Week 6: Parents as partner

1. Consider your own experience(s) as a student or parent within the framework of “parents as partners”. How have you personally experienced parent involvement within a school context (either as a student and/or parent)? As a student, my parents will involve with school field trip, once a year there will be fundraising for class, parents bring food to sell, teacher will set up parent- teacher interview once a month, after finish test parents have to sign, we have journal book to write down daily homework, coming test, presentation and other events that parents will have to sign so students can bring to teacher next day. If parents want to notify anything can write the book teacher will have to write for the note.

2. How might your prior experiences influence your own perceptions about parent engagement to help their children succeed? Have an agenda to write down homework, test to keep constant communication with parents. Set up parents teacher interview once a month, classmates phone book for classroom, monthly event calendar, write expectation and goal for each students to set up at the beginning of the semester. Provide parents with clear behavioural expectations, classroom routines and procedures for developing a community of learners so everything is transparent.

3. How will you work on challenging your own assumptions about parents as partners? Sometimes parents will rely on teacher as sole responsibility for children's education, I find it's challenging and frustrating without parents' help, i realize i need to set up clear goal and expectation with parents, find what's the strategies, give clear timeline and exception and set up another follow up meeting and ask for help!

4. After reading the parent-related materials, in what areas do you feel capable and/or confident? In what areas will you require further development? How will you work to develop further your identified areas?

I am pretty good at active listening skills but i find it's challenging when certain parents complain about everything, such as "why do you give my daughter extra 5 minutes class?" or "the schedule suppose to be set can't be changed" I learned that teachers may not always be able to manage and resolve conflicts with parents and guardians alone. Sometimes they need help from a third-party. I could talk to administrator, the principal, OECTA unit president or the Counselling and Member Services department at the provincial office. (strategies from: https://www.parentengagement.ca/modules/managing-and-resolving-conflicts/tips-suggestions/ ) Use awareness skills to assess your response when you feel a conflict arising that may involve a difficult person. Guard against the natural tendency to view your own position as the ‘right’ one. ( Positive Professional Parent Teacher Relationship p.7)

Resources:

OECTA’s Positive Professional Parent Teacher Relationships

http://www.oectawellington.ca/portals/0/parenttchr1.pdf

Key components of the MOE’s Parents in Partnership—A Parent Engagement Policy for Ontario Schools (2010) http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/parents/involvement/PE_Policy2010.pdf

OTF’s Parent Engagement Modules and complete the following two modules:

Establishing Positive Relationship

Managing and Resolving Conflicts

https://www.parentengagement.ca/