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Parent, teacher collaboration
Parent involvement is essential to creating a good school. What strategies can teachers use to reach out to parents and get them more involved in their children's education?
Parent involvement is essential to creating a good school. What strategies can teachers use to reach out to parents and get them more involved in their children's education?
The bottomline is that you just have to be very strategic. Once you can get them in the school have the next task ready to communicate.
Lessons that involve the parents input can sometimes help. Create a project that can be very
nostalgic for the parents. Ask the students to interview their parents to find out about all their favorites. Food, age, books, hobby, song, dance, etc. Build your curriculum around a favorite common theme among the parents. For example: Ask students to ask their parents to tell their most famous family story. Have the students create a piece of art or performance around that story and invite the parents to see their childs final work. (An exhibit or performance.) When the parents come to see their child's work ,you not only have a conversation grabber, you will also have their attention to relay the directions for the next task in the classroom.
High School can be a little more challenging but a morning or afterschool workshop on issues that concern families can be helpful to get them in the school. Free Tax services, workshops
on resume writing, financial literacy, how to get your child into college etc. Local business are always willing to help. For example: two years in a row the Bowen Campus had a taste of South Chicago and it is a quick way for parents to have an afforable dinner. With help from the Chamber of Commerce, all of the food was donated. Parents came out. to eat. Yum!
One of the coolest strategies I've run across is a classroom blog. The teacher writes entries, but kids take turns as well. Of course this requires tech availability and savvy for both teachers and parents. But it's great for student literacy, offering opportunities to write on real topics for real audiences. To make it a bigger project, the teacher can have everyone in the class write an entry each week and then choose one or two to include that week. Entries should get revised and edited by the kids, to improve grammar and spelling skills. And of course every kid should eventually get a turn, so motivation is created for all.
There are plenty of other great efforts. Namaste Charter School, for example, works with parents on healthy diet and exercise, knowing that lessons in school don't have much effect if they don't translate into family habits at home. Parents find that the kids are better able to study as a result of their improved lifestyles. There's no reason that in-district schools can't do this too. McAuliffe School has a health and wellness council that meets regularly and promotes various programs. Parents, teachers, and community org. people are all members of this team. So there are lots of great ideas being put to practice out there -- but not enough time or avenues for sharing them.
--Steve Zemelman
Parents are more likely to attend school events and go places where they feel welcome. Their comfort level often determines their level of involvement. We should look around our schools and our classrooms and see if this is an environment where parents feel welcome and comfortable? Do they enjoy visiting the school? Are there materials, equipment and spaces that meet their needs? Do we create opportunities to involve parents in their children’s education?
Research shows that when schools involve parents in the education of their children, the children have more successful learning experiences and parents become strong supporters of their children’s education and the school. When we give parents opportunities to learn and practice strategies they can do at home with their children, the impact on children’s learning is magnified. This is one reason the Chicago Child Parent Center s (CPC) have proven to be so successful. The CPC creates opportunities to show the children that parents are interested in and value their education.
Teachers can use incentives to encourage parents to attend special learning events. Incentives such as giving books as a door prize can be used. If books are too expensive, they can give bookmarks or decorated pencils. Sometimes, local businesses will contribute in-kind materials or funds for purchasing giveaways and it’s always helpful to have the children make the bookmarks and decorate the pencils etc. for their parents. Always consider serving refreshments. Providing drinks and cookies are fine. However, if the budget allows, providing a light meal is useful in getting people to attend events.
Schools can provide classroom incentives to improve parental involvement. Some incentive suggestions are pizza parties to the class with most parents, an extra computer or physical education class to the room with the most parents in attendance, an ice cream social, or just an announcement on the PA system. Children will work for any recognition, no matter how small.
Our organization partners with a quarter of all Chicago public schools, so everyday we see teachers, principals and parents working together to help children succeed. We also see many schools where parental engagement is a challenge. The more successful schools often have distinct ideas about how to ensure parents are part of the learning process, and I’ve learned that the most successful ones have a vision and plan for integrating parents and guardians into the fabric of the school community so that they become life-long learners.
This is not an easy task. To develop real parental involvement teachers and other school leaders have to start by asking parents what they need. Is it enhanced technology skills? Ways to help their children with homework? A refresher in consumer math? Or simply updates on their child’s progress? At the same time, schools need to proactively educate and enlist parents in making home environments extensions of the classroom – healthy places where their children feel secure and have positive messages from school reinforced daily.
Many schools are striking this balance today. Through a variety of formal and informal assessments teachers and administrators are finding out the types of programs and services that parents most need to support their children. External partners, in turn, are ensuring that services are available before, during, and after school to fulfill those needs. These successful schools are also making sure that vital information learned in the classroom from teachers and service providers – from analyzing current events to strategies for resolving conflicts and avoiding other risky behaviors – are being shared with parents whenever possible. There is no single way for schools to go about this, but effective approaches can include hosting health fairs; sponsoring a series of intergenerational workshops through a range of service providers that promote topics like literacy, healthy lifestyles or career education; setting up weekly ESL classes; and, perhaps most important, making sure that parents have the opportunity to participate in complementary versions of support services being offered to their children at the school.
It is no secret that schools are more important than ever in shaping the lives of students and families and transforming communities. Both parents and school staff need to be committed to engaging and supporting one another so they can create a deeper and more fundamental level of educational success for children.
The parent and teacher relationship is essentially a human one. Though, these years of technological progress and performance measures heralded by experts, educational professionals and external partners have diminished its necessity and perhaps its human be-ingness. Somehow and somewhere the education of a child was divorced from the parenting of a child. We have entered a grave situation when there is a gulf between parent and teacher, very similar to the gulf between neighborhood and neighbor.
So in an atmosphere where states are racing to the top and zones are being created to improve education in the lowest performing communities, we wonder, in this public space, how do we get teachers and parents connected. I have a few suggestions, but they may be too simple for these complex times.
For Teachers -
1. Call every parent in your class, at least once a month, to share the good and the bad. Be sure to call before any report card or progress report comes out.
2. Host a classroom-based workshop with parents and explain what each item on the report card means. Show and tell a parent the goals of the grade level , what the child should know, and what that child should be able to do.
3. Create student/parent only events where you are the host. These could happen quarterly.
4. Have a community-based resource guide ready for all parents, at every school event.
5. Ask parents, "How can we work together to ensure ________ performs to the best of his/her ability? Get the answer, then do it.
6. Learn from and with the parent, in these complex times he/she is your last real ally. Make the relationship count.
For Parents-
1. Contact your child's teacher(s) once a month to discover the good and the bad.
2. Visit the school and sit in for a lesson (math, reading, etc) at least twice a school year.
3. If you have access to a computer and the internet, exchange email addresses with the teacher and ask questions about your child's performance, especially when you don't understand.
4. Ask teachers, "How can we work together to ensure _______ performs to the best of his/her ability? Get the answer, then do it.
5. Set aside study time for your child at home. No TV, no cell phone, no internet, and no video games until the homework is completed.
6. Learn from and with the teacher, in these complex times he/she is your last real ally. Make the relationship count.
There’s no doubt that parental engagement and involvement is critical to educational success. Without collaboration between the school and the home, goals attained are usually considerably less than desired--no matter the intentions behind the school’s efforts, the funding behind it, or the legislation passed. Each year we stress its importance and each year we recognize the need to do better. This year will be no different. Some of the strategies proposed have and will continue to be tried—some with great success, while others will fall upon “deaf ears”. We, however, owe it to our students to try, and try again.
Parents must be contacted using a multi-faceted approach. Some will be more accessible than others and should be engaged through all means. Too, we must consider the grade level of the student who may be of assistance in reaching the parents. Let’s minimally consider and/or retry:
Advertising/notifications through:
--Book bags (fliers, newsletters, etc.)
--Emails or postcards directly to parents
--Automatic or computer generated informational calls directly to the home
--“Piggyback” correspondence, i.e., included with something else that is being sent home, e.g., reminders of in-service days, senior deadlines, etc.
--School websites, particularly on the home and “parents only” pages
--Phone trees that may be in place through parent booster clubs, PTA, etc.
--Parent representatives (LSC, PAC, etc.) communications
Utilizing students:
--What if we incorporate advertising into assignments? If students journal their weekly learnings, parents could be kept abreast of assignments, events, etc. Have students create fliers, newsletters, etc. to enhance writing skills. Let them update portions of the website. Encourage parents to view their child’s handiwork.
--Have students compete for incentives for who brings in the most signed journals, assignments, etc.
Partnering with teachers:
--Have teachers send a weekly (or even bi-weekly) form (to be signed by parent) summarizing the learnings of the week. This could be a simple “check the box” type document aligned with planned schedules to make it less time-consuming) with a comment line for a “Catch ‘em being good” statement.
--Capture parents right in the beginning by recruiting them as home parents, etc. and then continue to engage them to recruit and train others
--Have teachers enlist parents as co-advisors on advisory boards, extra-curricular activities, etc.