(Mis) Communicating with Parents

One of my greatest strengths and greatest weaknesses is communicating with parents. 

I communicate in a variety of ways with parents through the classroom website, bi-monthly newsletters outlining all subjects, etc., parents volunteering in the classroom, and as a community member. I spend many weeks at the beginning of the year purposefully building a relationship with parents.  The combination of their child "enjoying my class" and them being able to "openly communicate" with me builds the foundation for a successful year.  I don't share with many that there are several nights (sometimes in a week), that I stay up late to respond thoroughly to parents questions or comments to share my thoughts, work with them, and make sure they understand where I am coming from. 

That being said, this past year was a year that I did several of the mentioned above, but I had VERY few e-mails from individual parents.  That was number one, to make me feel disconnected from parents. Although I had many conversations with parents, it just didn't "feel right" this year.  Beginning, middle, and end, I felt like something was missing.  I spent a lot of time at the end of the year and much of the summer weeks thinking about why it didn't "feel right" this year.

I have thought of several reasons...

1) I was overwhelmed. I have two young children, and my husband works very long hours. I get them up, to the sitter, go to work, pick up from sitter, play, bed, schoolwork...every night.

2) I started the year with a student teacher 

3) Through PLP I was working very hard to try new ideas in the classroom. The first year of a new idea is not the smoothest. And, I was implementing "new" ideas in the classroom that a few parents didn't seem too happy about. They wanted to see traditional. 

4) Many plugged in parents felt the need to judge "Public School" as a whole, and felt that the school, as a whole, wasn't "up to par" with what they would want for their child's education.  They were disappointed in the system, not necessarily me.

5) I started to see weaknesses in the "system" as I reflected on where the state is/was taking us, and where I thought education needed to go.

So, other than that... :)

All of these things together equaled what I felt was my "worst year ever" in terms of how I felt about my relationship with my parents. Even though I had the support of my boss, and many colleagues, I didn't feel confident in what I was doing. Was it because I didn't teach from the "cookie cutter" manual? Yes. Was it because I wasn't as worried about students' grades because I saw a bigger picture? Yes.  Was it because I was questioning what I was doing? Yes.  Am I being to critical of myself? Yes. I would say a majority of my parents didn't think there was a problem at all. Which is a good thing. But there was. Whether it was in my head, or some parents saw a glimpse of it. It was there.  

Has anyone else ever felt this way?
What coping mechanisms would you offer?
How do you balance traditional vs. new ideas?
How have you been successful communicating non-traditional projects to your parents (especially those who are teachers, themselves and do not agree with your philosophy)?