One of the things that has been the most
prominent in all of my education class, early childhood and elementary, is that
parent involvement is one of the most important things to have in your
classroom. Creating the parent and classroom bonds creates a community
that will change the dynamic of your classroom for the rest of the year and for
the rest of your teaching career.
To create the parent involvement framework, you
need to think of every family and every culture that is a part of your
students’ lives. The purpose of the
framework is not to discourage what is already happening related to different
cultures and literacy, but to also include these school-like literacy
activities in their homes.
Teachers need to reinforce literacy in their
students’ homes to help them achieve now and later in their lives. Teachers need to make sure that the children
have reading and writing materials accessible for their students and make sure
their homes have these materials, as well.
To do this, teachers can promote literacy and writing in their weekly,
bi-weekly, or monthly newsletters, remind parents in emails, and provide a
‘library’ in their classroom for students to bring books home. If the children have access to materials that
they normally don’t have at home, they still have the option to learn how to
love literacy. Teachers can also,
provide journals to write in during school hours that they can also take
home—the liability of letting the children take the journals home, is that they
bring have to bring it back to school.
This would be appropriate for at least 2nd grade and higher
because they have the maturity level to bring them back. Teachers need to remind the parents to read
with their students and have their students read to them after school, possibly
when they are getting ready for bed for at least 30 minutes a day.
When talking about parent involvement in my
other classes, we have mentioned that everything you do, try to incorporate
involvement. Remind parents to volunteer
with classroom supplies, ask them to come in and talk about cultures or read a
story during circle time, or have parents with a special background come in to
the classroom and plan a lesson with you. To have parents come in, you need to have an
open door policy that is lenient with the parents but also reminds them that
they know when they are not needed.
I could not agree more with the fact that parent involvement is one of the most important things to have in classrooms. When a parent or parents are involved, they are able to help the child make outside connections to what they are learning in school. With my experience at apple tree, working in an infant room, teachers and parents almost have to communicate about everything because the children are so young they can't really do it on their own yet. Continuing this type of environment is just as important as the child grows. Children are not going to remember everything they learn in one days worth of school but if it is repeated and practiced at home, it is much easier for them to retain the knowledge and helps the teacher also. It is the teachers job to teach the child but it is also the parents job to help them apply what they are learning.
ReplyDeleteParental involvement is definitely one of the most important aspects for academic success for students, so involving parents in the classroom is incredibly necessary! I like how you mentioned that the parents could become involved in the classroom by volunteering to come in and teach to the class about their own cultures, backgrounds, or areas of expertise. Parental involvement is so much more than just having parent volunteers make copies or cut out items; having parents actively participating in the classroom is beneficial for the teacher and for the students. Parents who are experts in a particular field, say an instrument, could come into the classroom and teach a lesson over their specific instrument, which is a fabulous way to get parents involved in the classroom. I know in my future classroom I will try my best to incorporate all families and parents, and like you said, having an open door policy is necessary to make parents and families comfortable and willing to come into the classroom.
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