Preface Acknowledgments About the Author Chapter 1. Why Are There So Many Angry Parents? Facet 1: The Increasing Variety of Today's Family Units Facet 2: The Range of Needs, Issues, and Problems of Today's Students Facet 3: A Continuum of Types of Schools Facet 4: The Things Teachers Do That Irritate and Inflame Parents Facet 5: A Variety of Types of Parents Chapter 2. Proactive Ways to Get and Keep Parents on Your Side Chapter 3. Defusing and Disarming Out-of-Control Parents What Is Anger? How to Deal With Angry Parents How to Deal With Very Dysfunctional Parents Using Your Encounters With Parents to Learn and Grow Chapter 4. Solving the Problems That Make Parents Angry, Troubled, Afraid, and Seem Even Crazier The Pervasive Problems That Will Plague You Solving the Problems That Plague You Chapter 5. Advice From Teachers Who Have Seen It All Chapter 6. Putting Your Best Self Forward Pay Attention to Your "Emotional Immune System" Nurture Your Best Self Around a Set of Personal Traits That Signify Character Affirm, Bridge, Communicate (ABC) Lead by Example Conduct an Assertive Intervention Take the A Train Deposit Trust in Your Relationship Trust and Savings Bank Become an Assertive and Self-Differentiated Teacher Tend to Your Health One at a Time or All at Once Conclusion: 10 Goals to Help You Deal With Difficult Parents References Index
Written for classroom teachers, this edition of a best-seller provides strategies that can be used to work with even the most difficult parents.
Elaine K. McEwan is an educational consultant with The McEwan-Adkins Group, offering professional development for educators to assist them in meeting the challenges of literacy learning in Grades Pre K-6. A former teacher, librarian, principal, and assistant superintendent for instruction in several suburban Chicago school districts, Elaine is the award-winning and best-selling author of more than three dozen books for educators. Her Corwin Press titles include Raising Reading Achievement in Middle and High Schools: Five Simple-to-Follow Strategies for Principals, Second Edition (2006), Seven Strategies of Highly Effective Readers: Using Cognitive Research to Boost K-8 Achievement (2004), Ten Traits of Highly Effective Principals: From Good to Great Performance (2003), Making Sense of Research: What's Good, What's Not, and How to Tell the Difference (2003), Seven Steps to Effective Instructional Leadership, Second Edition (2003), Teach Them ALL to Read: Catching the Kids Who Fall through the Cracks (2002), and Ten Traits of Highly Effective Teachers: How to Hire, Mentor, and Coach Successful Teachers (2001). McEwan was honored by the Illinois Principals Association as an outstanding instructional leader, by the Illinois State Board of Education with an Award of Excellence in the Those Who Excel Program, and by the National Association of Elementary School Principals as the National Distinguished Principal from Illinois for 1991. She received her undergraduate degree in education from Wheaton College and advanced degrees in library science (MA) and educational administration (EdD) from Northern Illinois University.