How Can We Get Them
To Come?
“How Can We Get Them To Come?” This is the question every
teacher asks when given the task of coordinating an activity that involves
student/parent attendance to be successful. All the research basically says the
same thing: If the parents are involved,
the students will achieve. As I have found though, many statistics are
included, but the “How To” part is
still to be decided. I have found great research on Why parent involvement is low for certain populations, specifically
Hispanic or African American cultures, but the How is still to be decided. Then I made a correlation between what
I read about pushing and resisting forcing for change as it pertains to this
project. The cultural and social norms are the resisting forces and the new
methods of parent involvement are the pushing forces. With this in mind, I can
better understand how to plan effectively and preventatively.
Now for the good
stuff – HOW?
This project does NOT include more school-wide activities
for teachers to plan and parents to attend. This project focuses on improving communication from school to home
regarding the students’ achievement
and behavior. Making teacher/parent
communication about the student the central focus and creating a climate of “Concern” will change school culture.
The side benefit of this project is that teachers will give parents advice on assisting at home and send activities for parent to do at home at
least once a month. These can be academic or social activities and will be
returned to the teacher with parent signature and record of usage.
What will be
accomplished?
Three goals that involve parents are accomplished with this
plan, but they all have students as the main focus. 1. Improve parent involvement
2. Help students succeed
3. Develop a campus culture and climate to be one that fosters collaboration and shows concern for all students
The first goal is improving parent involvement with their
children. This is accomplished through giving them the information they need to
be informed parents and giving them the tools to do it at home.
The second goal is helping students succeed. This will be
accomplished through teachers sharing advice with parents, parents reinforcing
concepts and the importance of school, as well as building the bond between
home and school.The third goal is to develop a school culture and climate where there is a true bond between school and home. This will be accomplished due to the consistent communication and the focus put on parents’ involvement in the home.
Think about it - Does parent involvement with their children always have to be at school?
Well the saying i think stands true "If you feed them, they will come". I know this can get expensive but maybe a few planned activities can include food.
ReplyDeleteI have worked in a school district similar to yours. Our principal really was proactive in parental involvement. You will always have that small percentage of parents that will come, but how do you get the others to be involved. We had to contact parents weekly via by phone to give them an update on how well their student was doing. You try to build a relationship with them prior to a program or activity we need them to attend. Our first strategy was to be very personable during the first parent night. This is the one that is prior to school starting and the one where you will see majority of your parents because you are giving our schedules and so forth. Also, buiding a relationship with the student also domino into the parent hearing about what you are doing in the classroom. When dealing with these demographics, you have to come to the reality that most of the parents had a bad experience during their school years. We have to change their mindset about schools.
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