Module 4 Blog

     I interacted with parents and teachers in the last two weeks. The parents were transitioning their children to a different classroom which meant a different setting and teacher for their children. The parents were asking different questions like what will their child learn and also telling the teachers what they are expecting their child to learn. What was new to me was how they transitioned kids during the middle of the year. The kids that were transitioned over to the Pre-K 2 classroom are ready to be over there but I just never knew that they would transition kids like that.  Most of the children will be going to Kindergarten so the main concern of the parents was would their child be ready for Kindergarten when they left that classroom. So on this particular morning Ms. Jan and Anndrella Lee (Director) held a brief morning meeting with the parents of the children who are going to kindergarten. Ms. Jan explained to her parents what are some of the things the kids will be learning in kindergarten and what type of work they will be doing. She also talked about other things the teacher would be looking for.
    Ms. Jan explained that kindergarten is much more academically challenging than what kindergarten use to be.Ms. Jan explained to the parents the children will be learning a lot more than what they are learning at the center but this is why she is preparing them for the type of work they will be doing and this is why she push the children so hard. In her class this is why the children are working on sight words, she is working on their reading skills, and she is also working on math skills that may seem challenging to them. Ms. Jan then gave the parents a survey to complete at home and she also had the same survey to complete herself for how the children are at school. The survey included some questions like this, does your child have the oral communication skills to make his/ her needs/wants clearly understood or met, can your child separate from you for hours at a time,   Is your child able to follow one- and two-step directions and follow rules, can your child sit and pay attention for at least 10-15 minutes at a time, does your child get along well with other children, Is your child able to complete personal needs independently, does your child know how to use crayons, a pencil, and scissors, and can your child state his full name, address and phone number?  
     They had a good turn out for this meeting and the parents were asking a lot of questions about kindergarten and asked what could they do at home to help their child/children in this transition. Some parents even said, "Ms. Jan what can we do to help you in this process because we know that it is a lot  of work and you can't do it by yourself." As an observer it made me feel good that they were moving in the right direction and that they were all on the same page. This is what parent involvement is all about.

Blog #3

     I met with the Director Anndrella Lee and we spoke about how she feels about the lack of parent involvement in her center. But before I met with her in her office I sat back and observed the parents as they entered into the building to sign their child/children in and take them to their classrooms, how their was know one to greet the parents as they entered into the building. The parents were greeted by the teachers when they entered the classroom but not greeted by anyone else. I feel as a director she should have been the one greeting her parents as they entered into the building. For someone who stated she was very passionate about working with her teachers to increase and promote parent involvement within her center. But what I couldn't understand is if she was so concerned about getting to know her parents better why is most of her time spent in her office? I explained to Ms. Lee my main focus right now is understanding why is their such a lack of parent involvement in her center and I want to work with them to see if we could make some changes together. Ms. Lee is willing and is working with her teachers to figure out what can they do to build positive relationships with their parents and how can they motivate them to get more involved.

     I asked Ms. Lee, what have they done to promote parent involvement? She stated the only time they really get to talk with the parents is during parent-teacher conferences and home visits which are done twice a year. The parent-teacher conferences are basically to inform parents about what their child/children are learning and give ideas to help them support their childs/children learning in the home environment. Home visits are basically to see the child in their natural environment and she how he/she interacts at home with mom and dad and their siblings. So my next question to Ms. Lee was during parent-teacher conferences where are you normally? Truthfully I am sitting in my office unless one of the parents want to talk with me. So my suggestion to her was that she need to make her self known to her parents and accessible to them. I also stated that she shoould be the one greeting her parents in the morning as they enter into the building. This will set a different tone in her center when it comes to her parents.

     Ms. Lee agrees that they have a lot of changes that need to be made and she doesn't put all the responsibility on the teachers she really wants her center to go back to how it was at first with her parents volunteering and having family night and parents attending parent meetings. Because now she may have about 10% of her parents who attend parent meeting once a month. In observing and talking with Ms. Lee in these last two weeks I believe that her parents want to do more but if the parents feel like they don't care then why should they care or do anything. The motivation of wanting change has to start within the school from the staff and the administartors and then the parents will see and then would probably want to do more.