As per course,
"Read:
Parent Engagement
Getting Parents involved in Schools
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/getting-parents-involved-schools
It is imperative that parents are involved in their children’s learning experiences in school because learning is a process that is done at both the school and home. Parents should be informed about what their children are learning, why they are learning that, and how they can help with their learning. It is critical that all parents be involved, and therefore, opening the classroom and school to parents.
Collaboration with parents is important to help foster an improved learning experience for students, it gives them the chance to continue developing their academic skills through on-going learning at school and home.
Inviting parents to the school to explore and discuss the community is also very important for parent collaboration. Hosting school open houses, in which parents can come to the school, be given a tour of their children’s learning spaces, and demonstrating the school’s diversity and culture could help parents become more comfortable and included. The purpose is to showcase respect and understanding for the various background and cultures brought into the school.
Parent involvement in their child’s schooling significantly increases the likelihood of success for that child.
Post:
Build on the ideas discussed about the importance of collaboration with parents. What impact can parents make in the school community? How can a leader guide and support parents?
Review and comment on two other postings by your colleagues."
As per discussion,
"Collaboration with parents is extremely important for a number of reasons, first and foremost is that students with needs can receive more from their education through parental participation and another main reason is that parents are stakeholders in the education of their children therefore offering insights into how teachers may better reach their particular children. Along with these main reasons come some circumstantial and sometimes unexpected benefits to teacher-parent collaborations, being insights into field trips, guest speakers, chaperones for school community events as well as involvement (in a participatory level) in school community events.
To quote the Capacity Building Series K-12, "When fostering family engagement, perhaps a more organic, “expanded definition of involvement” would be helpful (Weis & Lopez, 2009). We need to open up the notion of “volunteer” to mean anyone who supports children’s learning or development in any way, at any place, and at any time – not just during the school day and at the school building (OPC, CPCO, & ADFO, 2011, p. 82)." (2012)
This reflects the general idea of what I mentioned in the later part of my introduction, but also to read more into-it is an opportunity for parents to not only volunteer themselves, but information as well. Guardians know the students on levels we don't, and might be able to provide insight into the behaviours and ideas of our students in their natural environment that can better help us develop students' abilities within class. Furthermore the release of this information is 2012-if you recall, 2012 was a bit of a big deal in regards to social justice in Ontario's Educational practices/dealings with extra curricular clubs/interest groups because Gay-Straight Alliance teams were now able to be housed within school buildings regardless of Catholic or public. This is one way the school begins to invite guardians into the school community, to help support, guide or maybe even become educated themselves on what the purpose of these clubs were as well as ways of building trust (which the article spoke about some parents not having in schools at the time).
Reflecting on a previous discussion a TELL course, we were asked on the importance of bringing parents (figuratively speaking) into the school community and the benefits to such actions. My brief post on the topic,
"For parents, I would like to be an advocate by using things like Edmodo or "guardian signatures" in which students need to collect the signatures of their parents/guardians based on when they finish the work. In using Edmodo, parents are able to join to see what their students are doing as well as contact the teacher directly. Our school has students, parents and teachers on Pearson's "Power School/Power Teacher" APP, however there is no direct communication between the parties."
Since then I have seen the way that parents' involvement positively impacts student involvement and productivity. Students dread handing over their easyconnect code to their parents-in a way the environment of international schools in China also create a bit of anxiety for teachers (me being one of them). At the same time it does require a teacher to really be on point as parents are not afraid to question every notification sent over easyconnect.
This has been a positive development in our school community because it has forced the hand of many teachers to reach for a strong and noticeable alignment between their classes, in regards to Growing Success and courses of the same department.
Being very familiar with reading rockets and this article "Getting Parents Involved in Schools" by The Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement (Reading Rockets), I have also discussed the ways of how involving the parents allows for more direction in school climate development. When I was a youngster in elementary school, there were often times, "letters for the parents", in which parents would need to sign the correspondence and bring it back to the teacher who would hand it in to the principal's secretary who would use a final attendance to allow the principal to know who/which parents might like a phone call check-in. My Ma being the involved sort prided herself on having a moment after school when she got home from work and inquiries about the contents of my backpack, usually when I'd get in trouble for not unpacking my lunch bag or sometimes not finishing the contents of my lunch (wasn't much of a bologna person). The reason I bring up this old tradition is because it was the base for my thoughts on a school community approach to literacy development.
In that approach I discussed how in regards to literacy it was a matter of involving the parents in micro-tasks. For example, just reading along with an excerpt from a book chosen by the teacher in regards to class and discussing how it relates to what the student did in school today, or maybe something going on in the news, for younger grades, even just an idiom that students may be unfamiliar with. There used to be agendas that parents and teachers would rely on for communication until the students who refused to conform to the use of an agenda made it a nightmarish chore for teachers, "please pull out your agendas while I check for parent signatures". "
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