When I talk to parents, many of them feel as though there is a hidden code in schools - a code they don't understand. Margo and her son moved to a new area when Jared started middle school. She missed the first parent-teacher meeting because she was working. She called the school and left several messages asking to meet with his teachers but didn't receive a return call.

Margo was frustrated when she told me her story. Another teacher at the school was in one of my college classes, so I talked with her. I discovered that the school had a policy that all appointments with teachers were scheduled with the attendance secretary, so the entire teaching team could meet with parents without scheduling conflicts. My graduate student said the principal always explained the policy at the first meeting.

Of course, Margo didn't know because she wasn't at the meeting, and she thought the teachers were just ignoring her. One phone call later, she connected with the teachers, and she and Jared finished the year successfully.

Building partnerships with parents is founded on informing parents about what is going on in your classrooms, which transforms the relationship. You want parents to feel that they are truly a part of your classroom. And that can't happen if they don't know or understand what you are doing.

Kendra Alston, a former graduate student, believes that communication is an important part of her job. During the first two weeks of school, she guided her students as they created a brochure for parents about their classroom.

"The students do all preliminaries, I just put it together. I tell them my philosophy, then each block gets together and comes up with a quote that describes their class. It also includes a poem I write to parents every year that finishes by asking for support from them. I always finish with the message that I can't do anything without you.