Amber Chandler's "Open Door Policy"

After reading Amanda's last blog post and taking a good look at Mrs. Chandler's website I absolutely can see why her work is being recognized. She goes out of her way to engage not only with her students but their parents as well.

She has an Open Door Policy with these parents which is very essential to building a relationship with students. It all starts with what goes on at home. A student can be active and engaged in school but be discouraged to do so at home. Parents are not perfect and some may want to be apart of their child's education, but it is not common for educators to allow those boundaries to cross. Being in elementary school I would cringe at the thought of my mother coming to my classroom, but now with the knowledge of how beneficial it is to students, I wish she would have came.

When parents can get involved it brings in another source of encouragement for that student. Young children especially enjoy showing off their "accomplishments" to their parents, it is rewarding for both parent and child. It also promotes better behavior. I mean who would not want to be on their Ps and Qs if their mother or father was sitting in their classroom? In addition, it can be difficult to get through to a child sometimes. They may have an anger problem or need special attention that only a parent can tend to, so it makes thing easier on teachers as well.

That being said I personally love the idea of an open door policy. It ties into social/emotional learning because like Amanda once discussed with me, it is all about building a relationship with the students. So I am not saying that the bean bag chairs and art projects mean nothing, but the most essential part of social/emotional learning is building that relationship with students.