-
In what practical ways do you and/or your school currently support parents? What benefits have you seen from this?
-
One way that I support my parents is being flexible with my schedule. When they want a meeting with me or vice versa, I accommodate based on their working schedule and even make myself available to go to their house. Parents are able to communicate with me through email or texts. At the beginning of the year, I asked them if there was anything that I could support them with? I also help my kids honor them and correct any misconceptions they may have about them. When possible, I invite them to participate in projects or presentations. The benefits that I’ve seen from all of these efforts is that parents are happy, they feel respected and valuable, those that use their talents, feel proud. However the most important thing that I’ve noticed , is that they have a sense of belonging to a family.
-
We have a wonderful partnership with our school families. I have seen amazing amounts of love and grace given by our staff as well as our families. We are truly blessed to work in the community in which we do. Some examples of support are a gently used uniform sale to help families out with uniform prices. Also, we have had several students this year whose single mom or single dad forgot lunches or snacks so my colleague and I would always have extra food for them. We also are very aware of the struggling families and often pray with them and pray for them and point them in the right direction for certain help they may need.
-
There are many parents who volunteer at our school. Whether that is for teacher appreciation week, an event for the students, or something else. Our school also has seminars they can attend at our school to learn more about education, parenting, etc. The benefits I have seen are how many parents are very thankful for all that we do and it also helps us teachers to get to know parents better.
-
This is an area that I want to improve on using many of the suggestions in the lesson. There are some ways that we support and include parents with volunteering opportunities, an online grade book system that is easily accessed, weekly communication, and positive notes/emails. I want to use parents more as maker space mentors and look at providing workshops for them.
-
Our schools mission statement includes supporting families to raise their children in a Christ centered environment. Our school adjusts hours for parent-teacher conferences. Our school offers webinars and speakers on topics that are relevant to what is going on in our school community (anxiety, social media). Teachers open up classrooms for parents to come in and volunteer on a regular basis. I have a special person of the week and each child has a family member or parent come in to read to the course. I hope this helps the parents feel comfortable in the classroom, and for them to get a peek into what the day is like. Parents are welcome to come into eat with their child at lunch anytime. Our school also holds picnics at the beginning and end of the year (also events throughout the year) to encourage families to connect with one another and create friendships with other parents. I think all of these things creates a sense of belonging to parents. Parents feel that they are stakeholders and have a say in the atmosphere of the school. Parents feel that they can contribute and it creates a family atmosphere.