Dealing with Difficult Parents

Communicating with parents is one of the most challenging and potentially stressful tasks that teachers face on a daily basis. Whether trying to resolve a heated argument or delivering bad news, it is essential to know how to handle difficult situations and establish positive relationships with your students’ parents. In this updated second edition of the bestselling Dealing with Difficult Parents, award-winning educators Todd Whitaker and Douglas J. Fiore help you develop a repertoire of tools and skills for comfortable and effective interaction with parents.

The book’s features include:

• Tools to help you understand parents’ motivations and how to work with them rather than against them;
• Detailed scripts for dealing with even the most stubborn and volatile parents;
• New strategies for increasing parent involvement to foster student success;
• An all-new chapter on the role that social media can play in interacting with parents; and
• A new chapter on initiating contact with parents to build positive credibility.

This must-read book will equip you with the skills you need to expertly navigate even the most challenging encounters with parents, and walk away feeling that you have made a positive and meaningful impact.

Todd Whitaker is a professor of educational leadership at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Indiana. He is a leading presenter in the field of education and has written more than 30 books, including the national bestseller, What Great Teachers Do Differently.

Douglas J. Fiore is Dean of the Dwight Schar College of Education at Ashland University and is author of numerous books, including the popular textbook School-Community Relations, Fourth Edition.