I am not very familiar working with special needs students but the Bretfieder article was still very interesting. It was clear from the article that when working with students with special needs having visual aids is very important. I liked how this article highlighted specific examples and even included pictures such as having a daily calendar/schedule that the students would have to refer back to. “One of the most effective ways to get students to process language is through the use of visual supports.”-Bretfieder
The Maples article was one of my favorite articles to read. I can remember back to my 301 placement, it was around the time of parent teacher conferences. My CT had made personal portfolios for each of her students to show their parents but she told me that most of the parents weren’t going to show up anyways. This was the first time I was introduced to the idea that not all parents are actively involved in their child’s education. Growing up my parents were very involved so I figured all of the other parents were too. During my 301 placement I was quickly proved wrong. More than half of the parents didn’t show up to conferences or have any interest in the progress of their child. The Maples article brought out some great ideas on how to get the parents and teacher communication lines open right at the beginning of the year. I loved the idea of the million-word activity. Getting to know your students through the eyes of their parents seems like a great idea. I don’t know if every teacher who attempted this would get such a successful outcome but I think if other ways of communicating with parents’ fail then trying this seems like a great idea.
I never really gave any thought to parent involvement until I entered the TE program, and began working in my placements. My parents were very involved just as yours were, and the rest of the parents of my school were pretty involved as well. Knowing what I know now about parent involvement, I completely agree with you that the Maples article contained awesome ideas for involving parents in the school community. Teachers only control so much of a students learning, and parent's involvement can heighten the effects the teacher has on a student if they are involved. I also think that not every teacher is going to have such a successful outcome like in the Maples article, but the attempt is always worth it, to me.
ReplyDeleteI really hope that asking the parents to get involved by simply helping the teacher get to know his/her students would never be a problem, and only something that will inspire the parents.
I have always been worried about parental involvement in my future classroom. I feel that if the parents do not care or show no interest in what their child is doing in the class, this sort of view can easily rub off on their children and in turn the children may do poorly in class.
ReplyDeleteI was very interested as well to read about the different ways to get parents involved in their child's education and plan to use some of them in my future teaching.
I agree with Sara about parental involvement. Even though we can not force them to get involved. how much does it take on our part as the teacher to get them involved. Do we just simply write letters home? or go to the students house to visit them parents directly? I have heard of teachers doing both in the end however it is up to the teacher to decided how they will go about and what type of teacher we want to be.
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