Building Bridges Between School and Home - Center for Literacy ...

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tra work for them. I understand why teachers preferto use the same volunteers again and again. For instance,when there is a field trip and chaperones areneeded, the teachers want chaperones who are dependable,trustworthy, and helpful. So,while I fully understand why the teachersgo with the same volunteers, I alsounderstand the need and importance ofgiving every parent the opportunity tohelp. However, I stressed to the teachersthat it is important to extend the effortto all parents who say they would like tovolunteer. Periodically, I sent memos tothe teachers: Remember the volunteerlist? Have you lost yours? Do you needanother copy? Have you contacted allthe parents?My goal is for every parent who had volunteeredto be utilized at least one time. Even if it is just somethingsmall, it is important that each parent receivean opportunity to contribute. At the end of the year,I plan on distributing another survey to the parents(and one to the teachers) to find out what I can do tomake the volunteer list easier for the teachers to useand to find out from the parents if they felt the volunteerprogram was successful. Did you volunteer?Were you called? Were you able to come? Was therea reason why you couldn’t? What can we do to help?The feedback I have received from the teachers so farhas been very positive. My only concern is whetherthe teachers are still using the same volunteers overand over or if they include everyone.Another thing that grew out of this survey wasa focus on our parent involvement in other ways.The response to the question which asked, ‘How“My goal is for everyparent who volunteeredto be utilized at leastone time. Even if it isjust something small,it is important thateach parent receivean opportunity tocontribute.”comfortable do you feel in our library?’ was mostlynot applicable.This response alerted us to the fact that we don’t oftenoffer activities that bring parents into our library.Now, when we have family nights, weschedule activities in the library so parentshave the opportunity to visit. Thiswas an interesting situation which mayhave gone unnoticed if we hadn’t administeredthe survey.I was also able to distribute statisticsto the teachers to show how the parentsfeel in various areas of our school. Thisallows us to identify what we can do tomake the parents feel more comfortablein the school.I learned from my previous surveys to narrow theinformation down so it was manageable. I was justa little overzealous with the first surveys because Iwanted to collect as much information as possibleand didn’t even anticipate the amount of work andtime it would take to compile the results. It wasn’ta bad survey; it was a great survey. It was just toomuch.I am proud of this project because I establisheda database of volunteers, their skills, and wherethey’re willing to volunteer. That in itself is a hugefeat, but then I also think of all the other thingsI did, like sharing data so teachers can make improvementsin the school and classrooms to helpparents feel welcome. This project also brought upthe issue of the importance of using all parents andnot just a select few. This project became so muchmore than just creating a database of volunteers.It’s pretty impressive.BUILDING BRIDGES BETWEEN SCHOOL AND HOME: STORIES OF SUCCESS FROM LAWRENCE COUNTY, TENNESSEE4
u Grade-level MeetingsHelp Parent-Teacher Communications uFor our project, we developed agrade-level meeting night. Theactivity was to provide an opportunityfor parents to find out fromthe teachers what was expected of themand their children. Communicationcan be a real issue at our school. Wesometimes have difficulty getting parentsto come in — especially those weneed to speak with. Like most schools,we are constantly changing programs,curriculums, and expectations.We can’t assume the parents understandit just because we do. Wesend home information and provideinformation at conferences. However,we have begun to realize that too oftenwe aren’t giving them enough informationor reaching enough of theparent population. So we decided tobegin our meeting by giving somegeneral information first and then sending parentsto their grade-level sessions. This way, the teacherscould talk with them and they could ask questionsand find out more about the expectations at eachgrade. We’ve found that what parents expect andwhat teachers expect are often very different. I wishwe had scheduled the meeting earlier in the year. Bythe time we had the meeting, too many misunderstandingshad already taken place, so we spent mostof the time trying to clear up things and thereforecouldn’t focus on what we really needed to do. Ourparticipation for this meeting was rather good. Thiswas a new type of meeting and there were a lot ofpeople there who had no idea what to expect. Someparents come to our meetings regularly and somedon’t. I believe our turnout for this meeting washigher because we provided food. Participation isKaye Allen is aninstructional coachat Ingram SowellElementary School andhas 33 years of teachingexperience.always higher when we provide foodbecause this allows parents to come bytaking two things off their already hecticplate: preparing dinner and the costof a meal.After the meal, parents went tothe individual rooms to meet with theteachers. The teachers prepared a list ofstandards they are responsible for teaching.They also prepared a list of the assessmentsthat they used. The teacherssaid they were able to get through mostof the information they prepared, butmost parents were focusing on questionslike: How do you do homework?Because this question is so general, itwas hard to address in the short period.One accomplishment of the nightwas that we encouraged the parents tocome back to parent-teacher conferencesso that they could have an individualconference to address their specific questions. Becausewe were trying to reach all parents with thismeeting, we couldn’t take the time to address specificquestions about individual children. The informationwe gave was general, such as our expectationsfor first grade. Therefore, parents didn’t feel like theyhad enough time in one place. I think they also feltinhibited about what to ask and felt a little apprehensiveabout asking questions in front of the otherparents. During the meeting I provided parents witha copy of the Parent Guide for Working with Teachers(Appendix II). I wish I had distributed these prior tothe meeting because I think they parents would havebeen more informed about what to ask.I’ve received a lot of good feedback since the sessionbecause parents have actually asked questionslisted in the Guide.BUILDING BRIDGES BETWEEN SCHOOL AND HOME: STORIES OF SUCCESS FROM LAWRENCE COUNTY, TENNESSEE5
Page 3: Building BridgesBetween Schooland H
Page 7: u Surveying to Invite Parent Involv
Page 11 and 12: have the turnout I expected, I woul
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Page 17 and 18: • Provide resources. Help teacher
Page 19 and 20: Appendix ILeoma Elementary School20
Page 21 and 22: Working With Teachers and SchoolsHe
Page 23 and 24: Appendix III1st Grade Progress Repo
Page 25 and 26: Reasearch Supports• Reading probl

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