Educators:
· Seek out opportunities for professional development in training in parental involvement.
· Make parents feel welcome in the school.
· Provide a parent center for parents to use while at school.
· Reach out to parents whose first language is not English.
· Learn about the various backgrounds of the students and know how to communicate with diverse families.
· Accommodate parents' work schedules when creating parent-involvement opportunities.
· Assign homework projects that engage each child's parents and family and make learning more meaningful for the student, such as a family history, interviews with grandparents, or descriptions of parents' daily work.
· Keep parents informed of their children's performance and school activities by means of notes, telephone calls, newsletters, conferences, and meetings.
· Provide clear, practical information on home-teaching techniques for parents of children who need extra help at home.
· Provide opportunities for parents to visit the school, observe classes, and provide feedback.
· Start the school year with an opening conference.
· Develop a plan to promote parent-teacher partnerships at school.
· Invite parents to serve on school or district committees.
I am excited to hear more strategies to get parents involved! I enjoyed your examples of countering arguments that you hear from parents and also that while in theory they should then jump at the opportunity to be involved they still don't necessarily take the opportunity.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very insightful resource. There are so many barriers keeping parents from coming in to schools and getting involved. Barriers could be easy to overcome if the teacher is open-minded. Having childcare is not an option for some schools, so if a teacher was willing to have a child playing quietly in the back of the room while a parent helps out, that would be a solution to that problem. The other issues hadn’t crossed my mind keeping parents from coming into schools and getting involved. I had never thought about lacking in skills when I volunteered. I figured teachers would direct me and it would all fall into place. I also thought that if I didn’t do it, the teacher would spend more time getting that stuff done instead of focusing on their students. The money barrier is also understandable. Parents realize that helping at the school is volunteer focused, but it is typical now that both parents in a household work. However, there are other things parents can do other than coming into the school to help. This resource helps uncover these issues. Nice job Grace!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing about the NCSE--excellent resource. Previously, I was unaware of this website but have since bookmarked it. I too, believe that building parent involvement is essential. You mentioned parent groups, which caused me to have an ah-ha moment. Alongside making adjustments to allow for parent conferences and meetings to be more accessible (e.g., children/siblings can play quietly in one corner of the classroom), teachers and schools can advocate for parent groups. What I mean by this is groups of parents with similar barriers sharing the responsibility of attending school functions, etc. one at a time and reporting back to the group. This way, more parents can feel plugged in without being forced to compromise their time and resources at the expense of their child’s education. What does the research say about this idea?
ReplyDeleteVery helpful and thoughtful tips Grace! I am going to use some of the ideas for my next school year. I especially like "Reach out to parents whose first language is not English". and "Learn about the various backgrounds of the students and know how to communicate with diverse families". These are very thoughtful ideas for helping parents involved in their children's education as well as helping teachers to understand each child's unique family backgrounds. Thank you.
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