After an active and sometimes fractious discussion about parent-teacher
conferences, principal Chris Toy asked MiddleWeb Listserv members to think
about ways schools can encourage parental input in schools.
Does anyone have some good ideas for involving a good cross section
of parents in positive ways in the school? We have a small core of parents
who work in constructive ways. There are a significant group of parents
who have thoughts, concerns, and input but for some reason do not get involved
or hesitate to come to staff directly to communicate about their concerns.
-Chris
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Kathy observed the chaos that can result when parents don't present their
concerns constructively.
If I knew the answer to that question I could make lots of money. I know
that where I teach, we only hear from them at budget time or when they are
there to cut the budget because the school isn't doing its job. We have
tried just about everything.
One of the loudest negative voices in my community has not visited our school
for years. She pulled her daughter out of my classroom the second year I
would have had her but she never came to a parent conference, and she never
called me to address a concern. I called her and she never said that she
had issues that needed to be resolved.
She pulled her child out, home-schooled her for a year and then sent her
somewhere else. Now she is back at each and every meeting. Since then the
board has asked her to come talk to them about her concerns but no go! YET
last year she was at a board meeting where my 6th graders were presenting
their independent projects. She was very impressed but seems to feel I am
still a terrible teacher. I don't get it!
Anyway before I go on and on, I wish I had a solution, but I am very interested
in what others have to say. There are quite a few of these people spread
throughout the community who have issues or concerns with a particular staff
member, principal, the school board.
I also have to say that I live with one of those people who has concerns
about the school our children attends and he/they are very difficult to
reason with sometimes on issues like this.
-Kathy
[Editor's note: Kathy later took action in her school to work on this issue.
See her comments below.]
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Chris responded to Kathy's posting.
Maybe we just need to collect concerns from around the country and send
them to our school boards so they understand what middle schools everywhere
are dealing with. Hopefully we'll get some ideas! If not perhaps we'll have
company in our misery!
We had a conversation at team leaders meeting last week. Our team leader
meetings include parent representatives. I made a point that over 90% of
our parents get their information from their children. And, given the lowered
level and quality of communication middle school students give their parents
about school, it seems that the school cannot rely on students to provide
an accurate reflection of the school to the home.
One of our parent reps commented that her child was very communicative and
fairly represented the school at home. She did have to admit that her child
was "not the norm". So, although she differed with my generalization
with regard to her child, she did support it over all.
So, at least I think I've come to the conclusion that the school needs to
be very proactive in putting out its mission and it's activities to the
parents and not depend on the students to do that.
-Chris
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LeeAnn identified a number of strategies her school has implemented,
all of which are designed to improve the communication gap between home
and school.
This is one of our school wide goals this year. Some steps we have taken
so far include:
1. Subscribing to EdLine. This is a web site that my school had to
pay to join and teachers can post assignments, link to their email, etc.
The main difference, I think, between EdLine and some of the free services
like schoolnotes.com is that we can link our grading program to it and post
progress reports to the web. I have had a lot more parent contact through
email this year--in fact, I have given parents my email address for three
years now and this is the first time it has been used!
2. Teachers are making a commitment to call more parents. This is
hard to do and I don't know how many are following through, but I am trying.
My frustrations include the fact that many of our students don't have phones
at home and that we have two phone lines at school (and two different exchanges
in our district). This means that very often I may have to sit and wait
a good half an hour just to get a free line. As much as I want to talk to
parents, my time is more valuable -- I can't be working in my room as I
wait for a line since we don't have phones in our room.
3. We have started holding Community Night once a marking period.
Our first one was last Friday--it was a spaghetti dinner and a series of
breakout sessions that parents could attend. Some sessions included a demo
of our new science computer lab, an informational session on the 8th grade
Social Studies new "Living Through History" component, a brainstorming
session with 8th grade parents to come up with some good fundraising ideas
for our annual field trip, some special education sessions, and many more.
I wasn't able to attend this one, so I don't know yet what the turnout or
success rate was.
-LeeAnn
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LeeAnn added to her previous comments.
That reminds me of another thing we have done this year is to mail home
the school newsletter rather than putting it in the hands of students. We
also have a new sign out by the road for our building and have set up a
schedule of classrooms changing it weekly.
-LeeAnn
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Chris agreed with LeeAnn's suggestion that communication with the home
is key to getting parent's onboard.
Yes, we're communicating like crazy too. We have a weekly newsletter
that we send home with kids. I have set up an incentive system where I call
dozen or so homes each weekend to see if parents have seen it. The kids
know that if I call and their parents have seen it I give them a treat on
Monday. The newsletter also goes out to 150 parents via an email list as
well.
I use the phone calls to ask parents how the school year is going. I've
developed a couple questions that I ask automatically now. I always ask
what's going well and whether there are any concerns. If a parent answers
in a tentative way I probe. So far things are 99% positive.
We mail home quarterly progress reports and a larger newsletter as well
as report cards.
We had a successful open house and a reasonably attended first parent night
in September. About 30 parents came to "meet the principal" and
discuss what was important for the school to provide for the students, and
the beginning of our bullying project. Next week we have our police liaison
officer talking about safety at school and in the community.
The challenge is still how to get concerned parents to engage constructively
with the school rather than "lie in wait" and lob grenades.
-Chris
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Marsha pointed out the wealth of resources that are available to classroom
teachers when they tap into the interests and abilities specific to each
individual parent.
Chris, I have been blessed and very lucky to have some of the best parents
in the whole world. And I also think I've worked hard at finding "stuff"
for them to do that matches their interests. That matching was the key for
me.
Last year I had a parent who was "Mrs. Arts and Crafts" and a
master gardener. So it was a natural that when we worked in the greenhouse,
germinated wildflowers and started a butterfly garden, she was the focal
point. She and her husband brought a rototiller in one Saturday and helped
the kids tear out all the sod and add amendments. Then she came in every
other week all winter and helped the kids get their seedlings ready for
transplanting. She also helped them design and pour stepping stones.
Another year I had a dad who loved to take off work to help out with my
Science Olympiads team. He was a wizard at PVC pipe and we needed him to
put together the tennis ball cannon. I couldn't have made it without his
help.
Other parents come in and help us with expert topics. I am lucky as a science
teacher because almost everyone's parent fits in there. Another example
last year when we were studying soil one of our parents worked from the
Army Corps of Engineers. He came in and taught a couple of lessons. Then
all our parents brought back soil samples from where they went on Thanksgiving.
In the winter we had so many samples to compare from all over the US and
the Army dad came back in. I've had EPA parents, doctors, and nurses. One
year one of the moms was a medical lab tech and she helped the kids test
for bacteria with agar/petri dishes.
Other parents are terrific helpers on field trips. They did a lot of our
advance work and always made sure that we could take the kids in smaller
groups. It was those small group sizes that helped us ensure that the kids
actually learned something on the field trips and didn't just run from thing
to thing. It made me laugh when some of the moms had to learn how to use
kicknets to string across the creek or watch them struggle to be excited
about catching macro-invertebrates. But they did and they were troopers.
I think they learned stuff too. My partner took parents with her to the
courthouse field trip where they helped students go into courtrooms to listen
to juvenile cases.
I've always had parent volunteers come in and help me with those kids that
seem to be permanently disorganized. You know the ones with lockers that
rivaled PigPen. Once a week someone came in and helped them go through their
locker, sort through all the loose papers, sort and file loose papers in
their binders, return library books etc. The kids responded so well to the
extra help and looked forward to missing a little math or science. At the
end of last year, one of those students gave his helper one of his art projects
and asked if she could go to 8th grade with him!
I have also used parents to help me get kids to stuff that happens after
school --- places they needed to go to do research or collect data. Trips
to the city planning office, the main city library or the like.
And every year our school adopts foster children for the holidays. The parents
LOVE to take the kids shopping to fulfil all the wishes. Usually they come
in during advisement to help the kids wrap the presents, buy pizza and help
us get everything ready to go. It's way cool.
You can see, I've been blessed. And I hope the things I've asked them to
do have enriched their lives. A win-win situation.
-Marsha
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Chris wondered if a teacher's success in getting parents involved in
their program was really dependent on an ability to identify parental interests
and abilities and then move on this knowledge.
What a great list of blessings you've had Marsha. What I see tells me
that much of the blessings have come to you because of your openness, your
ideas for involving parents, and willingness to invite parents in. I bet
you are able to identify the gifts within your students as well. So.....
Is the overall quality and level of parental involvement really dependent
on individual teachers?
Is the level of involvement you describe representative of the school as
whole?
As principal, I have been fortunate to have some great parents volunteer
on a number of school wide activities as well as some pet projects of my
own. I also have a number of staff members who have gathered blessings such
as you describe.
-Chris
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Drawing parents into school activities takes on many forms. Larry explained
a unique activity practiced at his school.
I had a school wide program called Family Conversation. Each week there
was a topic that I sent home as a suggestion for parents and students to
hold a conversation around. Parents were welcome to converse on anything
but my topic was helpful for those parents of adolescents that don't know
what to talk to their kid about.
Also, I had parents tell me that the children would not talk with them until
we started this program. They talked because the "principal required
them to hold the Family Conversation". I did this very successfully
with my parents for three years before I left the school. I was able to
keep the topics around what the school was focusing on at the time.
-Larry
------------------------------------------------------------
Chris asked Larry to provide additional information.
Cool idea Larry! What were some of the conversations you asked families
to discuss?
- Chris
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Mary Anne's school has made a conscious effort to change the negative
mental models their parent community may have about their school. Her posting
elaborated on these initiatives.
One thing we have done to create an atmosphere of trust between school
and home is by creating situations that our parents can be comfortable with.
My school is really different from yours. Many of our parents are graduates
of our school--and have very unhappy memories of "school" in general.
It was a place where they were unsuccessful and a place where their children
have been unsuccessful (this is a generalization!). So, we are trying to
change those feelings. It is not easy!
We start by offering them food! A 5:00 start is good--many come straight
from work. Pizza and a coke for $1.25. We don't make any money, but we get
people there! Then, the kids do something short--fifteen minutes of the
chorus singing during dinner. We have done workshops on helping your child
with... math, reading, homework, and study skills (that was last year's
series.)
Then, give them something--math night they got a set of tangrams, reading
they were able to choose a free book to share with their kids, study skill
night they got a dictionary. I'll do just about anything to help get a parent
to school.
-Mary Anne
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Mary Anne added to her previous posting.
One other very important thing Chris--I have learned that as a teacher
I assume certain things. Like--parents know I want the best for their kids--and
parents know I want them to come to school--kids take notes home. Often
times my assumptions are very wrong!
This year we are going all out to make sure parents are informed and know
that we want them in the building. Our attendance officer is calling every
student who has been absent--his last line is "please visit the school
for_______(whatever is coming up)". Teams are asking parents of all
kids to meet with them! I would like to say we are having astounding success--we
are not--but we are making baby steps--last month we had double the amount
of parents we had last year at this time.
Hopefully--it will continue to grow.
-Mary Anne
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Chris expressed his gratitude for Mary Anne's ideas.
Thanks for the great ideas Mary Anne. I've been forwarding them to my
parent team leaders as a basis for conversation in the next couple weeks.
I'm thinking if the members of the Listserv all formed one school we'd be
just about the greatest place for realizing that mission statement we all
have, right?
-Chris
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Trish shared a terrific web page that profiled ways schools and teachers
can increase parental involvement
Here I go again! I just love the Education World web site and did a
quick mini-search for parent involvement ideas. Here is a link to an article
that I found: http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr030.shtml
There are additional links at the bottom of the article. I am waiting for
an idea of Marsha's to be published here!
There is one comment that a parent made to me that pops into my head every
once in awhile. During one of our parent teacher conference nights (we have
two nights 5 - 8:30 and one afternoon 12-3), a parent came into the library
to look around. I gave her a quick tour pointing out a parent shelf I received
part of a grant for developing. Anyway, she looked right at me and said,
"I don't know how you do it. I can't wait for my child to leave the
house so I get some peace and quiet. I can't stand this age." (that
is actually how I feel about adults...only kidding!) I suggest she come
to the school to volunteer and see if she has the same opinion.
One of the activities we have during parent teacher conferences is a volunteer
questionnaire where we can find out what the interest, talent, a parent
has and to what degree they want to become involved.
Some can not volunteer at school but will do things at home like tape programs
from Cable in the Classroom programs for teachers. Then a list is compiled
about whom will do what or who can do what etc. and if those parents are
on particular teams we let the team know.
-Trish
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Myrna shared a communication initiative that she has used with her parents.
I host both a 'breakfast' and brown bag lunch for each grade level of
parents. The ground rules are that they come with questions/concerns/compliments.
No teacher discussions take place. A lot of the parking lot negative talk
has ended. I try to give feedback from the teachers but mainly I listen
to them.
-Myrna
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Chris asked Myrna to provide further details.
Yet another neat idea! How do these meals get organized? Where do they take
place? How often do they happen? What's attendance like?
-Chris
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Myrna described the logistics surrounding her parent/teacher breakfast/lunch
meetings.
Our cafeteria manager organizes the light breakfast of coffee and Danish.
(We are very lucky to have one) Attendance varies - a lot show up, even
dads at the beginning of the year because the hot issues seem to be homework,
organization, and social issues among kids. The lunch will be a salad bar,
again from our cafeteria but in another school, parents bring lunch and
the principal provided drinks and dessert. Several moms asked for lunch
times and so I am trying it. I will choose a topic of general interest and
have materials, just in case the discussion is weak.
-Myrna
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Trish told of a teacher from her school that puts in a great deal of
effort into promoting parental involvement.
One of our 6th grade teachers who has a lot of parent involvement, holds
a breakfast also. He does it once a month. A notice goes out to parents,
like an invitation, with a place for an RSVP. If he does not hear from a
parent, he calls. The teacher organizes the food differently. Sometimes
he has it like a potluck, and sometimes he supplies the food (donut holes,
bagels, etc.) from team funds or his own pocket. We all know what that is
like.
Sometimes he also makes arrangements with the school lunch program director
for supplying a school breakfast for the parents/students. Seeing we have
a breakfast program all he has to do is provide the director with a number.
There are a number of items I have heard discussed from field trips, to
curriculum.
I am always invited and from being there I would say the attendance is around
70%. Some parents just come in to say hi and then leave for work.
Just long enough to let their child know they care.
-Trish
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Trish added to her previous comments.
I forgot to mention that these "foodfests" take place in the
teacher's room. He can slide aside some dividers exposing the room of his
teammate and they move (actually the students) things and set the room up.
-Trish
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Jan provided readers with another idea aimed at involving parents in
school.
We have just started a "Parent Day" at our middle school.
We started it last year and it was pretty well attended. We invite the parents
to spend the whole (or any part) of the day with their child. They are allowed
to go to every class, lunch, etc.
The parents really seem to get a lot out of it. We have parents who take
a day off from work to come spend it with their child. The kids really seem
to enjoy it, too. (You should see the improvement in behavior that day!)
:-)
-Jan
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Anne Lewis emphasized the importance of viewing parents as partners,
not intruders, as we all work towards educating the whole child.
I have read of some wonderful and creative ways to involve parents on
the Listserv. Having written on this subject extensively, I just want to
remind everyone that many parents, especially minorities, are put off by
the "we are the experts" attitude often expressed by educators.
Every parent cares about their kids and wants to feel they are on an equal
footing with teachers in educating their children. Research on high-performing,
high-poverty schools in Texas, for example, concludes that one of the most
significant common characteristic of the schools is the sense of family
they create -- parents are welcome all of the time, in whatever capacity
they can fulfill. El Paso schools, for example, have achieved a lot of attention
because of their success and because parents are truly involved, working
with teachers to develop standards and then to monitor them by examining
student work along with teachers.
They also attend professional development with teachers. This is in addition
to all the celebrations, breaking bread together, and other ways the schools
work along with parents.
-Anne
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Sue told how she started a Parent Book Club with a group of parents at
her school.
I facilitated our first Parent Book Club just last week. After I read
The
Roller Coaster Years (recommended by people on this listserv), I suggested
that our faculty would benefit from reading this book. The head of my division
liked the idea and bought a copy for every middle school faculty member.
At Back to School night parents were introduced to the book, and the division
director recommended it as a good parent read. When we were discussing parental
involvement last month, we talked about offering a book club to parents.
Because we offered, they came. First meeting was at lunch, so it was brief.
I laid out ground rules--no talking about teachers, no mentioning other
kids' names (other than their own). Mostly the ones who showed up were interested
in the fact that they were not alone in their feelings about their kids.
Only moms came. They wanted to meet every Thurs at lunch- YIKES! I told
them they were certainly encouraged to meet on their own weekly, but I could
meet once a month with the group.
I think we will continue with The Roller Coaster Years this month. We only
"served" nametags. We met in a room at school. Everybody left
happy.
In her Friday note to parents, the division head wrote about the success
of the first meeting. Others have said they would like to come to the second
meeting.
Let me know if you have any other questions about book club.
-Sue
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Chris thanked Sue for her posting.
Thanks for the information Sue.
I've forwarded your remarks to my parent team leader. I think I will discuss
this with the parent leadership and perhaps our librarian. If we do a parent
book group I 'd like the parents to have some input.
-Chris
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Janet's school organized a picnic in an effort to get parents involved
in the school community.
Since our grades are grouped as teams, teachers feel that it is important
to get acquainted with parents as soon as possible. Therefore, our team
invites parents to a picnic, which is held during the students' lunch hour.
Parents can bring lunch for their child and themselves or they can purchase
lunch in the cafeteria and bring it outside, under the trees where everyone
can interact.
It shows the students that parents do care and the occasion allows parents
and teachers to get acquainted, as well as giving the parents a chance to
meet one another. We have done this for the last 3 years, and it has been
popular with parents, students, and teachers.
-Janet
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Kathy added a number of ideas to MiddleWeb's growing list of ways to
involve parents in school life.
Our staff meeting today was a chalk talk around this framing question,
"How do we get broader community support of Peacham school and the
children of Peacham?"
The response was great! Here are some of the things that came up:
-Learn more about, become more involved or celebrate the other institutions
in Peacham e.g. the historical society, fire company, library, Senior Meals
etc.
-Showcase of all student work in all subject areas- Hold a showcase night
at the Town Hall have an art show, display portfolio boards with student
writing etc.
-Use Schoolnotes.com
-Send a monthly school newsletter to the whole community not just those
with children
-Go to Senior Meals and read some of the stories they have written
-Display student projects in the library
-Boast the achievement of our staff. Have everyone hang his or her diplomas
etc. on the wall outside his or her door
-Invite parents community members in whenever possible. Make as many connections
as possible.
These are just some.
-Kathy
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MiddleWeb editor John Norton pointed readers to a number of online resources
that focus on parent involvement and conferencing that strengthens parent
relationships.
At MiddleWeb we've compiled a pretty impressive collection of resources
about parent involvement. You'll find our list at:
http://www.middleweb.com//mw/resources/MWRpublic.html
We also have a page dedicated to successful parent conferences, including
student-led conferences:
http://www.middleweb.com//mw/resources/ParentConfs.html
Finally, Ellen Berg recently wrote an interesting diary entry about the
importance of reaching out to parents as schools try to raise student achievement:
http://www.middleweb.com//mw/msdiaries/01-02wklydiaries/EB32.html
John
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