In my opinion, having a supportive community can make or break a school. When you work at a school that parents simply will not get involved, there will be little success. The school that I am currently working at tries to encourage parent/community involvement, through various activities such a math night at Walmart, McTeacher night at McDonald's, muscle car mania, and various other programs in which we invite parents, students and community members to participate in encouraging educational values in our students. Our PTO is extremely small but tries very hard to get others to participate. At the beginning of the year I give parents the information in which they can contact me through email (live grades and personal) and I also give my cell phone number. Many other teachers have stressed to me that they would never give out their numbers, cause they do not want parents calling and bugging them, but I really like it. I text my parents frequently when I have questions or concerns, and they respond almost instantly. I send out reminders of upcoming test and project due dates. Of course you do get those parents who abuse the system and want to call all hours of the night, but I am quick to put a stop to it, and well so far so good.
Chapter 11 and 12:
Both chapters are extremely short. Chapter eleven discusses the different opportunities and partnerships that schools can look for and engage in to become more successful. The chapter is broken down into different forms of partnerships that schools can engage in. They include: strategic partnerships, university partnerships, experiential learning partnerships, intraschool partnerships, corporate/community partnerships, mental health partnerships, and leveraging social media.
Chapter twelve is even briefer then chapter eleven and it basically sums up the key points or concepts expressed throughout the book.
2 comments:
I know some teachers that provide their cell number to parents, and find it very effective. I do believe if you set boundaries of time periods to call, then it can work. I recently read an article about a teacher that provides a Google Voice number, instead of a cell number. When you receive a call through Google Voice, you get a message that lets you know who the call is from and the option of accepting the call. If you are busy or miss a call, a voice mail message as well as an email transcription is sent to your gmail account. Google Voice also allows for texting. I've never tried this tool, but it sounds great for those that do not wish to provide a cell number.
Availability outside of regular classroom hours can definitely help build trust between teachers and families. I welcome students and parents to contact me via Schoology or Office365, as I get the notifications immediately on whatever device I happen to have handy.
I recently read about the idea of having "Virtual Office Hours," wherein the teacher sets a time to be available online for immediate communication several times a week, and students/families can chat with them in real time. I am hoping to implement this next year.
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