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How to Handle Hard-to-Handle Parents

By: Maryln Appelbaum

Establish cooperative relationships with all parents—even the most difficult ones—by using the author’s proven communication strategies, supported by sample forms, letters, scenarios, and vignettes.

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Product Details

Grade Level: PreK-12
ISBN: 9781412964418
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2009
Page Count: 136
Publication date: August 12, 2009

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Author(s) Table of Contents Reviews

Description

"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.

Author(s)

Maryln Appelbaum

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.

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

Reviews

“One of the major strengths of this book is the warm and personal tone used to make important information accessible. The anecdotes and examples bring the ideas to life and make them easy to understand. The overall organization is clear and logical, with a sharp focus on the idea that parents and teachers are partners.”

Maryann Marrapodi, Chief Learning Officer
Teachscape, New York City, NY

"Not all parents are 'hard to handle,' but the author does an effective job of providing some crucial skills for working with parents in a classroom setting. She does a very effective job in providing examples and stories that help teachers relate."

Raynice Jean-Sigur, Professor of Early Childhood Education
Kennesaw State University

“This book definitely addresses answers for educators who want to commit to reaching their students’ families in different ways.”

Renee Ponce-Nealon, Kindergarten Teacher
McDowell Elementary School, Petaluma, CA

“In my experience 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 asset and thus positively impact the lives of students and families. Thank you, Maryln, for a wealth of ideas and strategies for all parents and teachers across the nation!”

Lindsey Pollock, Principal
Houston Independent School District, TX

"A valuable resource for teachers, with user-friendly checklists, forms, and suggestions for improving active home-school participation. It provides useful advice for fostering healthy communication across all settings."

Lauren Levin, social worker
NSSED, Highland Park, IL

Other Titles in: Conflict Resolution for Adults | Administration & Leadership | After School, Tutoring & Out-of-School Programs

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