Communication Boundaries

In the 21st Century and especially the last two years communication boundaries have blurred drastically between work and home. Sometimes we create and try and maintain a line and others step on and over that line. It is hard to create a line but it is important to try.

Communication Boundaries

Many schools have apps and programs that help admin, parents, students, and teachers all keep in contact with each other. There are so many tools including but limited to, email, Remind, Seesaw, Google classroom, Bloomz, ClassDojo, and more. I don’t have experience with all of the communication applications ,but I have used email, Remind, and Seesaw. There are several ways to set some guidelines and down times with several of them.

Communication Boundaries Tips

1. Set out of office times on email on holidays times and even on weekends if needed. This is a little different for each email provider. In Gmail you go to settings (gear icon). Click on find Vacation Responder and set the dates and the message.
2. Setting limits on parent contact applications. On Remind and Class Dojo you are able to set office hours. It will not stop the messages from being delivered to you. It does, however, give the parent the notification that it is outside of office hours. Unless it’s an emergency, rare, if it is after office hours on Remind I do not respond until the next day.
3. An initial beginning of the year letter that I also send home mid-year. I let my parents know at the beginning of the year that I love being a teacher but also need the evenings to myself and to prepare for the next day. I set these limits so that I can be the best teacher to their students. It lets the parents knows which ways I can be reached at, like school extension, email, communication applications approved by the school. I also let them know my office hours at the top of this letter. My office hours are 6 am to 6 pm. I am an early riser and don’t mind being messaged that early but after before 6 am and after 6 pm I won’t be responding.
4. Deleting email or apps off your phone. This one can be extreme but I have had to ulitize it a time or two. Whether it be for just the weekend or for a school time off.

Flexibility

There are times of the year where you may not be able to uphold your boundaries as much as you’d like. If there is a situation where a parent/guardian cannot meet/communicate within the hours for reasons then making an exception (and making it known it is an exception not the norm) is appropriate.

Take Away

I would like to encourage you if this is an area that you struggle with that you implement one of the ideas in the coming weeks. Regardless of the time a year, a letter home with office hours and ways to contact you may help clarify and set healthy boundaries.

If you have another suggestion about other ways you have been able to set communication boundaries successfully I would love to read about them in the comments!