Parent Involvement...

Some things that my school does to get parents more involved is sending home monthly newsletters to let them know what their child has been doing. Granted, not every parent will see them, but we are putting forth that effort. We have PTO at our school, so they set up monthly fun activities for parents to be invited to or involved in: Jan. (hot chocolate and movie) Feb.(skating) March (game night)I forget the rest of them! Some activities are held at the school and others are held at another location. Something we have done the past two years is a school wide reading incentive program. This year we are taking a road trip from Pennsylvania to Hawaii. For every book a child reads (with parent signature for each book read) the class moves so many miles towards Hawaii. It becomes a really BIG competition between classes and it forces students to make their parent sign their paper. I teach 5th grade so I hold them accountable for what they read, so they have to do some extra work. They have to answer questions about what they read so I know they really read and that their parent isn't just signing it to get the credit. I hope some of these ideas will help! It is a challenge. We can't get discouraged, we have to keep working!

I forgot to post this idea before. Every marking period I send home a little note to parents stating the positives of their child and one area they need to work on. It's only a paragraph long and they have to sign it and return it. You would be amazed how quickly you get them back because it's something positive about their child. Most parents write comments back to me on the bottom of the page about what I wrote. So far it's worked!

Interestingly, little things that lift up the image of learners go a long way to bring their parents on board; this is true as far as I know, in rural schools. We did have a system of television monitors mounted on the walls in the hallways. We make the effort to create powerpoint presentations of what students are doing in class. The children love it when they see clips of themselves on the hallway monitors. Somehow, they get their parents into school to see them. By so, we are able to relatively easily get them on board in school to work with us on student performance. Please do not say that we BAIT them with success stories!!

I like this idea as well. I also want to try the parent game night and maybe add the touch of the award system for the parents. I will report back and hopefully have some good results. Thanks everyone for the input.

I think that getting parents involved has always been tough. I feel that the state of our economy has affected parents ability to get involved with their child's school. People are working strange hours and second jobs to make ends meet. This limits the time they have to offer to their children and their schools.

I have to remind myself all the time when I don't have parent volunteers, that my parents didn't volunteer when I was going to school, but that did not mean they didn't care about my education. Some parents don't have the time because they are working and their jobs are not as flexible as others. Other parents just don't kow what they can do and are afraid to come in because they did not have a very good experience in school. There are many reasons for parents to not volunteer but it does not always mean that they do not care about their child's education. If they didn't really care, they wouldn't be sending them to school everyday.

Hi. I live in the caribbean (Antigua) and the same problems persist. Do you think that as teachers we need to find a way to communicate more with the parents? I know I have tried just about everythiing to get some parents to come for a conference. However, as someone else observed, the turnout is better if there is food. I just think that if we find the time to communicate more (I know...as if we have any extra time!) we may have parents who feel more involved. One parent said that she waas only contacted if the child did something wrong so perhaps we could increase our talk time with them. What are your thoughts?

I see that parent involvement is a universal problem. We have had trouble getting parents in for the last 10 years, but the numbers have been steadily climbing.
They don't necessarily want to volunteer in the classroom, but they spend time together in the parent room. We have Friday Coffee Chats and sometimes there is a speaker for the parents. More and more of them are staying to watch our morning assembly.

I appreciate the comments from some of you that say we need to give students more positive comments that parents see. You are right that we often contact them only when there is a discipline issue. This is probably a strategy worth its weight in gold.

Peri
5th grade
Portland, OR

I am a high school teacher, but the mother of a first grader and I would very much like to be a part of her classroom. Of course, this is not possible because of my job. However, I think there are a number of ways I could be there without actually being there. My daughter brings home "Book Bags," tote bags with picture books and some activities that we do together. This is a fun time for us. I wonder if, after we complete the activities, I could be asked to write a letter to the class and then my daughter could share it. The letter could be about the story or the activities. Maybe I could be asked to share something about myself or my hobbies, like in an interview form. My daughter could ask me five questions and we could work on writing the answers together. Then, my daughter could bring the info back to her classroom. The teacher could make a "People in our Lives" wall or some such thing. It would personalize the classroom more and all the parents would be helping to create it.

I hope these suggestions help. Please do not keep trying to involve parents. It is the curse of our times that we NEED dual incomes.

Parent involvement is a problem all around the world. I teach English in Korea and i may have seen four or five mothers of my ninety students. Parents are involved in the child's education when it comes to enrolling them. When it is time for tuition the students bring in their parent's credit card. We hardly ever see the parents and as a foreigner I'm not even allowed to speak with them. I don't understand how parents can not be as involved in their child's education. I remember when I was in school that they did events at night to have the parents volunteer their time. They had casino night where the parents were dealers and prize workers. It was a great night and we raised a lot of money for our prom and other things. But as a lot of you have stated. Parents are working more and they feel that they are too busy to help out, but there must be a way we can show them how important it is for them to show support to their child and to the school.