Your final blog post will be about parent involvement in schools. After our discussion in class and your reading of chapter 6 you should have a good understanding of how important this connection is for the success of a child. Do you have an interesting story from your schooling about your parent or a classmate's parent being involved in school? How important do you think it is? What can you do as a first year teacher to help parents become more involved? Pick one of the questions above as a springboard for your post.
Happy Thanksgiving! See you guys on Tuesday, December 1st.
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My mother was always involved in the schools that I went to. In Elementary school she would volunteer to go on the field trips with us whenever she could. In Middle School she would do some fundraisers in the school and volunteer for some of the events. In High School, she was a high up official in the "Parent Club" organization which took a LOT of her time. Overall she was very involved.
ReplyDeleteI think parent involvement is incredibly important. Having my mom involved in the school's I went to made me feel better, especially when I was younger and I got picked on a lot. Having parents involved in school helps them understand what their kids are going through.
Nothing is set in stone, because I am sure the school/district/state will have their own requirenments of me, but I have thought about some things I would like to do to get Parents involved more. I would really like to be emailing or communicating with the parents in some way at least every week. I would like to set up a day in the week every week at a specific timeframe where parents could come in and talk with me about their individual students if they want. I believe that parents and teachers being on the same page is very important, especially in a Special Education classroom.
*Didn't see the "Pick one of the questions..." part so I made a answer for all of them.
I'll be teaching middle school, so I'll have lots of students and lots of parents. I really like the idea of keeping in touch with parents more than just through assignment books or having to place a call when their child is falling behind or acting up in class. It would take quite a bit of time, but I might call each child's home over the first few weeks of school to at least start a dialogue with the parents. I'd let them know that they can contact me at any time if they have questions. I'd also consider setting up an online chat at a regular time each week, so that students or parents could ask questions or make comments.
ReplyDeleteBen-
ReplyDeleteyou're just an over achiever! ;o)
Debbie, I like the online chat idea! I was thinking of emails with delayed, if any, replies. But a online chat with parents would be really awesome!
ReplyDeleteDebbie that is a great idea to have a chat to go on at a certain time for questions and comments!!! That would be a very unique idea! What do you think you will use to have the chats online?
ReplyDeleteHappy Thanksgiving!
ReplyDeleteI, like Debbie will be teaching middle school. As of now when I observe the students in sixth grade have to get their assignment notebook signed by their teacher. It is up to the parents to check it. In seventh grade there is a little less of it and in eight grade they are free. If a student is falling behind the teachers at the school's first step is to have the assignment notebook signed and filled out, but it is the students responsiblity to have the teacher sign it and check it. They leave notes about how the student did in class. The next step for them would be a phone call. I think a phone call would be first along with the assignment notebook. An email home would be a great idea to, considering we learned how to write one in class! I really like Debbie's idea of having a chat for the parents and teachers. I think having the parents involved would be great! I think as a teacher I will call home even if it is a very good thing! I remember my freshmen yr. in highschool, my math teacher lived in my neighborhood up the street. One friday we took a test and she graded them over the weekend. She was so proud and excited for my score, she called my house that weekend to tell me and my parents that I was the only person in her classes that got a perfect score on the test! I loved the fact that she took the time out of her weekend to do that for me! It showed my parents that she really did care as my teacher and I feel that I can do this to! I want to do this! I want all of my kids parents involved in their education!
My mom and dad were very involved in every part of my life growing up and school was definitely not an exception. They were always part of the PTA and always trying to integrate parent involvement in schools by coming up with activities and parent night's at the school. They were part of the team that put the activities together. My mom was the first to jump on board when we had holiday parties or went on field trips and my dad would always do something to be involved when he wasn't deployed overseas. I really do look back and appreciate that now. Parent involvement in school is not just something that will help with communication between the parent and the teacher, but it really helps the students. I know that I always felt excited and very special when my mom or dad were there because I always got to be the big helper. From my own experience I know that parent involvement is very important. It helps your child to know that you care and you want to see what they have been working on or how they are doing in school both academically and friend-wise.
ReplyDeleteTo integrate parent involvement in the classroom, I would love to have different nights where I could showcase their student's work and then put together activities that go along with the theme. If it is math night then they can check the progress their student is making and any needs can be discussed and then we could have activities set up in the gym for the students and their parents to get excited about math. This could be used for any of the subjects and could be a school wide thing, not just the classroom. In the classroom to get everyone involved, I would love to have some sort of blog similar to this one just in case parents have anything they need discussed or just an issue they want to address, good or bad. I know that parents are busy so if they could do something like this on their free time, we all might benefit from it more. Parent involvement is very important, so we just need to, as teachers, look for new ways to converse with and involve both our students and their parents.
Debbie-I know everyone is saying that the chat idea is awesome and I definitely agree. That way parents will know exactly when they can bring up any questions they have. Would there be a way for them to ask questions and then get responses later just in case they couldn't make the scheduled time? I know they could just send an email, but sometimes people want to communicate in the same way that other parents are communicating.
ReplyDeleteDebbie I also like the idea of an online chat! I never really thought of anything like that before, but it makes sense because technology is such a big part of our lives. But what about the parents that do not know how to use the computer? Like my mom she has no idea how to use the computer!
ReplyDeleteI have been in a first grade class and normally when the kids are so young all the parents what to be involved. When I was observing the students had their Halloween or "fall" party and it was really nice to see all the parents that were involved. So I was wondering how she had so many parents helping. She told me that she has a very close relationship with all of her students parents. She normally e-mails, writes notes, or calls her parents at least once to twice a month just because. She is very involved because all of her students love her. She told me that most of the time she has too many parents wanting to help and I hope that one day I can have the same relationship with my parents.
ReplyDeleteJust like everyone else I feel that parent involvment in school is very important.. My mother and father worked during the day so they were not at my class parties or field trips, but they were very involved im my schooling. Even before starting school I can remember my mother reading to me and my sisters, working on my letters etc. My mom is second grade teacher so maybe she just understood how important outside of school work is, but I am very thankful for this.
ReplyDeleteI feel as though when students know they have people supporting them and really care what is happening in school, they tend to work hard becuase if these people are like me they do not want to dissapoint them.
Lauren,
ReplyDeleteI always wanted my mom to be at those events like x-mas parties ect. You should feel very lucky :) I like your idea of show casing the students work. This would let the parents know how their children are doing, but I'm thinking this might take a lot of extra time and work. But if it helps it might be worth it!
in my classroom, i noticed that there was little parent involvement. i talked to my teacher about it a little because i remember a lot of parents being involved in my elementary classes. she said that with the economy, she believed that many mothers are forced to pick up jobs making it harder on parents. i agree completely. i was fortunate enough to have my mom at all my school functions... even in high school. i believe it has made me love school.
ReplyDeletethe teacher i observed also had a notebood dedicated to keeping the parents involved in their education. i would help her glue in little activities for the students and their parents. i thought it was a great idea!
ReplyDeleteI cannot take credit for the online chat idea. My host teacher is thinking of implementing it with her students and their parents. There is something out there called "Moodle" that she is already using for something else, but it has the capability of online chats.
ReplyDeleteSomeone asked about the parents that didn't have access to the internet or weren't familiar with computers... I guess they would have to communicate with me the old fashioned way, phone calls or notes back and forth.
I wouldn't make it mandatory for families to participate, but hopefully they would want to be involved. So I guess that means no extra credit or any points given for those that do participate. It wouldn't be fair to those that don't have access at home.
i think its extremely important to have parents involved in their childrens work at school. at my highschool parents and teachers often emailed back and forth and at any time your parents had total access to all of your grades and all other issues at school thru the internet. i definitely benifited from this.
ReplyDeleteat the school im observing they have the same program to try and get parents involved but my teacher said they have little luck with it. he said most parents just let their children handly it as their own responisbility.
as a teacher ill make sure to keep parents extremely involved at all times. it will do nothing but help the students.
i really like debbies idea about a chat where students and parents could talk with her about different issues and comments. sounds like a great idea to me
ReplyDeleteMy parents were pretty involved with my education. When parents get involved in their childs education it makes a better learning environment. Not only do the parents know what is going on inside of their childs school but it also helps the parents make friends as well. All around it makes for a better and safer schooling environment.
ReplyDeletewhen i did my observing hours i ate lunch with the all the art teachers. through discussion the teachers said that only 6 parents showed up for parent teacher confrences... SIX!!!!!!!! that still bothers me when i think about it... i find it very sad that a large majority of the parents arent involved in their child's education. parents need to realize the importance of being involved in their child's education..
ReplyDeletedebbie
ReplyDeletethat online chatting idea sounds like a very successful way to get parents involved! sending a quick email or message would be fast and efficient.. so parents wouldnt have anymore excuses on not having the time to be involved.
Hayley-
ReplyDeleteI find that information disturbing also. I know not all parents are available all the time but I feel they should still go to parent teacher conferences. That is probably the most detailed meeting that you could have where you could ask questions to the teacher about your child's education.
My teacher always told me stories about the parents. She would say how some parents were really involved with the students and school, but there were a good amount of parents that were not involved with their students education. My parents were always involved with my education and I always had to have extremely good grades and that is why I work hard in school now and want to become a teacher. My parents pushed me and always talked to my teachers about how I was doing in class and how my grades were.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in school my parents were involved in everything. Mom was on the board of the PTA, School Board and many other things. My dad was and still is apart of the Football coaching staff and Softball coach staff. They love being involved and it kept them very tight with my teachers which allowed them to help me through my class work.
ReplyDeleteI am observing high school math classrooms and the parents are involved. Some parents seem to be like my'n were, very involved and emailing the teachers to check on their kids all the time.
Hayley- I agree with you. My teachers had a mass amount of parents show up at their conferences and they really enjoyed this. I couldn't imagine only six showing up.
Hayley-- that is crazy only 6 parents showed up to conferences. I observed a catholic elementary school and all the parents showed up to the conferences because they pretty much were forced to go because the school set up a time for them to show up and they were suppose to show up.
ReplyDeleteOkay, this is a story about my brother and myself. My brother is 12 years old and he made the same mistake that I made when I was in 6th grade. Both of us stopped turning in our homework because we were falling behind the material and getting lost in the new schedule of middle school life.
ReplyDeletein the end, the only way to fix the problem was for my mother to step in with a sign sheet and make sure we got our homework done every night. Between the teachers reminders and my mothers gentle hand both myself and now my brother got used to the middle school system and never, as of yet, had problems again.
hayley--
ReplyDeleteDo you think that maybe they didn't show because they didn't think art was relavent enough for thier attention. Perhaps they showed up for the other teachers and not for the art teachers. In my experience many parent will underestimate the importance of fine arts like music theater and art for more concrete things like math and science.
If your school was anything like my high school then chances are that was why so little parents showed. if it was not like my high school, then i suppose that you can disregard almost everything I have said.
My parents were not very involved with my school work. They would ask me questions in my earlier years of school but when 4th grade rolled around they never really asked. So from fourth grade until now I was on my own which in my opinion caused me to be a procrastinator. I do not have very good time management skills and always doing my work at the last minute. But at the same time I never asked them for help with my work. Overall I believe that every parents should be involved. I think that it helps the parent-child relationship and also builds up skills for the child. If a child has always done work before play then I think that it will become such a habit that it will follow them throughtout high school and onto college.
ReplyDeleteAlex- I think that it is awesome that your parents want to be involved. I think by doing that then you and your parents are/ will become very close with one another
ReplyDeleteParent involvement was a big help for me during my years of schooling. starting at a very early age, they were reading to me as well as rewarding me by getting good grades. keeping me on track and enjoyed is the main reason why I enjoyed school so much. When i become a teacher, i hope to get the parents of my students involved by having them join in activities and field trips. with the technology craze we live in these days i wonder if i crated a blog such as this having the parents give input as well as me be able to communicate upcomming projects to them. unless parents constantly ask their children what the did in class, they really have no idea whats going on so if they were able to read blog entries, they would have a better idea whats going on in their childrens lives as well as have an easier time to see if their children are staying on top of things.
ReplyDeletealex- from reading your blog your parents were the same way as mine were. if it was not for my parents keeping me focused and in line i do not know what would have happened.. i hope i will be able to guide my children as well as my parents did!!!
ReplyDeleteMy mother always helped out with the holiday parties or any other things that parents could help out with but she was never the "room mom" who was the one who organized everything. My mom would help with anything I asked her to help with and would come to everything that she could. My dad also would come to any after school things that he could make it too. I think my parents involvement made me enjoy school more. I always liked to know that my mom helped with everything that she could. I think it make me want to be more involved in school. My mom and dad also always asked me about my grades and would not be happy if they weren't to their standard. I think that also really helped me work harder on my school work.
ReplyDeleteIn general you can tell the students who have involved parents and the students who have uninvolved parents apart. They have a different attitude about school and a different work ethic.
I think parent involvement is imparative for a child to be very succesful. It certaintly makes it easier on the teacher and child if mom an dad are pushing for excellance.
ReplyDeleteI agree with sami about enjoying school more when there is an involved parent. My mom was always at classroom parties and other events and I have very fond memories of those times.
ReplyDeleteI agree with sami I think that I enjoyed school much more because had a involved mom. She was always there at every class event and that provided me with alot of very fond memories.
ReplyDeleteI think is is so so important that our parents get involved with our schooling. So many things come along with doing that. By having the parents involved lets the kids realize they are not in this on their own. It also helps them in the long run because the parents are aware about different assignments that are due. Not only does this help the student, but it also helps the parent. Getting the parent involved helps them understand their child's strengths and weaknesses even more. It also opens their eyes to different options that are available for their child.
ReplyDeleteAs a first year teacher, i would start off getting the parents involved by having them check their child's grades maybe once or twice a quarter. That way they would be aware of their child's success or not. The parent would have to sign a sheet saying they looked or maybe i would make phone calls and report to them myself how their son or daughter is doing.
Alex- I think that is awesome how your parents are so involved with your school and different school activities. It really makes a difference when you have a parent involved. My mom has worked at my elementary school forever (even when i was there) and it is nice knowing they are so close. My dad is also helps out with the high school football games. It feels good to know your parents are supporting the same things you are.
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