Schools and Society Task 1

Schools and Society Task 1
Teresa Varieur
Western Governors University The teacher is obviously sensitive to the group of parents assembled at the parent – teacher orientation. Conscious of the non-English speaking population present, she immediately makes translators available to them. She shares with the parents how important communication is throughout the presentation, which undoubtedly makes the parents more comfortable with her. She also provides parents with essential information about classroom rules, grading criteria, and required state standards, information which will be helpful to parents throughout the year to stay connected with their child’s education. Finally, the teacher offers to use her personal time, to stay until 8 pm once a week in order to make herself available to parents who work or are otherwise not able to contact her during the school day. In each of these instances the teacher emphasizes clearly that she cares about communicating the progress of each student to their parents by making herself available. As the year progresses, the teachers’ initial sensitivity will have an encouraging and positive affect on the parent/teacher relationship. She lets parents know she cares about their child’s education and progress. Language differences may cut off parents from important information and prevent them from sharing their own knowledge with the professionals who are involved with the family (Mendoza, 2003, para. 4). By making translators available to parents, she provides an opportunity to give and receive information in their own languages. The teacher supplies handouts to everyone in attendance with useful information about her procedures in the classroom in a way they can understand as well as directions for utilizing the school website that can also be a useful reference in the future. In addition, she makes herself available to parents in the evening which will allow working parents to be active in their child’s education. This combination of communication avenues will provide opportunities for a great home and school connection. Although the teacher appears sensitive to the parents throughout her speech there are a couple of instances where she is insensitive. At the beginning of her speech she uses a professional vocabulary that may be difficult for parents to understand, “…I have written a disclosure statement…”. Further into the speech she states, “E-mail is one of the best ways for us to communicate”. That statement assumes that all parents have access to a computer, internet, and e-mail, and that they are comfortable with that form of communication. In addition, explaining what a web site is was insensitive and may have caused some of the parents to believe the teacher thinks that they are inferior. In each of these situations, the teacher’s insensitivity could have damaged the home/school relationship. Parents cannot use information that they cannot understand (Mendoza, 2003, para. 2). Some of the contents of this teacher’s speech were indeed insensitive to the parents of her new students, such as her use of professional language about the “disclosure statement”. She would be much better served to use a language that everyone could relate to and understand. That affects parents by creating an educational barrier between her and them. Stating that email was the best form of communication may have alienated some of the parents without internet access making them feel uncomfortable when the time comes to communicate with her. Implying that she was more intelligent concerning the internet was unnecessary and may have been offensive to the parents. Communication is ineffective when parents are offended. Mistakes such as these could greatly jeopardize the parent/teacher relationship necessary for a successful school year. There is a multitude of ways that the teacher could have been more sensitive to the parents at the orientation. Offering parents other options of communication while not putting greater emphasis on any one of them would have been more sensitive. Another option would be to inform parents of other effective communication opportunities such as conference times or phone conference options. The teacher could have been more sensitive by inviting parents for an orientation in the classroom and get them more involved with their child in the learning environment. The teacher’s use of professional language was improper in this setting. Professionals have to be very mindful of their vocabulary when working with lower levels of literacy (Mendoza, 2003, para. 5). By building stronger relationships between school and home by means of communication, teachers and students alike will be more successful. The most important person in a child’s life and in their education is their parent. Parents are passionate about their children as well as their success. The parent is the child’s greatest advocate and source of encouragement. No one knows a child better than their parent and can assist in their success and speak for them when the need arises. When given the proper opportunity, parents can play a vital role in the education process. When a teacher has communication with parents on a regular basis students tend to do better in school (Epstein, 2001, p. 35). My goal as a teacher will be to form those important parent/teacher relationships from the beginning to ensure that all parents feel comfortable contacting me to discuss their child. I will be sure to make all parents aware of my conference times and a phone number where I can be reached should concerns or problems arise. As their child’s teacher, I will encourage parents to be actively involved in their child’s education by inviting them to attend activities within the classroom numerous times throughout the school year. I plan to send weekly newsletters via email and hardcopy to the parents discussing the things going on in my classroom and areas of opportunity for parents to get involved. Another way I can promote parental involvement is to offer opportunities such as reading to the class or allowing parents to visit the classroom and discuss personal experiences that relate to the current instruction. “Just about all families care about their children, want them to succeed and are eager to obtain better information from schools” (Epstein, 2001, p. 407). All children seek the approval of their parents. When parents communicate and are involved in their child’s education that says to the child “I value you and your education”. I believe by helping to form these crucial relationships with families the students will strive to succeed.

REFERENCES
Epstein, J.L.(2001). School, Family, and Community Partnerships. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Mendoza, J.(2003). Communicating with parents. Clearinghouse on early education and parenting. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Retrieved March 13, 2012 from http://ceep.crc.uiuc.edu/eecearchive/digests/2003/mendoza03.html

References: Epstein, J.L.(2001). School, Family, and Community Partnerships. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Mendoza, J.(2003). Communicating with parents. Clearinghouse on early education and parenting. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Retrieved March 13, 2012 from http://ceep.crc.uiuc.edu/eecearchive/digests/2003/mendoza03.html