Apr
2024
Blog Post 9: Home School Connection
Part One:
Teaching our students goes beyond being in the classroom, as community outreach is crucial to a student’s career. Establishing a connection with the students and parents could be the difference between a student continuing their education or dropping out early. The best way to establish this connection is through establishing an open line of communication with parents. For example, setting up parent-teacher conferences, phone calls, emails, or weekly reviews for parents to look through can help give them a better insight into how their child is doing in the classroom (American Federation of Teachers, 2007). However, many parents may be unable to make in-person meetings due to work or other personal conflicts, so teachers could get creative with establishing an open line. They can use apps such as Remind, where teachers can send mass text messages to whoever has signed up to receive them (Provenzano, 2016). However, there may be obstacles along the way. If you are in a school with a high population of ELLs, their parents may not understand English, making communication difficult. However, if provided with good resources, such as translators or even reaching out to the parent in general, it makes a huge difference. Most parents want to be involved in their child’s education, such as discussing homework and offering support, which the teacher can help do by opening that important connection (Reading and Beyond, 2011). I got to see how this connection is established in my own community when I attended the Levittown Public Schools Board of Education meeting. They hold these meetings once a month to allow the public to voice their opinions on happenings in the district, in this meeting were many complaints about a certain rule that gambled with their student’s current seats in Pre-K. However, the meeting was delayed because the board wanted to recognize students who were awarded for the past winter sports season as well as one of the high school’s valedictorian ceremonies. The room itself was also decorated with artwork from one of the middle schools, which one of the board members took the chance to point out to the people in attendance.
Part Two:
After reading and watching the content for this week, I have an idea of how I want to communicate with my students and their families. I like the idea of opening a Remind, in which I would make one for students, and the other for parents only to give each group information that is relevant to them. If any parents feel as if they are unsure of what they could ask me, I would provide them with example questions such as “How will you respond if or when my child struggles in class?” or “What are the best school or district resources that we should consider using as a family to support our child in the classroom?” (Heick, 2013). I want to establish that parents and students are more than welcome to talk to me about anything they feel is concerning them or just to chat about how their day has been, as high school students may need that feeling from their teacher if they are going through issues because it will help with their overall well-being, as high school can be challenging for students to through not just academically, but emotionally as well (Greater Good in Education, n.d.). 
Image from: https://merithub.com/article/tips-for-teachers-to-build-relationships-with-parents-c7e7hvst2n9l28ne18tg
References
American Federation of Teachers (2007). Building Parent-Teacher Relationships. Washington D.C.: American Federation of Teachers. https://www.readingrockets.org/topics/parent-engagement/articles/building-parent-teacher-relationships
Greater Good in Education (n.d.). Positive Family and Community Relationships. Greater Good in Education. https://ggie.berkeley.edu/school-relationships/positive-family-community-relationships/
Heick, T. (2016, August 24). Parents: 19 Meaningful Questions you should Ask your Child’s Teacher. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/19-questions-for-parents-terry-heick
Provenzano, N. (2016, August 30). Tech-Enhanced Parent Engagement. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/tech-enhanced-parent-engagement-nicholas-provenzano
Reading and Beyond. (2011, April 22). ELL Parent Involvement [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_-aLWOk9Og&list=PLvzOwE5lWqhRPzheyprYHcA8SZl9Qvnpz&index=4
maylenc
April 22, 2024 at 3:52 am (4 weeks ago)Hi Gabby, I enjoyed reading your blog post and seeing what your future plans may look like involving facilitating a relationship with students and their families. I liked how you mentioned that for some parents, timing might be an issue and they may be preoccupied with other things and therefore cannot make it to in person meetings, and how you plan to address that. Your idea of using the Remind app is very creative, and it shows that even though some parents may not be able to meet face-to-face, you will still be providing them with an option to meet with you and hold important conversations about their children. Aside from the Remind app, did you consider other technological tools to help build a relationship with parents? Some ideas could be creating a class Google Calendar for important dates and reminders, or even a virtual newsletter to keep parents informed. Lastly, one suggestion I would offer is thinking about how you could build a stronger relationship with your students in the classroom. Aside from the digital tools, perhaps think about activities or discussions that could be included to foster that sense of community. Overall, you had a great blog post and very insightful ideas!
awilliams7
April 22, 2024 at 7:47 pm (4 weeks ago)Hi Gabby!! Great job on you’re post
I liked how you emphasized the importance of establishing a strong connection between teachers, students, and parents through effective communication channels like Remind. It’s very important to provide a supportive learning environment where every is involved and valued. Your idea of creating separate Remind groups for students and parents shows your consideration for tailoring communication to each group’s needs, which is thoughtful and practical.
I wonder if you’ve thought about incorporating multilingual communication strategies to ensure that all parents, including those with limited English proficiency, can participate fully. Providing translated messages or offering language assistance can help bridge communication gaps and make all families feel included.
Overall you did a great job!
annb21
May 13, 2024 at 2:09 pm (6 days ago)Hi Gabby! Hope you are well. I really liked your blog post this week. You did a really good job emphasizing the importance of the parent-teacher connection by offering ideas on how to keep the line of communication open with a parent. I also really like how you connected this back to the Board of Education Meeting. I wonder if you could see yourself on the board one day, and being the link between the educators and the parents. Based on your blog posts, I feel you would be a good fit. I am curious about your idea with the Remind app. Is it a form of two-way communication? If so, how will you ensure you maintain a professional line of communication with parents on an unmonitored channel? Or how would you deal with an overly involved parent who messages you 24/7? Overall, this was a really good and complete blog post! Good job!