I'm an idiot for not doing this sooner...

So this week and this past week has been a revealing time for me as a teacher where I have realized a very important fact. I said realize because I already knew it but was too dumb to bring it into that small part of my brain which accounts for the part that operates my awareness of things. Anyways, that thing is: PHONING PARENTS!

In different cases last week and this week, I decided just to talk to the parents about their child acting up in my class, which was them either not doing homework or a poor attitude or irresponsibility. I didn't try fighting with the student and telling him his grade would suffer or that by not doing his homework, he would never gain enough intelligence to even apply for a drivers license or be allowed to order a BigMac (just kidding, I don't say things like that).

Let me tell you, it works great. Yes I realize that I am lucky in the sense that in these cases, they are situations where the parent cares. The kids DID HAVE their homework the next day. I feel much more relaxed about the kids, and their status in my class now. I think I'm going to make this a much more common practice. Parent involvement is great! Hurray parents!!