Tuesday, February 25th, was a different class in
SED 407 for many reasons. We were learning a new observation method, talking to
parents, and reviewing our experiences in the neighborhood. For the purpose of
this blog post, I want to focus in on the parent panel and the reactions I had
while listening to the parents.
I found
the parent panel to be highly informative for my future teaching years. In the
Secondary Education courses that I have taken there was never a real importance
placed on the communication between the teacher and the parent. I had always assumed
that there would be some kind of communication either emails when students were
misbehaving or missing assignments or during parent-teacher conferences. I was
pleasantly surprised to learn about the application of constant, or monthly,
communication that is being applied in CF with parents. The teachers are making
it a point to talk to the parents and establish a relationship with them. The
parents talked a lot about respect and earning that respect from the parents, which
will in turn lead to respect from the students. When the teacher takes the time
to get to know the family, they will also be taking the time to learn about the
student and where they came from. Therefore, the teacher is ultimately getting
to know the student in another way than only asking them through an Interest
Inventory.
The
parents want the teacher to talk to them! This concept has been in my mind for
the past week because of how simple it sounds, but yet this is the first time
that is being talked about in depth. The parents want to know what is going on
with their children and the teachers are the only ones who spend the most time
with the students. There must be a relationship established with the parents. If
the teacher took a few minutes out of their day to call a few of the parents
and give them an update on their child, the parent would be beyond
grateful. One thing that really stood out to me was that some parents can’t
always respond to emails or answer phone calls because of work or lack of
computer. The parents and professors said that it was okay to reach out to them
in person! Go to see the parents in their home! That sounds like such an easy
concept but I had never considered it when thinking about reaching out to
parents or families. I believe that if teachers reach out the parents and
families of their students, then the student has another to help them succeed
better in school.
For the
image below, I started off by Google-ing “parents and teachers working together”.
I believe that the image that I found suites the theme of my post. If parents,
teachers, and students all work together, then there is a better chance for the
student to be successful. When it all comes down to it, teachers are there to
help their students succeed, and a relationship with the parent and student are
vital components to helping that student succeed!
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