Sunday, June 26, 2005

Parent Involvement using the coffee pot approach

As I sit here in my hotel room in Nashville, I noticed a new fangled coffee maker on the desk where I am doing some work for an upcoming presentation.

What is unusual about this coffeemaker was the fact that it didn’t have a pot!

Instead of a pot there was a place where you put a cup of water in and then simply put you cup where you would normally put the pot. It also had a special coffee filter setup in a disposable plastic container. This worked great and keeps people from taking extra coffee home with them.

Great design ideas!

You might ask what the heck does this have to do with parent involvement?

Well, great design will often lead to great results. If you are throwing money at your parent involvement program by buying books on P.I. for your school library or holding disconnected school events, you have a very poor design, or more likely, no design at all. Your results will not be measurable and you will see very little in the way of an increase in noticeable parent involvement at your school.

Without a good design, without measurable goals, objectives and the involvement of staff and parents in the design your results will be hit and miss.

Schools that make a conscious plan for the involvement of parents, in a variety of ways and then implement those plans that support school goals are much more likely to see success with parents.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Dr. Chuck and Su Amodeo are the authors of "Reaching the Hardest to Involve Parents" teacher/parent training manual. To learn more about their training visit their site at : www.lighthouseeducation.us

NOTE: You’re welcome to “reprint” this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the “about the author” info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to chuck@lighthouseeducation.us
|

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Parents Matter in Student Achievement

Here is an article that recently appeared in a midwestern newspaper. It reinforces the concept of the importance of parents involvement in their children's education.
The parent is the child's first and most important teacher. Without their support, the classroom teacher is handicapped in providing the best possible quality education for their students.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Dr. Chuck and Su Amodeo are the authors of "Reaching the Hardest to Involve Parents" teacher/parent training manual. To learn more about their training visit their site at : www.lighthouseeducation.us

NOTE: You’re welcome to “reprint” this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the “about the author” info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to chuck@lighthouseeducation.us
|

Sunday, June 19, 2005

Building More Parent Friendly Schools

As my wife Dr. Su Amodeo and I travel around the country teaching workshops on parent and community involvement we have started collecting the signs that school's post on the front door, where parents and students enter. We use them extensively in our workshops when we talk about creating more parent friendly schools. As educators and parents, we need to be very careful when we post messages on the front door of our schools, as this is the first impression parents have of the school. Signage that casts a negative image of the school or subtly discourages parents from entering the school can create an atmosphere of mistrust before the visitor even enters the building. Below you will see an example of the kind of negative signage were talking about. Take a look at your schools sign. Is it negative, positive, neutral? Try rewriting the sign so that it has a more friendly tone yet still conveys the message desired. If your goal is to attract more parent and community involvement to your school. It begins at the front door.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Dr. Chuck and Su Amodeo are the authors of "Reaching the Hardest to Involve Parents" teacher/parent training manual. To learn more about their training visit their site at : www.lighthouseeducation.us

NOTE: You’re welcome to “reprint” this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the “about the author” info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to chuck@lighthouseeducation.us
|

Friday, June 17, 2005

Excellent suggestions for parent involvement

I discovered this book review on another blogger's site which I will refer to at the end. This review provides excellent recommendations and suggestions for how to get parents more involved in the schools.

"As San Diego's De Portola Middle School has done, a school can also train office personnel to welcome parents, providing them with someplace comfortable to sit while they wait, offering them a cup of coffee and, when needed, a student escort." Excellent suggestion. This is another great idea for ways to make your school more parent friendly.

When parents are involved in the lives to children, especially regarding school, the current research says that student achievement improves, attendance improves, and disciplines decrease. You can read more here:
|

Saturday, June 04, 2005

Building Trust With Hard to Involve Parents

As mentioned in previous posts, many of the hardest to involve parents are distrustful of the school and its staff. Schools need to work proactively toward building trust with families if they want the parents/guardians to be more involved. Trust building is a critical step in getting parents more involved in the life of the school.
There are some ways for teachers to build trust:

1. Send parents an introductory letter at the beginning of the year
2. Talk to parents outside of school and arrival and departure times
3. Do not sit behind your desk at conference time. Sit face-to-face with the parent
4. Pay attention to your body language. Begin the conference with positive statements about the student
5. Make good news telephone calls and send weekly written and oral communications to parents about positive classroom activities
6. Listen to what parents have to say before you make your point to ensure that they feel understood
7. Tell parents about yourself and your interests

Building trust with hard to involve parents may take a year or more of constant effort. But stick with it. It can pay off with increased parent involvement, communications, and understanding of the school as well as the needs of students.

|