Focus Point Nine - Relating to the Educational System, Parents and the Broader Community

Competency 011 - The teacher understands the importance of family involvement in children’s education and knows how to interact and communicate effectively with families.

Interpretation - The educator knows the essential need for parental participation in their child’s learning experiences and school activities and works to communicate this need with all parents through a variety of communication avenues.

Competency 012 - The teacher enhances professional knowledge and skills by effectively interacting with other members of the educational community and participating in various types of professional activities.

Process - Parent Involvement in Elementary Language Arts:  A Program Model  Eric Digest              (Online: http://reading.indiana.edu/ieo/digests/d60.html)

Summary - This is an article concerning a program model for parental involvement in the classroom on different levels.  The article stresses the levels of monitoring, informing, and participation as defined by Petit in his literature entitled Opening Up Schools.  I felt his article to be informative while at the same time being feasible with hard work on the part of the teacher and the parents.

 Rationale/Reflection - I chose this article as a part of my continuing education in learning various ways and processes to encourage parental involvement in the classroom.  I feel this is extremely important to the student and their success in learning.  I felt this article to be an exact example of the processes needed for the beginning teacher to learn how to interact with parents and suggestions for bringing them into their child’s school. 

Product - Parent-Teacher Conference: Observation (Mrs. Cook’s 3^rd grade class)

Summary - This is an observation summary of a parent teacher conference between Mrs. Cook and one of her student’s parents.  The parent did not speak English proficiently therefore a translator was provided for the conference.

Rationale/Reflection - I felt this observation to be an excellent example of parent-teacher interaction on behalf of the student.  Parent-teacher conferences are the best evidence in my mind of parents taking an interest in their child’s learning progress.  I strongly feel students do much better in school when they feel their parents are interested in their learning, their classroom, and their school overall.  The student feels they are not alone when they are struggling to learn new concepts and that they have an invaluable cheering section when they do well in various learning arenas.  I believe that apathy by parents towards learning in the home leads to apathy in the classroom by the student.

Summary - The reflection and pictures of the Fall Festival at Outley Elementary indicate the importance of me supporting the students and the school where I observed and learned so much. These pieces of evidence show the opportunities I had to see the students and their parents outside the classroom environment.