Have you ever had “teachers’ kids” in your classroom? “Teachers’ kids” are the children of your colleagues. They can be your co-workers’ kids or the kids of a teacher at another school in your district. During my 9th year of teaching, I was blessed to have several teachers’ kids in my class. I had always heard that you didn’t want to teach those kids because it’s hard to work with someone and teach their kids. Before the school year started I was given many words of wisdom from other teachers who encouraged me to treat teachers’ kids like any other child in my class. I kept that in mind and learned a few more things along the way about teaching teachers’ kids.
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Let me preface this post by thanking all of my colleagues for allowing me to teach their children. I had a great first-time experience having teachers’ kids in my classroom. You all are the inspiration for this post.
Be truthful to your co-workers about their children
When you have a teacher’s kid in your classroom, their parent, who is also your co-worker or perhaps a teacher at another school, will often want to know how things are going. Be truthful no matter what the circumstances. Sometimes I had to tell my co-workers that their children weren’t doing well in class and needed help. Sometimes I had to tell my co-workers that their children had a behavioral incident that day. When you are speaking to your colleagues about their children, it is a parent-to-teacher conversation and not a colleague-to-colleague conversation. Don’t be intimidated because they work with you. It’s best to be honest with them at all times. Don’t sugarcoat how their child behaves or performs academically for fear of angering them. If it is in the best interest of the student for their parent to know something, then it should be told.
Your co-workers picked you for a reason
At my school, teachers are allowed to choose their child’s teacher. I know that this might not be the case at your school. However, if this is the case, then you should feel proud that your colleagues picked you to teach their children. I had trouble with this at the beginning of the school year because I didn’t want the other teachers in my grade to think that I was the greatest thing in the world. All of the teachers in my grade level were awesome, so I tried to remain as humble as possible. I think that was the right approach, but I began to recognize that just as great as they were…I was great too. It’s okay to pop your collar every now and then.

Treat teachers’ kids like any other students
This is by far one of the most important things that I learned from teaching teachers’ kids. It is not fair to the other students in your class to show favoritism towards teachers’ kids. I looked out for my teachers’ kids as much as I did for all of my students. If one of my teachers’ kids got hurt or was having a rough day, I took the extra step of dropping by my co-workers’ classrooms to let them know; however, I made sure that all of my students received the same attention, opportunities, consequences, rewards, tests, pencils…you get the point.
Your co-workers are as busy as you are
Your co-workers are not the police trying to catch a bad guy. Or at least I hope they aren’t. I had such guilt when I had to send graded papers home on Wednesday a few times instead of the promised day of Tuesday. I felt guilty when I forgot to send the notes home that the office put in my mailbox at the last second of the school day. Shade.
When I fell short at times, I always thought, “Man, I know my co-worker has it together in their classroom. My co-worker will think that they put their child in a wild zoo of a classroom.”
Then my co-workers, whose children were in my classroom, would tell me how they had a hectic day and forgot to pass out the reminders for picture day or how they had to handle two meltdowns in class and didn’t get through all of the lessons that they planned that day.
Your co-workers understand the stress that you are under because they are experiencing it too. If they are examining you under a microscope to catch your every misstep then that’s on them, but from my experience, they will be extra understanding because they are running late to school and surviving on coffee just like you.
That doesn’t mean that you have a pass to be a lax teacher. Besides teaching the teacher’s kids, you still have the other students in your class. Remember that your co-workers chose you to teach their children for a reason. Allow yourself to make mistakes without feeling like your co-worker is waiting to report any mistake to the principal and pull their child out of your class.
Your co-workers will call you, text you, and visit your classroom
Be prepared for your co-workers to catch you in the hallway, the restroom, and recess duty to ask about their child. They’re not trying to be annoying, they are just concerned parents. You are in such close proximity to your co-workers, so it’s easier for them to just drop by the classroom when you are getting ready to leave for the day than to schedule a conference…lol (I love y’all…Corinne, Whitney, Brandi, Christine, Sarah, and Roz).
If this worries you, bothers you, or becomes a problem, then you may need to set boundaries with your co-workers. If you give out your personal number to parents, be sure to clearly state the times that you will accept phone calls and texts. If you use Remind to communicate with parents, you can set office hours. If a parent messages you before or after your office hours, Remind sends them a message that says that they are communicating outside of your office hours and that you may not respond until a later time.
Again, I was blessed because my co-teachers were respectful regarding the time that they texted or called. Remember, they are busy just like you. They have families and after-school activities too. They understand that you have a family and personal life outside of school. Furthermore, they have to communicate with their students’ parents as well. They will “get it” if you can’t immediately reply to a text or email.
You will forever be able to watch teachers’ kids grow
The greatest thing about teaching teachers’ kids is that I get to keep watching them grow. Sometimes we never get to see what happens to our students after they go to the next grade, leave our schools, or graduate. I’m friends with most of my colleagues on social media and I still have several of their numbers. I can’t wait to see pictures of them going to prom, gearing up for graduation, and saying yes to their wedding dress.
One last note that’s worth mentioning is that there may be incidences that you don’t feel comfortable dealing with when it comes to teaching teacher’s kids. There’s a myriad of situations that may involve your co-worker and their child that you just might not want to get in between. You can always inform your administrator and ask them to address the concern to your co-worker instead of having you do it. There’s nothing wrong with being sensitive about a situation that concerns you, your student, and your co-worker.
Have you ever taught teacher’s kids? What was your experience? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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Thank you so much for writing about this! This year I have two “teacher’s kids” (co-workers) in my class, and I was feeling a little anxious. This post was a great reminder heading into the new school year. Thanks!
I’m glad that it helped you out Ericca! 🙂
I have taught several coworkers kids in my fourteen years of teaching, including my principal’s son ( talk about not wanting others to think you were the greatest thing since sliced bread). I agree with your post. I think the best thing is to remember is that they are just like every other kid. Treat them (both kid and parents) the same as anyone else. They will give you grace when needed as well as praise. Like you said, they understand the stresses and workload of a teacher. While it’s hard not to feel judged at times I’ve always found that coworkers are also great at giving feedback from the “parents” point of view which can be very beneficial. Thanks for a great post!
Thanks for your comment Heidi! I loved when you said that your co-workers are great at giving feedback from a parent’s perspective. I totally agree with that and have experienced that as well 🙂
Great post! I had a hard time having my kid at the same school where I worked. She was in with a tough class and my coworker publicly complained about them ALL the time. It was hard. She didn’t treat me like other parents at all! It actually ruined our relationship with each other! It was sad.
Oh, Lori! That’s so unfortunate, and I’m sorry that it ruined your relationship with your coworker. I do understand that my experience is not everyone’s experience, unfortunately.
This is great advice! I think we have all been in this position. Thanks so much for sharing.
You’re very welcome Jen!
I’ve taught several of my co-workers kids. My school is very close knit and sometimes those kids are like family. The best part is watching them grow up! Thanks for the great article!
It surely is such a great thing to watch them grow 🙂 Thanks Ann!
I have taught two coworker’s children and they were both VERY different experiences.
Experience #1
One was the son of the Vice Principal (mom) and a social studies teacher (dad). The boy would say ” My mom is King.” often. He would not complete work in class (we wasn’t mean or disruptive just unmotivated..maybe a bit lazy) then I would give him the work he had not finished in class as homework to complete and inform his parents just as if they were any other students parents of his work being uncompleted. The Vice Principal(mom) would 100% ignore it and not respond or say anything. She once right at the beginning of the year said “I just want him to have fun at school and don’t want his to stress at all.” She would schedule parent teach conference then just never show up and tell me it wasn’t happening. Super Frustrating. The Dad wasn’t much help either, but he did actual answer my emails. They were always with an excuse though. So end of that story it the kid is the lowest in the entire class a year later and if he went to another school he would probably have to repeat a grade. I so don’t get this. How can educators just not care that much??
Experience #2
My Coworker (Music Teacher) had her son start in my class. He was ESL and didn’t speak much English as he was born in Korea and raised there. She work with him tutoring and spoke English with him at home. Like you said she would stop every now and then and ask me how he was doing and I would give her small updates and she was worried about his transition because of his language level. He was in the same class as the other coworkers. Its a year later and this student had surpassed the other in one in reading and spelling.
So I guess it can really go either way.
I myself was a daughter of two teachers and my parents always expected be to do well. If I got a low score or didn’t complete work, my parents always asked me why and if I needed help and didn’t understand. So I’m baffled by absent teacher parents.
Wow, two very different experiences! Thank you for sharing!
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