nevers’ With Hard-to-Handle Parents
Five Ways Parents Can Make You Lose Your Cool and How to Choose Healthier Responses
3. How to Handle the Hard-to-Handle Parent: Strategies for Success
The Right Way to Say No
The Opposite Response for Parents Who Are Negative and Argumentative
Repetition Response
Don′t Get Sidetracked
Agree With the Person
Apologize
Use the Mirror Response
Stand
How to Handle Angry Parents
The Nine-Step Intervention
4. How to Handle Parents With Bad Attitudes
How to Handle the ‘Know-It-All’
The ‘Blamer’
The Defensive Parent
The ‘Helicopter’ Parent
The ‘Negative Cynical’ Parents
The ‘Backstabber’
The Parent Whose Child ‘Does No Wrong’
Parents Who Think You Are Not Fair
Parents Who Are Extremely Angry
5. Listening Skills for Hard-to-Handle Parents
The Communication Process
Power Listening
Once the Door Has Been Opened
The Greatest Gift
6. How to Talk so Parents Listen
Five Styles to Manage Frustration and Anger
Keys to Being Assertive
Power Request
Power Persuasion
Practice Makes Perfect
7. Parent Conferences: An Ounce of Prevention That Prevents a Pound of Problems
Set the Scene: The Focus Factor
The Conference
Key Points to Enhance Conferences
The Five-Step Approach to Telling Parents Negative News Checklist
8. Parents as Partners: Enhancing Collaboration and Teamwork
Forming the Partnership: A Collaborative Relationship
How to Get Parents to Follow Through at Home
Conclusion
A Parent′s Plea to Teachers
References
Index
About the author
Maryln Appelbaum is well-known internationally as an outstanding authority on children, education, and families. She has worked as a teacher, an administrator, and a therapist and has been a consultant throughout the United States. She has written more than 30 how-to books geared exclusively for educators and parents. She has been interviewed on television and radio talks shows and has been quoted in newspapers including USA Today. She owns a seminar training company, Appelbaum Training Institute, with her son, Marty Appelbaum, and they and their speakers train educators all over the world. She has master’s degrees in both psychology and education and completed her doctoral studies in both education and psychology.Appelbaum′s influence impacts the entire globe with her thoughts for the day that go out to thousands of educators via e-mail daily. Her strategies have been implemented in schools across the world successfully. There is not a day that goes by that someone does not contact her at Appelbaum Training Institute to tell her “thank you.” Those “thank you’s” come from teachers, administrators, parents, and students whose lives have been impacted by Maryln. Appelbaum′s books and her talks are always packed with strategies for success. She is a positive, motivational, dynamic, caring, one-of-a-kind difference maker for the world.
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