involved or engaged at your internship school?
My mom was somewhat involved in my schooling. I was always a good student and she didn't have much to worry about. I was influenced by mom to succeed in school, because I knew she went to college and I wanted to do the same thing. If my mom was invovled in my school, it was parent-teacher conferences and chorus concerts.
At my internship, I see a lot of parent involvement and engagement. Every morning students have breakfast with their parents/grandparents, they walk them to school and to their classroom, Chik-fil-a night every Thursday, parent-teacher conferences, reading logs, etc.
*Thinking about Allen's article, make a list of specific ways schools
involve/engage families. You may use examples from your own schooling as well as
your internship school. Next to each item label as 1) Builds deep relationships,
2) Supports student learning, or 3) Does Neither (But they keep doing it
anyway).
Breakfast with parents- Does neither
Chik-fil-a Night- Builds deep relationships
Reading logs- Supports student learning
Parent-teacher conferences- Supports student learning
Inviting parents to concerts/plays/presentations- Supports student learning
Book fair- Supports student learning
*What patterns do you notice? Which families benefit? Which families do
not?
I noticed that the parents who are able to leave work, or don't work during the times of the events benefit from most of these. Also, for Chik-fil-a night, you have to pay for your meal, and some families can't afford it. As well as the Book Fair, you have to pay for the books, and some families won't be able to afford paying for books; they have to focus on paying rent and other priorities. Overall, it seems families who have a little extra money and time to spend, benefit from most of the parent involvement events.
*Which of the strategies discussed in the articles would you like to try?
Why?
In the article "Family Partnerships," I found a lot of good strategies I would use to facilitate parent involvement/engagement. The first of those are reading journals, where the student reads at home with a parent, and the parent responds in a journal about the child's reading. The parent can mention anything they want: how good/bad the child read, the text, suggestions on a harder/easier text, etc. It is meant to be a dialogue between the teacher and the parent. This also gives responsibility for the parent. Another one I would like to try is a Family Night. Here we would do a lot of different activities like: play games, neighborhood maps, look at old photos of each other. Pretty much a "get-to-know-you" kind of deal. How much fun would that be?
*Find a picture/image that you feel likes exemplifies the type of parental
engagement you want in your classroom.
![Picture](/uploads/2/5/8/0/25802527/7921997.jpg?284)