Parent Involvement in the Classroom: A Win-Win Situation
Teachers can gain valuable resources when parents are involved in the classroom. Parents can enrich the classroom curriculum by their different cultures, their careers, music, sports, and other experiences in various areas. Teachers can always use an extra set of hands and adult role models in the classroom.
Parents can observe their children playing and working with other children, and they can see their child develop new skills, and get a better understanding of the appropriate levels of their child's development. Parents can get ideas for games and activities to do at home, network with other parents, develop skills through workshops and trainings; and feel good about their own abilities as parents. Parents feel can more comfortable with their interactions with the teacher.
Children feel "special" when their parents take part in their classroom experience. They want to share their friends with the parents, and their parents with their friends. They see their parents in a different role. Children want to show off their classroom and the newly acquired skills.
Not all parents can take the time to be directly involved in their child's educational experiences. Some parents are involved indirectly by communication.
Communication between home and school is essential for the child's development. Parents want to be involved in the child's educational experience. Some ideas to keep that communication flowing are:
Have a communication board set up in a corner of the room where parents can see it, with important information posted just for the parents. You can post class activities, special events, classroom newsletter, and other pertinent information. You can also post what the children will be working on, and have some activities or ideas available for the parents, so they can work with their child at home.
Have a "Communication Notebook," available where parents can write messages or leave notes.
Take the time to call or send a note home to inform the parents of their child's progress or accomplishments.
Use sign-up sheets for activities that require parent assistance for field trips or bringing in donations. Parents also love to take things home to work on, like cutting out art projects, typing up a classroom newsletter, making telephone calls or other things that can help a teacher out in the classroom.
These are excellent ways to keep the communication going, and for parents to feel that they are part of their child's school experience.
Published by Mommy Dearest (Suzette)
I enjoy working with children, and have been in the Early Childhood Education field for the past 18 years. Parents feel comfortable leaving their child as they go off to work, knowing that their child is sa... View profile
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4 Comments
Post a CommentI am sure that you know that when parents are more involved in the classroom, the more successful the children will be. To encourage more parental participation I have been using the tools I have found on
www.signupgenius.com/backtoschool
I can create a classroom supply list, recruit volunteers, send out classroom party invites and donation requests. Since I have been using SignUpGenius, my parents have been thrilled with the "more communication" effort, and the children seem happy that their parents are updated on our classroom activities.
I just thought I would pass it along. I would love to know what you think.
Lalena
Because not all parents can take the time to be directly involved in their child's educational experiences we have a great idea in our second grade class. We have our classroom pet, which is a stuffed animal. It is send home to do activities with the students and their parents. The students need to write what they did with the pet during the its stay at home. The three factor are involved at home, school, students and parents.
Excellent tips! Parent involvement is essential to a student's success. Welcome to AC. I'm also very interested in Early Childhood Education and am planning on opening my own center.
Super tips!