When I came to Greenville Elementary School this past week Ms. Oak was correcting the math assignment the students completed the day before. One boy, Claude had his homework on his desk, but he was not correcting it with the rest of the class. Many other students were exciting about correcting their work, putting checks next to the questions they got right, but Claude sat there staring off into space. Ms. Oak noticed him dazing off into his own dreamland, and asked him why he wasn’t correcting his homework. She looked at his answers and saw that they were incorrect. She exclaimed “Claude, do you understand this assignment?” He solemnly said no I do not. She said “then why are you not paying attention as we go over it and correcting it with the rest of the class? I had parent-teacher conferences last night and your father is concerned that I am not getting through to you!” I personally think she should have said this in private, but I can understand that she was very frustrated. It made me aware that she communicates with the parents of her students. Ms. Oak also told her students that several parents at the conferences expressed concern that their children were not receiving any spelling homework. They said their children always had spelling homework and it helped them read. Ms. Oak told her students that from now on they would receive spelling homework.
As a teacher I will be responsible for being involved with the parents of my students. I will hold parent-teacher conferences twice a year in between each semester. To make myself available for parents to contact me I will give them my phone number and email addresses as well as have their numbers and email addresses in case I need to contact them in any case necessary. It is important to have parent involvement because when the students are not in school they are at home. The students’ parents know what kind of work their child did in previous years. It also creates a stronger connection with the students.
As a teacher I will be responsible for being involved with the parents of my students. I will hold parent-teacher conferences twice a year in between each semester. To make myself available for parents to contact me I will give them my phone number and email addresses as well as have their numbers and email addresses in case I need to contact them in any case necessary. It is important to have parent involvement because when the students are not in school they are at home. The students’ parents know what kind of work their child did in previous years. It also creates a stronger connection with the students.
Hi Kristin, I totally agree with you. Parents need to be involved all the time for their child's schooling to be successful. Just like you had stated "if there not at school, there at home." I think more then just parent teacher conferencing you should definitely get them involved on a weekly basis and have the children read with them and make sure a paper is signed showing that they had some involvement in that. Taking suggestions from the parents can be a good thing sometimes because the parents have a close relationship with their children and understand what areas they struggle in. As Johnson states there needs to be a reciprocal relationship between the students and the teachers as well. The classroom is a place to learn just like their homes. At their age, the parents have the right to question the teachers and stand up for the child. The parents can choose if they want to keep going or to become part of the solution until their child is old enough to do this themselves.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how your classroom teacher let the students correct their own work. It saves her time and the students get excited. They can understand why they got things wrong and ask questions right then and there. I hope they were not able to erase their original answers though because it is also important for the teacher to understand who is having difficulty. There may have been other reasons why "claude" was not understanding the assignment. I think the teacher should have been a little more sympathetic to him and not been so harsh. It does make a big impact on the student when you bring their parents into the situation though. They want to impress their parents so I can see why the teacher said what she said.
Kristin,
ReplyDeleteI do agree with you on that fact that the teacher should have approached the child in private. I remember when a teacher called me out in class once and it made me less motivated to do my work because I felt like a failure. I would imagine that Claude would feel the same way. As teachers we may get overwhelmed but we need to remember that these are children, and children are very sensitive. We are role models that can either give them so much confidence, or break them down to feel like a failure. I agree with the teacher in talking to the student about the parent teacher conference, but again that should have been in private. She should look a little deeper into why Claude was not doing his work, and have a small meeting with him. Sometimes children may feel intimidated by the work, and have a mental breakdown. It is always important to talk to the children in your classroom and understand how they feel about the work and the workload. I also feel that your thoughts on parental involvement are very important and I agree with what your plan of action is to involve parents.