Friday, September 27, 2013

Parents Please Get Involved



Provided by Einar Faanes (Wikimedia Commons)
One of the issues that a lot of teachers complained about when I did observations last year, is the lack of parent involvement. There was one teacher who told me that she had contacted the parents of one of her students several times throughout the year about the child’s grades and possible strategies to help the student, but the parents never responded. Two weeks before the end of the school year the child’s mom decided to contact the teacher and ask what could be done to save her child’s grade.  As a future teacher and parent I believe there is a halfway point and the communication has to be there! Parent Teacher Conference  It’s disappointing to see a child’s success crippled by a lack of communication between home and school. As I take this journey to be a teacher I wonder if any of my students will fall into the category of having a parent who doesn’t get involved.  I know there are many circumstances that make each person’s situation different, but at some point the child has to be viewed as a priority. I was a latchkey kid growing up but my parents still found time to make sure that they knew what was going on and communicated with the teachers. I also talk with my kids and their teachers to stay in the loop about what is going in school. I hope when I begin teaching that the gap between home and school narrows.

1 comment:

  1. I have to initial a behavior chart every day for my elementary-school child (the junior high and high school kids = pretty much no communication from teachers). Maybe that's one reason why achievement seems to drop once kids start middle school?

    That said, I do know plenty of parents who resent having to do over an hour of homework per night with their 7 year olds and who think that teachers are putting the work on parents -- better communication about practice, reinforcement, extending what the students did all day long, etc. might help there.

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