While all six types are equally important, together creating the perfect network between families, students, and schools, I am only going to focus on two types of involvement here.
The first piece I am going to focus on is Communicating, which is the design or effective forms of school-to-home communications about programs within the school or a child's progress. Some examples of communicating include conferences with parents, language translators for those who may need them, folders of student work sent home for review and comments, report cards, schedules of different notices about important information, and clear information on school policies. This allows for the students, parents, and teachers all to benefit. For students it gives them awareness of their own progress and keeps them informed. As for the parents, it allows for them to track their child's progress, keep up to date with school programs and policies, and communicate easily with their child's teachers. Lastly, for the teachers, it allows for them to communicate with their students' families more easily, as well as understand different familial views or ways. While there are many benefits, there are also many challenges that come with Communicating. For example, there can be language barriers, issues creating two way channels for communication, and creating and reviewing whatever calendars and notices are given out. As a future educator this is all very important to me. In many of my courses I have learned about how communicating with parents isn't always the easiest of tasks. However, after reviewing this it has opened my eyes to the variety of different ways a teacher and school can communicate things back home to the parents and families of their students. This is important because it gives me more ideas as to how I can communicate with my students parents.
The second piece I would like to discuss is Volunteering, which is recruiting and organizing parent help and support. This can be done by creating school and classroom volunteer forms to help teachers, administrators, students, or other parents, having a room or family center for volunteers and volunteer programs, assigning each class a class parent, and many other options. Just like Communicating, Volunteering creates advantages for the students, parents, and teachers. For the students it helps them create skills in communicating with adults, allows for increased learning of skills they may learn from parents through tutoring or other activities, and it allows for students to see a variety of different professions and pathways adults can take through meeting different volunteers. For parents it allows for them to understand teachers' jobs, feel more comfortable in the school, carry over the in-school activities at home, possibly improve their own education, makes them aware that families are welcomed and valued at schools, and they gain skills for volunteer work. Lastly, for the teachers, volunteers can give them an extra hand if needed, it allows for greater attention for the students, and it helps them learn about who their students are outside of school more. Again, with these many benefits, there do come many challenges. For one, it can be hard to get volunteers, and even when a teacher or school does get volunteers, they need to make sure they are reaching out to a wide variety in order to ensure that all families know that their time and talents are appreciated. Another challenge is creating flexible schedules for different events so that all volunteers have the ability to help. More specifically, this is important for parents who want to get involved but may have less time due to the fact that they work full-time jobs. Similarly, challenges can arise as far as organizing volunteer programs, as it is important to make sure different talents and people are able to compliment wherever they are placed and whoever they may be placed with. As a future educator, I want to be able to find ways to get the parents and families of my students involved in the school and the child's learning. By creating a network and schedule of volunteers, it can be beneficial for everyone.
