Family Night Cookout

Want a great way to encourage parent involvement in your students education? How about a family cookout?

Everyone loves food and at Meridian Technology Center they are hosting a come and go cookout for a couple of hours so that parents can come and meet the faculty and staff that are teaching their son or daughter.

The cookout doesn't have to be huge. Hamburgers and hotdogs would fit the bill nicely. What is important is that you are providing an opportunity for parent-teacher interaction and creating an environment where parents will begin to feel comfortable around the instructors and begin to develop relationships.

I can't wait to hear how it turns out and I look forward to sharing with you the results.

Outside the Classroom

When was the last time that you went to one of your students activities outside of the classroom?

Have you ever gone to a students football, baseball of softball game? How about a band concert? When was the last 4H and FFA show you attended? Have you ever watched an Eagle Court of Honor?

If you stop and think about it, it makes a lot of sense to develop relationships with your students outside of the classroom. What a great way to show that you support them as a person when you are cheering them along with their parents.

What a great way to open up lines of communication with the parents as you work to develop parental involvement at your technology center.

Part of the enrollment management concept is that teachers and instructors have a direct impact on the enrollment and retention of students beyond what they teach in the classroom.

Imagine the possibilities that could be opened for recruitment when your students tell their friends at the home high school that the person on the second row is their welding instructor or their pre-engineering instructor. What a way to say that your technology center cares!

Imagine the impact that you could make on retention when you have a relationship of open and honest communication with your students becuase they know that they can trust you, that you can relate with them and that you are interested in them.

Think about it.

Type 6 - Collaborating with the Community

Today we conclude our 6 Types of Involvement discussion. If you have been following us, we have talked about 5 of Epstein's 6 Types of Involvement.

Type 1 - Parenting
Type 2 - Communicating
Type 3 - Volunteering
Type 4 - Learning at Home
Type 5 - Decision Making
Type 6 - Collaborating with the Community

These leaves us with Type 6, collaborating with the community. Ask yourself, how does my technology center collaborate with the community?

• How does your technology center coordinate resources and services from the community?
• How does it provide resources for families, students, and the school?
  
• How does it provide services to the community?

In today's tough economic times their are opportunities everywhere to partner with your community like hosting job fairs and soft skill workshops to help displaced workers.

Other ideas to work with your community and questions to ask may include....

• Are your business partners active in providing student scholarships through your foundation?
  
• How about getting the local Rotary or Lions Clubs to start a Student of the Year program?
• Have you held a student organization day like Scouting CareerTech?
• Do your CTSO's participate in community events like Adopt a Highway?
• Have you considered hosting a community wide Thanksgiving Meal?
• Maybe invite your community members to a Health and Fitness Night?
  

There are many ways that you can get involved in the community and for the community to get involved with your technology center. These are just a few thoughts and ideas, where will your creativity take you?

I hope that the 6 Types of Parental Involvement have inspired you to start a conversation about how to get parents involved in your students' education. This is not the end of the conversation on this Blog, and I hope it marks the beginning of your conversation with decsion makers on your campus.

By working with and including parents in the educational process, we become more succesful as we transtion students to college and career.

The 6 Types of Parental Involvement were developed by, Dr Joyce Epstein, Director of the National Network of Partnership Schools at John Hopkins University.

Type 5 - Decision Making

How does your technology center include families as participants in technology center and district decisions?

• Do you have parents that sit on advisory committees for the technology center?
  
• Do they sit on advisory committees for career majors?
  
• Does your technology center have a parent committee like a PTO or PTA that gives input into what is happening on campus?

How do you develop parent leaders and representatives?

• Do your involved parents represent the ethnic and economic diversity that is present in your district?
  
• What type of information is shared on your website?
  
• Does it help parents understand what is happening at the technology center or at Board meetings?
  

How "Family Friendly" is your technology center? By developing a culture that embraces the family, you open the possibility for dialogue to exist that will result in parents sharing their concerns, leading to a better learning environment for our students.

Type 4 - Learning at Home

We continue to discuss Epstein's Six Types of Involvement with Learning at Home.

How do you involve families with their children on homework and other curriculum-related activities and decisions?

• Do you give parents information on how they can help their student with "homework" when they bring it home?
  
• Do you prepare a summer learning packet for students? Maybe a summer project that they could design and build over the break?
  
• When was the last calendar of events sent home? Did it include activities that parents can do with their student to reinforce what is being learned in the classroom? (Maybe a trip to the Steam and Gas Engine Show for a historical look at engines and power?)
• Do you let parents know what their students deficiencies are before the Parent Teacher Conference?

What ways are you helping parents assist in the learning process at home?

Type 3 - Volunteering

How do you organize volunteers to support the technology center and students?

In the classroom, is there an opportunity to assist as an aide? Are there opportunities to attend assemblies and competitions like FIRST Robotics?

Do you actively seek parents to bring their skills and knowledge to the classroom? Some volunteer organizations do a parent talent survey to see what the parents do and where they are willing to help out.

Maybe you are an automotive instructor and you find out a parent likes to race cars on the weekend or maybe you are a health instructor who finds out that a parent who is a doctor would really like to show students his practice. Finding the abilities of the parents and helping them to volunteer where they feel comfortable is key.

Do you provide volunteer opportunities in various locations and at various times?

Volunteering in the classroom is an opportunity available to some, but not all parents. How do you involve those parents who are at work when their student is in your class?

How about a College Party? Encourage students and parents to come for an evening tailgate that includes hamburgers and hot dogs cooked by technology center staff and a few friendly games like horseshoes or washers run by parents. Not only are you building a "College Culture" but you are helping the parent-teacher relationship flourish. After the tailgate, offer a FAFSA class to help them with the CTE to college transition.

Whatever the activity or opportunity, the point is to get parents to feel as a valued part of their students educational experience. As parents become comfortable with what is happening in the classroom they can help aid the educational process at home. When this happens, everyone wins!!

how are you developing the parent teacher relationship?

Type 2- Communicating

The second type of involvement, Communicating, involves conducting effective communications from school-to-home and from home-to-school about school programs and student progress.

How do you communicate with parents? Some kids bring home Thursday folders with what is happening at their elementary school. Do your teachers use Blogging? Maybe a school wide notification system that sends email and text messages to parents. I have heard a parent note that they receive a text when their student is tardy or absent.

When was the last time that you had a Parent-Teacher Conference? As an instructor do you send progress reports or test results back to the parent? If you have a student from culture, do you provide an interpreter for their parents?

How can you build your communication network? When was the last time you invited parents for a Parent Night (something held not during the workday) or maybe a Superintendent-Parent Coffee, and invite parents to come into school before their workday and have coffee with instructors and the Superintendent.

In what ways are you making communication easier in your district?

Epstein's Six Types of Involvement - Parenting

Research demonstrates that parent involvement in a child's learning is positively related to achievement and as educators who know the importance of parental involvement we should be engaged in the task of getting more parental involvement.

To help facilitate the discussion, Dr Joyce Epstein, Director of the National Network of Partnership Schools at John Hopkins University, has devised 6 Types of Involvement. Though this list may not be complete, it provides a stable footing for us to begin the conversation.

Lets talk about the 6 types starting with Type 1, Parenting.

Parenting involves ways schools can assist families with parenting and child-rearing skills, understanding child and adolescent development, and setting home conditions that support children as students at each age and grade level. Parenting also assist schools in understanding families.

When was the last age-level workshops on child development available at the school or online.? A workshop could be centered around applying to financial aid for the transition to college, maybe a Parents University where they could learn math skills to help their students do homework, or perhaps a CareerTech 101 course where parents could become involved in learning about the activities and procedures of the technology center.

Parental workshops neither have to be long or complicated. An opportunity for the parent to see what the child is learning and how they can reinforce that knowledge is an opportunity that should not be wasted.

What are you doing to encourage Parental Involvement at your technology center?

More later on the other five, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision making and collaborating with the community.

Epstein, et. al. 2002. School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action, Second Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc.