As a middle school teacher, I often called parents to share good things about their kids. It built trust with families.

• As a middle school teacher, I was encouraged to call my students home to share something good. • I thought it was unrealistic, but the principal insisted on a call and not an email. • It's been 20 years since I taught middle school, but I'm still in touch with some of the families.

When I was a middle school teacher, I thought the school principal was being unrealistic when he strongly encouraged all of his teachers to spend the month of September and the first weeks of October making short phone calls to their students' homes. "Catch your students doing something good, I don't care what it is, and call their parents and guardians to tell them about it," he said. And no, shooting off a quick email does not count, he also said.

The goal, our principal believed, was not to wait for s