Enlisting and Providing Support from my classmates in 412
I think that this advocacy assignment has been the most difficult one in my entire experience at Kendall College
I know what I want to attain, and that is that my audience of teachers and parents will unite with effective communication by building partnerships. What this means is that the teacher will communicate ideas in a way that will provoke responses from the parent to get involved in their child's classroom life, whether before, during or after school. The parent will feel welcome enough to offer any resources, answers, and after school help to their child. This will be done with newsletters, conferences and informal gatherings to a smaller scale of emails, notes and bulletin boards.
One question that I ask myself is will the information I present be enough for motivation on both sides to make a change that will ultimately help the child. For the parent to get involved is crucial for that child's academic future as I will show the connection to parent involvement. I know that a key roadblock is time. We all have "x" amount of time in the day and to start or request a change, requires extra time in the beginning. I hope though that my advocacy plan will enable those involved to make a change and know that it will be a positive effect on the child. I am not concerned with the actual presentation of my effective parent and teacher communication plan as the staff has been very supportive of my plan and are looking forward to what I will put in place for them. I am concerned that the staff will not continue and carry on with it as it will only benefit those involved.
My questions to my colleagues is that how open-minded would you be to someone coming to your place, to present a plan on effective parental involvement and what resources and information would you seek if you were looking for effective parent/teacher communication? My final dilemma is that I keep vacillating between effective parent involvement and effective parent teacher communication. I know that the two go hand in hand but I can't seem to narrow down my focus.
I have found http://www.hilltopcc.com/ to be a wonderful place to visit for ideas as two teachers from this center presented at a Leadership Connections conference I went to a few weekends back and the topic of the seminar was "Building Partnerships with Families." They had a chock full of ideas such as reenacting a play together, as parents, using their child's lines verbatim that they had the teacher write down. Again, it boils down to how much time does a parent have to get involved I guess.
Hi Vickie,
ReplyDeleteI am sorry that you are having such problems with your advocacy action plan. Don't feel bad, because unfortunately I am going through the same stressful situation. You still have a few more assignments where you could bring your grade up so please don't think that you have to settle for the grade of a "D". I think that your topic of effective parental involvement would be a great advocacy action plan to present. I think that I would go with effective parent involvement versus effective parent teacher communication even though they both are very important. Parent involvement lacks and it is very important in the growth and development of children. I also think that parent involvement is a great way in Building a Partnership between the teachers and parents in which is also very important. Good Luck!! and Keep Your Head Up!!!
Vickie,
ReplyDeleteI am also doing parent involvement and also stuggling in this class. I have never gotten below and B in a class and I will be lucky to pass this class before the end of the quarter. Please do not give up. I agree that time does require change, but I think maybe some other things in our days could be changed or modified to allow this change to happen. I reviewed the website you sited hilltopcc.com and found it very benificial as well. I looked into projectappleseed.com, take a look and see if you can find any usefull information.
Vickie,
ReplyDeleteI join the others in encouraging you to stay strong, keep your head up and don't give up. I like your topic and if I were a parent attending your presentation I would want to feel supported, gain new thoughts and ideas from your presentation that would enhance how I currently participate in my child's classroom and interact with the teacher. I wouldn't want to feel like I am lacking or inattentive because of the new information I am hearing, but would want to learn from your action plan, thoughts and ideas so I could be ready to try them.
I would be looking for information that was detailed and pertained to my child's age group and was motivating so I would want to bring other parents on board. I would also like to have some ideas, activities and resources I could use to get started.
I hope my comments help and know you will do well with your presentation and the course. Good-luck!
Parent Involvement begins with an effective partnership between teachers and parents. As a teacher parent involvement in my class was almost 100% on any given activity or conference. Without that partnership my percentages would have been exteremly low. I do not believe in envading my parents home. I want them to share teaching in the classroom. I am more than happy to provide information on parenting but want parents to request information. This can be done through various means such as surveys asking parents what topics they would like to learn more about. I would not be happy if someone came in my classroom and told me how to teach without me asking for assistance and guidance. How can you establish a relationship if you strt off by judging.One way to get parents involved is by giving them a voice in decision making. Google ways in which parents can be involved in the classroom, create a PTO, family nite events are usually very successful. Most importantly make sure teachers are on board to support parent involvement. Teachers may need training on the importance of having families involved in their childs early learning years.
ReplyDeleteVicki,
ReplyDeleteTo address your question "how open-minded would you be to someone coming to your place, to present a plan on effective parental involvement and what resources and information would you seek if you were looking for effective parent/teacher communication?" I would love the idea! I would be looking for actual methods that allow me to use your plan. You are right on with the fact that "time" will be a barrier. With that in mind, have you provided "doable" suggestions to incorporate your focus into a teachers or parents day? These suggestions should be well outlined as to what actions they can take to begin building that effective communicative relationship in little time.
Best wishes to you!
Libby
Vicki, I just wanted to let you know that you are not alone in your low grade for this class. I am also struggling, not sure how to improve. I don't know if it is my topic that seems to lower my grades or if it my actual work. I have never gotten such bad grades. Just know that at the end of this class you will still have a job or be able to get one. It is only one class, not your whole education. Remember that your topic is an important one, parents need to be involved in childrens education. I can't help but wonder with all of us struggling, what does that say about our professor? Last semester was totally different as far as participation!!! Keep up the hard work and it will be over soon!!!!
ReplyDelete