Welcome to your final Blog for the semester! Chapters 10-13 really talk about the nuts and bolts of engaging with families...communication strategies, goal setting, advocacy, ways to collaborate, helping parents access resources, developing parents as leaders, and school-wide engagement including events, resource center, and volunteering.
As you read these chapters, discuss three specific and important insights you have drawn which are related to your family engagement topic and group. You insights can include (1) research-based facts (2) important ideas/considerations you had not previously thought about when engaging families, and (3) new strategies/approaches which you are considering to promote family engagement or which are related to your topic.
Remember to visit the Blog throughout the time it is open (11/7-11/28) and to not group all of your posts and contacts on one day. Remember too to use in-text citations and the required readings as a basis for your responses.
In chapter 10 Grant and Ray (2019) discuss offering a home visit as an alternative to doing a conference at school. Previously I worked for a Head Start and had to do two home visits and two conferences at school a year. Before I went on my first home visit I was nervous and did not want to go. I quickly realized how useful these visits were in getting to know the families which allowed me to better support them. This is something that I would like to see happen in the school I am at now. I think this would be a great way to help support families in creating a home learning environment that they can engage in with their children. It could also be utilized as a way to make more meaningful school-home connections. This is not necessarily a new idea to me but it would be a new idea for the school I am currently at to consider.
ReplyDeleteI have often considered the benefits of visiting with families in their homes as a way to benefit the child and the parent/teacher relationship. It seems so natural to work on these relationships, however, the institutionalization of schools makes it intimidating as a teacher is to represent the whole school. When I lived on North Haven (island off the midcoast) I went to children's homes often. I really believe that the stronger the relationship between teacher and the child's family, the more likely a trusting, safe and educational experience for the child will be created. Now I make attempts to ask parents questions about their lives in front of the child to further stregthen our connection and I think it really makes for a positive environment with positive relationships.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteCorrection - *Grant and Ray (2019)*
DeleteHi Lauren,
DeleteI agree that sometimes the best case scenario with meeting with a family is at home. I have not personally done any home visits but I know many who have and it is so important to gain insights on the family structure and how you can really help the family. I feel that this would benefit the older students as well. I feel that teachers in elementary schools are not sure what is going on in the lives of their students.
I have offered home conferences several times throughout my career. The first was for a family who did not have a vehicle. They really appreciated it that I would come to them for the conference. The next one was for an immigrant family who was here illegally (although their child was born here and was a legal citizen). They couldn't go out in public in fear that they would be deported. I was able to get a translator to come with me as the family didn't speak English. The third was for a mom who had just had a baby and it was difficult for her to leave her house. In all three, it was really nice to see the homes of where my students lived and also to see my students in their natural home environments. It helped to strengthen ny bond with the parents as well.
DeleteAllison, making sure you specifically ask families about their lives is a good idea when you cannot or your school does not do home visiting. I can see how that would make families feel as if we have a genuine interest in their family and the information could be very useful in making home-school connections for the child. Justina, I am sure those families really appreciated you offering to come to them for conferences. Not all teachers would take that extra step to make a conference happening if home visits were not a requirement of their program. It give you a great insight into the families culture which can be helpful in so many ways.
DeleteHello Lauren,
DeleteMy program is currently in a collaboration with Head Start and because of that home visits are part of our enrollment process. Right now these visits are conducted by HS staff as opposed to classroom teachers. I think that in the future it would be very helpful for teachers to accompany the HS staff on these visits as it is a great way of getting to know the families.
Hi Lauren! I am not sure what happened to my original post! All that is showing now is the correction that I made, so I will post again. I used to do home visits years ago, when Sweatt-Winter was associated with Head Start. I was very nervous during my first few visits. However, I soon began to realize that it was a great way to form a meaningful relationship with families. And, as Grant and Ray (2019) discuss, it is helpful to see how the family lives at home, to give you a better understanding about the family. It can be an eye-opener, and often times changes your previous notions about challenges you may have encountered with specific families.
DeleteGrant and Ray (2019) include group conferences as an alternative to traditional parent-teacher conferences. I am intrigued by the idea; more timid parents would benefit from hearing answers to questions posed by others, and parents from cultures with a community-focus would also appreciate the group context (Grant & Ray, 2019). I would only be concerned about buy-in from parents, particularly in a private preschool setting, where parents appreciate conferences but not all participate.
ReplyDeleteThis would be interesting to do. What I would be unsure about is the families comfort level in talking about their child's development with other families they might not be close to. Also, if this is how you did conferences with families how would a teacher go about sharing possible concerns about the child?
DeleteThis is an intriguing idea but I feel as though parents in my community would not be interested in participating. I too would be worried about confidentiality and making sure to not cross any boundaries. I'm wondering if their has been any research on this topic.
DeleteI thought this would also be interesting to try, but I wasn't sure if a lot of the parents in my class would enjoy these. I have a parent this year who is a very nervous person and loves coming at conferences so she can talk to us about anything!
DeleteI also found the idea of group conferences intriguing. Grant and Ray (2019) discussed a teacher who held group conferences with Latino/a families and they seemed to work very well. This made me wonder whether different cultural groups would have varying experiences with group conferences. I could see this working well with more collectivist cultures. Whereas, people from more individualistic cultures may struggle with group conferences. I could see parents getting stuck on comparing their children to others, and it seems like there could be potential for this type of conference to get pretty negative, depending on the group of parents. Also parents may feel like their missing out on getting individual attention and feedback about their child. I find the idea of group conferences interesting, it just seems like you would really need to know your group of parents to be sure that this format would be beneficial and effective.
DeleteHi ladies!
DeleteI do individual conferences, but one of the other Pre-K teachers does group conferences. She started doing this right after she had twins to manage her time better and still be home with her infants and older child as well. She has continued doing this for 4 years and she has gotten great feedback from parents! She is able to have an hour long conference with everyone, at the same time, and creates a powerpoint with the standards we focus on and explains the ins and outs of them while parents look on in their child's conference folder that has all of their work samples, assessment information, etc. She has an exit survey that parents can write any comments, concerns, feedback, etc. She also has a sign-up for individual conferences if parents feel they need more. When she sends out her conference information, she also offers individual conferences if parents are unable to attend the group conference or if they feel more comfortable having an individual conference instead. She reaches out to our high school Community Service Club and high schoolers come to play games and do activities with the Pre-K students and their siblings so parents don't have to worry about getting a babysitter AND the community service club can use it towards their mandatory volunteer hours. In four years, so 120 students, she has only had one parent leave negative feedback about the group conference, so that's pretty good statistics! If you want any more info, let me know and I can ask her!
Melissa,
DeleteThank you so much for sharing about the Pre-K teacher at your school! It's so fascinating! I had never heard of group conferences before reading the text and I was honestly a bit confused about what they would look like. Reading your explanation gives much more clarity, and I could see how these could actually work pretty well. I'd be curious about how many parents end up signing up for individual conferences.
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ReplyDeleteMy group plans on discussing the benefits of community involvement in the early childhood education classroom. My specific topic will research the ways and benefits of integrating community involvement in the classroom. It will specifically focus on including the senior citizen population and the benefits on the community. Ray and Grant (2019) list the benefits gained from a school-based mentor program. The findings are in relation to a reading buddy program and include improved literacy skills and psychosocial skills(Tracey, Hornery, Seaton, Craven, and Seeshing Yeung, 2014 as cited in Ray & Grant, 2019). Psychosocial variables include confidence, motivation, and positive self-image. Children also were reported to have a higher satisfaction with school while the mentors reported satisfaction in supporting reading progress. Both mentor and mentee benefit from the reading buddy program. Similarly project LOVE (Let Older Volunteers Educate) shows evidence of senior volunteers make impactful contributions to child literacy and psychological well-being while benefiting the community (Doiron & Lees, 2009 as cited in Ray & Grant, 2019). This information is so exciting and inspiring to come across. I look forward to working with the senior citizen institutions in my school's community and striving for similar results.
ReplyDeleteAllison, I think the program LOVE sounds like such a beneficial program for everyone involved! We recently had a couple of older ladies donate afgans that they had knitted to the kiddos in my classroom. It was so sweet! The children were excited and the ladies were happy to be giving them something they could use. It was a great experience. We were even able to make them a thank you card and the children worked so hard on it to say thank you for our blankets. So sweet!
DeleteI love the thank you card idea! There are so many other avenues to pursue around a program designed to have children and seniors interact. Reading books is a common activity with the children and seniors. However, there are so many activities that can take place before and after the activity. My classs has discussed writing an invitation and baking a treat for the seniors next door. We are working in writing and critical thinking as we ask the children what we should write and do with a senior's visit.
DeleteThat is an awesome idea! What a great way to talk about giving, too. Perfect time of year for some baking and sharing.
DeleteHi Allison! For years I have thought about somehow trying to connect with the assisted living facility just up the road from Sweatt-Winter. I think such a connection can be beneficial for both young children and the elderly. I am ashamed to say that my lack of knowledge working with elderly has kept me from moving forward. I do have a family at the center who both work with the elderly, and I think I just need to push myself to speak with them, and connect with the nearby facility. I know in my heart a lot of good could come from it.
DeleteIn my family engagement group, we are working on evaluating an intake process for children in different agencies. I am focusing on the intake process of Child Development Services (CDS) and how we can make the process more family and parent-friendly. In chapter eleven Grant and Ray (2019) discuss communication between teachers and families of children with special needs. Grant and Ray (2019) give ideas on talking with families with their children. Giving consideration that parents are probably feeling overwhelmed by all the procedures, regulations and laws that they are learning. Some of the communications, according to Grant and Ray that could be I think at CDS we are full of jargon, and our expertise level is exceptionally high because we have to cover all of our bases, but in reality, I feel that we lose people. Parents are so nervous about their children going into the pre-kindergarten. Some other suggestions from Grant and Ray (2019) include giving parents time to talk. All parents know their child better than anybody else, and they need to be heard. They also need to listen to the positive things that are going on in the school and during the day. I have had experience that some parents are overwhelmed by their child, and it is nice for them to have some good positive news. I try every day to talk to the parents to let them know that their child is doing well in one area or in general. To simplify and readjust our process can help parents feel more comfortable with CDS and the new world they are going to experience.
ReplyDeleteVeronica - you are doing such important work at CDS! From my perspective CDS has so many wonderful services but the evaluation and intake process is so cumbersome. My preschool will recommend children to CDS and the process will take months to get services. So if a recommendation is not made early enough in the year, teachers often wait for the next year or for the public school system to take over in kindergarten. It's frustrating from a teacher perspective because I imagine the child making so many more connections with just a little bit of appropriate support. On the other hand, the children who do get supports make huge strides and their confidence, friendships and cognitive skills all benefit. I am always amazed at how much CDS services impacts a child's quality of life.
DeleteAllison,
DeleteI agree with you on the cumbersome and long wait time. It's really hard being on both ends of it. I remember last year, I immediately picked up on a student (not my own) needing support; however it took until April to get this child services. I remember how stressed out the teachers were about this and how sad I was for the child in question. It can be so difficult to start the conversation with parents because sometimes they are not aware that their kid needs help in OT, PT or speech. It can be a difficult way to start a conversation and I feel for the parents and families sometimes.
Veronica,
DeleteI agree with you, parents really do know their children best and I think sometimes they lack the confidence to really advocate for them. This is why it is important to be there for the parents and supporting them to do exactly that. I had a parent this year who, at an IEP with CDS, really spoke up for what she believed was right for her child. I made sure to praise her for it after. So many times, parents will just listen to the professionals without thinking that their voice matters, but it does.
Veronica, you do great work! CDS is lucky to have you! I agree that sometimes the process can be long, as I have experienced it firsthand. Also, I think that some families feel as if they are not being heard (family knows best sometimes), and for other families they are not confident enough to advocate for their child. I think in these cases it is important for the classroom teacher to step up and help advocate for the child/family as best they can. Unfortunately, I have experienced a family who left CDS (and ultimately my program) because they felt they were not being heard. Of course, in some cases, you just cannot please everyone. However, if the classroom teacher has the ability to act as a mediator, I think that can help sometimes.
DeleteVeronica,
DeleteI think it is so important to talk about lots of positives or just things in general while talking to parents. We never want to bombard them with all negatives. If we were to do that I feel that they would think their child is never doing well or not improving in areas maybe they should be.
Veronica and Allison,
DeleteI agree that it can be frustrating how long the wait time and process takes. I work in a public school, and like you, if we don't get referrals in early enough in the school year, sometimes nothing gets done and they end up just waiting till kindergarten. I have had kindergarten teachers upset with me about this as then they have to start over with SAT referrals. The whole process of kindergarten transition seems to go smoother if the child is already receiving services.
Julie, I agree that it really helps when the classroom teacher acts as a mediator. In my first year teaching, I was overwhelmed by the whole process and I didn't quite understand how it all worked, so I didn't take on the role of a mediator. However, the last couple of years, I have offered to be the middle man in parents' conversations with their case manager. I often pass along messages and information between the parents and their child's case manager and I typically collect all the necessary paperwork from the parents and fax it to CDS. I have found this to be helpful to the parents as they know and trust me, and thus have a greater comfort level in communicating with me. It also seems to cut down on some of the CDS case manager's work. Getting more involved in the process has also given me more confidence and helped me become more aware of my students and their needs.
In my family engagement group we are talking about connecting families to their child's development and curriculum. This has been something that I have been thinking about for a long time.
ReplyDeleteIn my classroom our families are engage in the sense that they are interested in setting goals and about what their child is learning. I was wondering in my group about how to get parents more involved in creating the lesson plans, or curriculum topics.
Through out researching I have found a few articles that support this idea, there is a lot of information about the importance of parent involvement on children's academic success. But finding specific ideas, or suggestions has been more difficult.
One article I found that was interesting and spoke to the power of family connections- not directly to curriculum- was School/Parent Partnership, Post-Katrina: Lake
Forest Elementary Charter School by Maxie Kohler , Mardele Early , Lois Christensen & Jerry Aldridge. This article discusses a charter school that was created to build the community of New Orleans again after the hurricane Katrina. The school was a platform for the community and was a way for those to make new connections and relationships. The school involves the families in numerous activities that helped to bring them all together.
Maxie Kohler , Mardele Early , Lois Christensen & Jerry Aldridge (2013)
School/Parent Partnership, Post-Katrina: Lake Forest Elementary Charter School, Childhood
Education, 89:2, 110-114, DOI:
10.1080/00094056.2013.774245
My family engagement group is talking about simplified intake process for different agencies. My focus is on the intake process for KVCAP, which offers a wide variety of different services. Currently, someone is required to fill out an application for each and every department within the agency. It can be very difficult for many people, especially ones who may not have the literacy skills to do so. Another thing that I have noticed within our agency is that I, and many others, are not aware of everything that is offered within the agency. Grant and Ray (2019) discuss the importance of understanding what resources are available within your community so that you can connect parents to these resources when needed. In my role at Educare, I am not only a teacher, but I case manage the families in my classroom. We set goals and really try to help improve the family as a whole, whether it is major improvements or minor ones. By having a universal intake process and some sort of system to easily share information among departments, we could better serve our families.
ReplyDeleteI am surprised that they have not put together a directory of services offered yet. It would make it much easier for all staff to support families if they knew what services they could connect families to. I am curious if the school I work at has a document that captures services for families in the local area. I sure our list would be small because of it being such a rural area.
DeleteI am surprised, too. Of course, employees know a majority of the services we offer, but I had no idea about some of the wonderful things that we do! I had a family who had a fire this year and lost everything. We were able get them connected to the Habitat for Humanity Restore and a credit to spend on furniture! It would be beneficial to have some sort of reference to use when I am working with families.
DeleteAshley, years ago Sweatt-Winter was affiliated with Western Maine Community Action. They too offered many programs that at the time I was not aware of. It would have been helpful to have had some type of directory, with contact information, and a brief description of services provided. I think all too often we as teachers are unaware of all our communities have to offer our families.
DeleteHi Ashley!
DeleteI often feel so uninformed when I am trying to find resources for families. Our school doesn't appear to have any ready-made handouts, directories, etc. I can always go to our school guidance counselor, but I wish I had something that I could reference and provide some support to families. I hope you can get one together for your program! It sounds like you do such amazing work, simplifying the process would make it easier on all of you and the families, which only means more focus on the child and family and their progress!
My group’s general topic statement for the family engagement project is how to use effective communication strategies in order to encourage family engagement and parent education opportunities. For my portion of the project I am looking more closely at family education. Grant and Ray (2019) discuss that there are higher educational outcomes when parent education strategies are implemented. These strategies need to provide families with confidence as well as build their educational competence. This research directly relates to my topic; if schools provide parent education opportunities then they may see improved outcomes. This experience will not only benefit the students but it can provide families with ways to improve their well-being. In past experiences when families feel empowered then they are more willing to take risks and advocate for their children.
ReplyDeleteWhen I think about advocating for children and families I usually think of the classroom, school, or community. Grant and Ray (2019) say “voting is the most basic form of advocacy” (p. 403). I never really thought to consider this as an aspect of advocacy but it makes sense. It brings us back to Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model: there are many different systems that trickle down to the child and family and these are indirect influences. I must admit I do not follow politics enough and I am one of many who do not vote. I feel that if you are going to vote it should be an educated one and I just don’t know enough to make that type of vote. Moving forward though in order to continue to advocate for children and their families I should pay more attention to politics and work on making that educated vote.
Going back to my group’s original topic statement, we want to find an effective way to encourage family engagement and parent education opportunities. A great point brought up by Grant and Ray (2019) was to send classroom newsletters electronically. In today’s society, many families have access to the internet whether it be on their phone or a computer. For some families the best way to communicate with them may be electronically. When thinking about parent education opportunities why can’t we ‘teach’ families through educational handouts/ newsletters via email. If we are specific and direct enough families may be able to use this as a way to build their educational competence. Life can get busy and some families may not be able to attend a monthly parent education night, but they might be able to review an educational handout sent to them electronically. This might be something to consider as I work through my family engagement project.
I think an electronic newsletter is a great idea. Not only is it more accessable for families but you would be able to provide links. These links could be to resources for families or videos for parent education. I think sometimes a piece of paper gets easily lost where an email would be more concrete!
DeleteThis is my first year communicating with families through a texting app, classdojo, I have found that I get responses much quicker compared to a phone call. It also opens up for families to contact me when it is convenient for them because I can't always talk on the phone. Sharing newsletters through email might have the same effect and I might find that more families are reviewing and utilizing the newsletters information. For my Family Engagement Project I looked at parent education and found that there was a study done where teachers sent home digital newsletters, DVDs. If you want check out the article!
DeleteWalsh, B. A., Cromer, H., & Weigel, D. J. (2014). Classroom-to-home connections: Young children’s experiences with a technology-based parent involvement tool. Early Education and Development, 25, 1142-1161.
In Chapter 10, Grant and Ray (2019) discuss planning for formal conferences. They bring about the issues that, most schools allow for fifteen minutes per conference with families, which is not an adequate amount of time for meaningful two-way communication. I completely agree with this. This is my third year teaching and I have always scheduled parents for 30-minute blocks. I remember in my first year of teaching I had one of my colleagues proofread my conference sign up sheet, and she laughed that I had set aside 30 minutes per parent, and suggested that I cut down on the amount of time so I wouldn’t have to spend so much extra time at school. Most of the teachers at my school hang their sign up sheets on their doors and I noticed that most of the other teachers were arranging for 15 or 20-minute blocks. It does take up a little more time to have longer conferences; however, I feel that it is worthwhile. It allows for more time to have deeper discussions about children’s areas of strength and areas for improvement. Longer conferences also give more opportunity for me to ask parents about their goals for their child and see how we can better support them. I plan to continue scheduling conferences for 30 minutes. I have the flexibility to spread conferences across the week and I do some in the mornings before school (depending on what works best for families), so it really does not seem to take up an exceptional amount of extra time.
ReplyDeleteHome visits are discussed throughout the Grant and Ray (2019) text; however they explain the process in great detail in Chapter 12. In my first year of teaching, my school had a partnership with the local Head Start as part of the Preschool Expansion Grant. We had a family liaison through Head Start who would conduct home visits and meet with us about the families. The position got cut the following year. This was a huge loss for our program. I have been wanting to do home visits myself. However, we don’t get time during the day, mileage reimbursement or compensation for them. I read about the HOME WORKS! Teacher Home Visit Program in the text and explored their website: http://www.pthvp.org. I would love to present the importance of home visiting to my school district and see about getting the training for myself and colleagues as professional development. We are working on a Prenatal-3rd grade continuity initiative, and I think home visiting would be a great step in offering more comprehensive services to our students and families.
I really liked Grant and Ray’s (2019) suggestion of conducting exit questionnaires after whole school family engagement events. At my school we tend to put a lot of effort into planning events. However, we use just a few basic factors to reflect on the success of events. We may discuss the number of attendees or the amount of money raised, if it is a fundraiser or charity event. We rarely solicit family responses to determine the success of the event. I liked the sample Family Event Exit Questionnaire in Table 13.2 on page 429. I am definitely going to suggest utilizing these following events at our next staff operational meeting. It would also be interesting to send a questionnaire home to parents to see whether or not they attended the event and the reason for not attending. For example, was the event at an inconvenient time, did they have transportation issues, or did they just not have any interest?
Hi Maggie!
DeleteConferences are tough for me! I typically schedule 20-25 minute blocks, but always have buffer time between each so if we run over it doesn't impact any other families. I have 30 students, so scheduling longer seems so daunting, even though I know it will be so beneficial! I am considering scheduling conferences across 2 weeks so that I can offer more time to families. At this point in my life, I have the flexibility to schedule on more days, however I do wonder if I would be able to offer as much time in a year or two when I start my own family. I also offer families a second conference if they would like one, but more often than not families do not sign up for another. If I feel like I need more time with a family, I will often give them a time slot that is either the last of the night, or in a spot where there is a larger window of time before the next conference so I can have more time with them. I know so many teachers who only offer before and after school conferences and their conferences are done by 5pm every night. I can't imagine! They always laugh when they see I have conferences that begin at 7:30pm. This year I have a single dad in my class, and he works until 6pm, so if I didn't offer later conferences, he would never be able to make it. No one should be excluded!
I also like the idea of exit questionnaires as well! I am always wondering what parents are thinking during events and having them fill out the questionnaire would answer some of my questions! It would also help me plan better for future events!
Melissa,
DeleteI have also thought about how it would be tough to allow the same amount of flexibility in conference scheduling when I have a family of my own! I could imagine trying to schedule for 30 families and keep everything straight! I student taught in Portland and their district had a half-day during the week of conferences. This allowed teachers to schedule conferences with families during that time. This seemed really helpful as it allowed parents that worked evenings to meet at a more convenient time. It also limited the number of hours that teachers were spending outside of the school day on conferencing.
In chapter 10 Grant and Ray (2019) suggested different meaningful ways to get families engaged with their child's learning. I found these connected very well to what I am researching for this course. I have been investigating the importance of families gaining knowledge about their child's development and ways to get them to engage with their child in learning activities at home. The suggested made about having families and children create a butterfly garden stuck out to me the most. This is an activity that would connect families to what their children are learning about in school, encourage them to come into school to help make the butterfly garden and encourage them to research about butterflies with their children at home.
ReplyDeleteHello Lauren,
DeleteI'm curious as to what your topic is for your Family Engagement Project. When you mentioned families gaining knowledge about their child's development and ways to engage them at home it brought me back to my topic. I read this wonderful article about families priorities vs teachers priorities. The author discussed how families are more likely to participate in activities that they find meaningful to their child's development. Families priorities were different based on their socioeconomic status, child's age, gender, etc. I think having a discussion with families at the beginning of the school year to assess their educational priorities for their child would be beneficial. Here is the citation for the article if you want to take a look at it, it was a good read.
Saçkes, M. (2013) Priorities for developmental areas in early childhood education: A comparison of parents’ and teachers’ priorities. Educational Science: Theory & Practice, 13(3), 1684-1690.
Thank you, this sounds like a good article!
DeleteThe first thing from the chapters that caught my interest was the discussion about using texting as a way of communicating with families, more specifically using the Remind app. Grant and Ray (2019) talk about a study done by Northwestern University to use texting to increase family engagement. I think that utilizing this technology is a great idea as many parents have phones and are already using them frequently. Texting could not only be used to communicate different types of activities to do, but also a way to share important event information and reminders.
ReplyDeleteGrant and Ray (2019) share a checklist for culturally responsive family events that I think would be extremely helpful in planning events for families. As part of the family engagement project I would like to find ways for families to attend events at the school. The checklist provides a good deal of information about the many factors that go into planning an event that will be successful and meaningful for all. I feel that teachers can easily spend lots of time planning events and then it doesn’t work out for a variety of reasons, some of which could have been prevented. By taking the time to fully plan and prepare teachers can help to make events run smoothly for everyone.
Grant and Ray (2019) discuss having volunteers in the classroom in a variety of ways, the section that really interested me was about the importance of having bilingual volunteers if your program has diversity in language. I have two ELL students in my classroom this year and have recently been talking with the ELL worker about having one of the parents visit the class and volunteer (at this time the other parent is not comfortable doing so). In talking with the ELL worker it sounds like this is something they typically encourage. I’m looking forward to making it happen soon!
Hi Sarah!
DeleteI use Remind and I LOVE IT! I started using it last year and between last year and this year I feel so much more connected to my families, I have gotten so much positive feedback, and, not to be stereotypical, the dads love using it as well! When I used only email or phone calls, 90% of the time I spoke only with the mother/female caregiver. Now I send home class announcements, group messages, and individual messages and I have a lot of dads/father figures/male caregivers responding, asking questions, reaching out to me if their child's schedule changes, sending a quick message for me to read to their child, etc. I think it makes it seem less "formal" and parents can send me a quick message rather than jotting it down on a to-do list to email me and never getting around to it. I really do love it! My only negative is that class announcements and group messages can only be 140 characters, however when I feel a message needs more, I simply send out "Please check your email!" and more families check their email sooner! I love sending daily updates, quick pictures of their child doing something ,etc. Today I got a great photo of a student working on an ABC pattern and was able to send it to the family and they were so happy to have that little peek into the day! I would definitely recommend Remind!
I use ClassDoJo and I am loving it. This is my first year using a texting app and so far it has been great. I like to be able to send families pictures of their children working/ playing at school. I feel like it connects the parents to the classroom more that in the past.
ReplyDeleteI think that is a great idea to have one of your ELL students family members come to the classroom. I know that a few years ago I had a parent who was deaf and she would be using sign language to communicate with her daughter and the children would be intrigued. This parent did not want to volunteer but the student was able to share some basic signs with the class throughout the year.
Hi Brittany,
DeleteI know that some classrooms at Educare have started using SeeSaw. I am not using it in my classroom yet, but I hope to very soon! I think it would be wonderful for parents to be able to get pictures and updates on how their child's day is going. I only have them for a short time, but I know that my parents would appreciate getting a few extra updates from time to time. Especially to get them as they are happening!
Brittany, I really need to try classDoJo you are not the only person i have heard about it from and all the feedback seems to be very positive. It is like remind kind of in a way? I don't know if you have ever used that app.
DeleteI have never used Remind but I think they are similar. I know that ClassDoJo has a point system that you can use as well but I choose not to use it. I just use the app as a communication tool. Parents really seem to enjoy the pictures that I can send them during the day of their child working on a learning target.
DeleteHi Brittany,
DeleteI'm glad you mentioned the point system. I have never used ClassDoJo, mainly because I had heard about the point system and I didn't like the sounds of it. It's good to know that using the point system is an optional feature and that there are many other ways to use the app!
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ReplyDeleteIn Chapter 12, Grant and Ray (2019) discuss ways to recruit, train, and retain volunteers both in classrooms and school-wide. While reading, I thought about how I and my school work to recruit volunteers. The authors suggest recruiting volunteers during orientations and open houses, personally reaching out to families, and making sure that volunteer opportunities align with volunteers' interests and skills. Orientation and open houses occur in my school building and in my classroom, so these would be perfect times to hand out information, have a sign up sheet for families to contribute ideas for events, what they would feel comfortable doing for volunteering, and any special skills or knowledge they could contribute. I always send home the volunteer sign-up form during orientation to ensure parents get through the background check as quickly as possible, but having some information on what volunteering looks like, why it is important, and asking for other suggestions would make these forms more meaningful. When it comes to training volunteers, if the work is to be done for the classroom, the classroom teacher has to give quick instructions when the volunteer(s) show up. If the work is to photocopy, laminate, put together newsletters, etc., the secretaries often quickly give guidance. Having a video or volunteer training sessions would be much more valuable, save time, and allow volunteers to feel more confident when they enter the building. Retaining volunteers is an area we have considerable difficulty. In my own room, it is because most families continue their volunteer efforts with their child's kindergarten teacher. In our building, if we had a strong volunteer community, the volunteers could continually recruit and train volunteers and this could help solve our issues with retaining volunteers. As volunteers children age out of our school, they would have already recruited volunteers from the grades below so there would never be a lack of volunteers. Reaching out to the community was another suggestion made by the authors. These volunteers would likely return year after year, so long as the work was meaningful and enticing. The first step I can take in my own room is to put together information on volunteering and get it out to parents as quickly as possible, likely at orientation, to start gathering ideas, suggestions, and interest.
ReplyDeleteGrant, K.B., & Ray, J.A. (2019). Home,school, and community collaboration: Culturally responsive family engagement. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
In chapter 10, Grant and Ray (2019) discuss informal and formal conferences as means of verbal communication. The authors also discuss active listening behaviors. These two sections stuck out to me because I have to hole at least two formal conferences each year, but I often offer informal conferences throughout the year, as this is most families first time attending public school and I want everyone to feel comfortable, informed, and connected to their child's day and school. In reading Table 10.3 (Grant & Ray, 2019, pp. 322-332) and Table 10.4 (Grant & Ray, 2019, p. 324) I noticed things that I am doing and things I am not doing. I often ask open-ended questions, as there is always more to know about a child and their family and the information I learn can be helpful in creating activities and projects that are meaningful and exciting to all my students. I also work very hard to maintain the privacy of all my students and their families. Conferences are always conducted behind a closed door, or at a time when I can be certain there is no one else around to overhear. When families ask questions about other students or other families, I always state that I cannot discuss other families/students, but would be more than happy to answer any questions about their own child. One thing I don't do is have enough "adult-sized" chairs available during conferences. In a Pre-K classroom, the furniture is mostly Pre-K child sized. The authors suggest borrowing chairs from other classrooms, and to be honest I'd never thought about doing this! If other teachers are also having conferences, it is unlikely that 18+ family members would show up, so asking to borrow chairs should not be difficult at all. I do, however, often have one or two chairs available that parents could sit in, and I always take into account any physical limitations and have a chair available if I know it will be easier for some family members.
ReplyDeleteThe authors discuss home visits in chapter 12. Home visiting is not a component of our public Pre-K, but is something that has always been interesting to me. The authors note that benefits of home-visiting include decreased disciple referrals, increased student daily attendance, increase of parents at open houses and in advisory groups (Grant & Ray, 2019, p. 394). My district is currently working to increase daily attendance rates and have incorporated a new phone call system to encourage attendance. Unfortunately, Pre-K is sometimes viewed as not important because it is not "real school" but perhaps if home-visiting was implemented, we could see the same benefits as schools with established home visiting procedures. I believe it would allow for a deeper bond between the teacher and child and the teacher and the family and this could result in more two-way communication, families being able to access more resources, and strengthen the team-work that is necessary for child/student success. I'm not sure how my administration and other Pre-K teachers would react, but it can't hurt to try! This could also make conferencing easier, as families wouldn't have to coordinate so many schedules, but rather just be home!
Grant, K.B., & Ray, J.A. (2019). Home,school, and community collaboration: Culturally responsive family engagement. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Sooo sorry this is just coming up tonight, I posted a week ago and when I just came on to make more comments nothing was there. Has anyone else had trouble with blogger?
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to believe that we are already on blog #3 and the semester is coming to an end. This class has opened my eyes to many things I did not know about communicating with families and just engaging in general. I have always thought that I have been good at communicating with families, but I have learned that you can always improve.
In chapter 10 I really liked reading about different ways to communicate with families besides just email or over the phone. Grant and Ray (2019) suggest having a website that will allow parents to see picture of their children. We send home newsletters every Friday that go to all the parents in the class. They receive these in their emails, but consist of pictures and info about what we did over the week. I think having parents that are divorced would love receiving a newsletter or looking at a website because they may not see their child for a few days at a time.
Chapter 11 discusses when families have a child with special needs and talks a lot about how it effects children. Grant and Ray (2019) discuss how teachers can communicate with families. It is a hard subject for parents but also teachers to talk about. Sometimes parents have a hard time coming to realize that there may be something different about their child. As teachers we can do our best to support the parents and child. This does not relate specially to divorce, but when children are going through a divorce we as teachers need to be open and there for anyone in the family.
Growing up with my parents getting divorced at a very young age, I was excited to do some more research for the family engagement projects. When you are a child going through a divorce you are most likely not going to do a ton of research on the topic unless maybe you were a bit older. While doing research I realized how much I could relate to what I was reading. From the stomachaches, anxiety, and feeling like I could not do anything right. It all made a little more sense to me and that I wasn’t actually crazy!
Grant, K.B., & Ray, J.A. (2019). Home,school, and community collaboration: Culturally responsive family engagement. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Hi Lauren,
DeleteIt is very interesting to see the family dynamic of children who have had parents who divorced or are separated. My cousin's son is dealing with this parents separation and this was the first Thanksgiving of that change. I was able to sit down and take his mind off of it because Dad was not there. I am also seeing different behaviors such as a change in diet (refusals to eat things such as turkey and mashed potatoes, which he ate just fine last year) and attitude towards his mom and grandmother. I am very curious what you find out in your research because it does relate not only to what I am doing at my work but also on a personal level.
Hi Lauren....yes, I had a post of mine disappear, and I was not the one who removed it. Not sure what happened!
DeleteI often find it difficult to talk with families about developmental concerns. No one wants to think of their child as different or hear that their child is having a difficult time, especially in Pre-K. We all know that early intervention is great for children so they can get help sooner. Grant & Ray (2019) discussed how families who have children with exceptional needs go through periods of various emotions: confusion, fear, anger, and grief. They talked about how the best tool that we have as educators is to listen and learn about what the families perceive as their child's needs. Some families do not know what typical child development looks like.
DeleteLauren - I also realized that there are some specifics about communicating with parents that I could be working on. I really like the list of the 10 P's of parent communication in chapter. One that stuck out to me is so simple, just present the daily happenings! Along with some others be proactive, passionate about teaching and positive, this really helps keep the communication alive (Grant & Ray, 2019).
Delete*chapter 10.
DeleteHello Lauren! Building off of your comment on divorced parents, families with parents that are away for work (or who live far away) can also greatly benefit from classroom websites. I had a parent who worked out of state for a few weeks to a month at a time. He was very active on our classroom website the whole time he was gone, commenting on pictures, asking questions, and sending messages asking how his daughter was doing. It was a great way for him to stay connected while being away.
DeleteOur topic for our family engagement group is strategies to help communicate with families who are separated or divorced. Not only did I grow up in a family who was spilt, my own children are growing up this way as well. I know that it is a difficult transition to children to go through and can effect them negatively socially and academically. I also know that there are ways that teachers can help to lessen the negative effects.
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading through chapter 10, I thought of the meaningful ways in which teachers can help engage families in their child's learning. One of these ways is through social media apps. As Grant and Ray (2019) state, "knowing that familis are seeking parenting support and advice opens the door for teachers to use this tool for parent education." I know that it has helped my ex and I both stay equally connected to our children's classroom. My sons daycare uses "Class DoJo" and both my ex and I can see pictures and review policies and activities and newsletters from my sons classroom. They also include parenting and health advice as well so that both my ex and I can see and try to be on the same page. My daughters second grade teacher uses "Bloomz" to do the same. While it is nice to have the open of a separate PTC, my ex and I attend them together.
In chapter 11, the referral process and ways to communicate this to families with children with special needs is discussed. I know that this can provide additional stress to families who are spilt as it can be another factor of emotional stress that is already added to the transition of divorce. Special care in reaching out to both sets of parents should be taken.
In chapter 12, the authors discuss ways in which teachers can provide community resources to families. My first thought with this is how teachers should have knowledge of the resources that their community offers so that they can offer this knowledge to parents. For instance, if a child is having a difficult time through the transition of divorce, a teacher may offer knowledge of getting the child referred to either in school or community counseling services and can provide this information to parents.
In chapter 13, ways to recruit volunteers is discussed. This allows different opportunities for both parents. I know that my ex and I both volunteer at different events and we discuss which ones he will do and which ones I will do. We also pick and chose which math and literacy nights to attend with our children and take turns and treat it as a special time for parent -child while the other parent watches our toddler.
Grant, K.B, & Ray, J.A. (2019). Home, school and community collaboration: culturally responsive family engagement. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Throughout this course we have talked about community resources and I know that for me I do not work in the town that I live in. So unfortunately I am unaware of all the resources in the local area of the school in which I work. I believe in our class one group was working on community resources for their Family Engagement Project. I need to reach out to my school and the Head Start agency that we collaborate with and gather a list of resources to have handy when working with families.
DeleteI am in the same boat Brittany. While I only live 8 miles away from where I work, I do not know of all the resources that are available in the community and it is something that I need to look at more closely.
DeleteYou mention communication with both parents through social media apps as a strategy to help both parents support their children through a divorce. I suspect they are a good way to keep both parents in the loop regardless of marital status. Often we come across issues when it comes to effectively communicating with both parents. I wonder if parents who work on having good communication throughout a divorce end up providing more support for their children because there is more awareness from both parents about their children's academics and needs (just to put a positive twist on a divorce). Right now my school uses a private facebook group for communications and it has its limitations. An app that is more conducive to one-on-one communication with all the school policies and guidelines seems so much easier.
DeleteHello Everyone! Sorry I am so late in adding to the blog! I started replying to people early on, then completely forgot about the blog until just recently!
ReplyDeleteMy group is exploring how to connect families with the classroom by offering various types of family engagement opportunities. My question specifically looks to answer how can we help families feel more connected to classroom curriculum and their child's day. At Sweatt-Winter we currently use white boards to share what activities children might have participated in throughout the day. I also share each programs weekly theme when I send out the menu. However, over the past year we have had families ask for more. Three years ago we used an app called Kinfish, which was similar to Facebook, though much more secure. We were able to post photos/videos, and families could comment on them. When we went to login to Kinfish one day, it was no longer available. An email led to the discovery that the people who had launched it, decided to end it abruptly due to cost and time management issues. Our families really liked it, and since then, we have been trying to decide how to replace it. For the past year we have talked about using SeeSaw to help connect families to their child's day. Some teachers at the local elementary school use it, and have had great success with it.
In chapter 10 Grant and Ray (2019) discuss the benefits of using social media to connect with, and engage families in their child's education. Table 10.2 (p. 318) give some great tips for using social media in the classroom. Something that intrigued me as I have been researching is how early people began studying/researching the effects social media can have on family engagement. The Pew Research Center began looking at this in 2005 (p. 316). In 2010, which is not so long ago, The Children's Partnership (2010) published an Issue Brief titled, "Empowering Parents Through Technology". I had to remind myself that social media sites such as MySpace and Facebook were founded in the early 2000's, so it stands to reason that shortly after other forms of social media might be looked at to help engage families in the classroom.
It sounds like others in class have had great success with using social media apps to connect with families. I think that we at Sweatt-Winter definitely need to give SeeSaw a try. By sharing photos/videos of their children, I think it will give our families a better picture of what their child is involved in during the day, and we teachers can connect that to developmental milestones that children are achieving. Also, I feel many of our families would offer their children experiences at home, that connect to what they are learning in the classroom. It would be wonderful to be able to promote that type of family engagement.
Grant, K.B., & Ray, J.A. (2019). Home, school, and community collaboration: culturally responsive family engagement. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
The Children’s Partnership. (2010, October). Empowering parents through technology to improve the odds for children (Issue Brief No. 7). Washington, D.C: Rothschuh, J., & Lazarus, W.
Julie,
ReplyDeleteI just started using SeeSaw last month and have loved it! I got it set up right before conferences, so I could help parents login and set up their accounts while they were meeting with me. I have never heard of Kinfish, but based on your description, it sounds very similar to SeeSaw. I love that SeeSaw is so quick and easy. I can upload several photos a day, a few sentences about what we did at school, and/or reminders. Parents are able to see any photos or posts that their child is tagged in and they can "like" and comment on items. I also use the messaging option often. This is like texting or Facebook messenger and it allows you to send individual messages to parents. A little over half of my parents have signed up for SeeSaw and most of them have given very positive feedback about the app. Other teachers at my school have their students post things themselves to their individual journals. I haven't explored this much yet, but it's definitely something I'm interested in working towards with my students.
Marjorie, what a great idea to help them get set up at parent conferences! I might have to steal that idea! I do think that our families will enjoy SeeSaw, and being able to see through photos, videos etc, what their children are engaged in throughout the day. I was not aware that it had a texting option....that would be very useful. I have one family that does not utilize e-mail, but maybe communicating via SeeSaw would be an additional option to phone calls.
DeleteHi Julie & Maggie!
DeleteI use Remind and I love it! I can send videos, pictures, web links, texts, etc. with it to the whole class, a group of parents, or individuals. I've gotten great feedback as well! I always send home a "daily update" with it, and send pictures as I snap them. I have the app on my phone, iPad, and log in on my computer as well! Parents do not need to have the app to receive the messages either which is great!
I have contemplated SeeSaw, but having 30 students I'm not sure I could keep up with it and make sure all of my students are consistently being featured, updated, etc. I should create an account just to see the logistics and if it will be feasible! I've heard great things from teachers who teach older grades, and since it has the same texting feature as Remind (which is my favorite thing about it) I would definitely consider making the switch!
I should add that Remind isn't exactly social media, but rather just a communication tool!
DeleteJulie, I also hadn't realized their was a messaging option until I began using the program! I find it really easy to use and I have several parents that use it as their preferred form of communication with me. It also feels more direct and efficient than email. I always feel like my email inbox is full of junk mail and sometimes important emails get lost in the shuffle. However, using the messaging function on SeeSaw just feels much more instant and practical.
DeleteMelissa, I used Remind last year and also really liked that app! I mainly switched over to SeeSaw because many other teachers in my school were using it. My district ended up buying a subscription to a more advanced version of SeeSaw so that children's journals will follow them all the way through the grade levels. Thus, my children's photos and information will go with them into kindergarten and on. I could see where keeping up with uploading items with 30 students could be a bit of a challenge. On the home screen of SeeSaw, you can see a list of children's names and the number of how many items are in each child's journal. I look at this every once in a while to be sure that I am not leaving any children out in my posts.
Hi Julie-
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard of SeeSaw but will have to take a look at it. I have never used a social media app for my classroom communication but do like that my children's teachers do. They use Bloomz and Class DoJo which are both good, although I think Class DoJO is easier to navigate. When I owned a daycare, I used a whiteboard to communicate daily with parents and they always loved it.
Hi Justina. I do plan to implement some form of digital/social media here at Sweatt-Winter. I think that it will enhance our connections with families, and provide them with a means for more engagement between home and the center.
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