Communicating with parents is one of the most challenging and potentially stressful tasks that educators face daily. In this third edition of the bestselling book, award-winning educators Todd Whitaker and Douglas J. Fiore help you develop a repertoire of tools and skills for comfortable and effective interaction with parents.
Communicating with parents is one of the most challenging and potentially stressful tasks that educators face daily. Whether trying to resolve a heated argument or delivering bad news, it is essential to know how to handle difficult situations and establish positive relationships with your students’ parents. In this updated third edition of the bestselling book Dealing with Difficult Parents, award-winning educators Todd Whitaker and Douglas J. Fiore help you develop a repertoire of tools and skills for comfortable and effective interaction with parents.
The book’s features include:
- How to get parents off our backs and on our sides;
- Why and how today’s parents are different yet the same;
- How the pandemic and the political environment make our jobs more challenging;
- Numerous additional examples of specific ways, language, and approaches to effectively work with parents;
- Tools to help you understand parents’ motivations and how to work with them rather than against them;
- Detailed scripts for dealing with even the most stubborn and volatile parents; and
- Strategies on initiating contact with parents to build positive credibility.
This must-read book will equip you with the skills you need to expertly navigate even the most challenging encounters with parents and walk away feeling that you have made a positive and meaningful impact.
1. Dealing with Difficult Parents: An Overview Part 1: Understanding
Todays Parents
2. Who Are These Guys? Understanding Parents Circumstances
3. Why Arent They On Our Side? Understanding Parents Perceptions Part 2:
How to Get Parents Off Our Backs and Onto Our Sides
4. Building Credibility:
Everyone Wants to Associate with a Winner
5. Taking Your Classroom Social:
Good News Builds Trust
6. Positive Communication with Parents: An Ounce of
Prevention
7. The Power of Consistent, Proactive Parental Communication Part
3: Dealing with Difficult Parents: And Knowing When to Look Inward, Too
8.
Initiating Contact with Parents
9. Calm Is Good
10. The Best Way to Get in
the Last Word
11. What If the Parent Is Right?
12. Do You Feel Defensive? If
So, Something Is Wrong
13. The Blame Frame Part 4: Dealing with Difficult
Situations: The Nicer the Parent, the Harder It Can Be
14. Delivering Bad
News
15. But Do Parents Feel They Got a Good Deal?
16. What If They Use the
F WordFair?
17. Focus on the Future
18. Universal Strategies for
Challenging Situations: And Ways to Keep Things From Being Escalated
19.
Parting Thoughts
Todd Whitaker (@toddwhitaker) is a leading presenter in the field of education and has written 65 books, including the bestseller What Great Teachers Do Differently. He is a former teacher, coach, principal, and is currently a Research Professor at the University of Missouri.
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Douglas J. Fiore is Dean of the College of Education at the University of Central Missouri and is author of numerous books, including the popular textbook School-Community Relations, Sixth Edition.
