Instructor: Dorisa Ramos-Podoba September 19, 2017 Period of Development Lincoln Elementary School serves children from PreK to Sixth Grade.
Early Childhood: a time when play becomes more imaginative,
and children start understanding emotions. Their gross motor skills improve, and are physically growing steadily.
Middle Childhood: a time when children are becoming more
athletic, and begin to think logically. Their memory and language skills increase. Friendships and relationships become a central importance. My Role as a Teacher From a child development standpoint: I will support learning by providing activities and materials that children find engaging, and supply time to explore, play, and interact. I will listen to children. I find that listening carefully will help determine a childs needs and aid in furthering a childs development. I will be a communicator to parents, children, support staff, the general public and administrators. I will become a partner in learning and encourage children to find their own answers instead of providing the answers for them. Partnerships with Families and Communities We need to have successful partnerships that are based on reciprocity with school, family and community. - Have overlapping responsibilities for childrens learning. We need to develop effective partnerships by a democratic process. - We must recognize the different interests, races, religions and educational status, and be prepared to resolve conflicts through processes of mediation, negotiation, and compromise. I will work on providing a variety of opportunities. - This will include parent education, family support, volunteer activities, good communication, opportunities to participate in decision making and strategies that foster childrens learning at home, and in the community. Partnerships with Families and Communities Goals Will make the school family-friendly by -offering good, frequent and user-friendly communication (i.e. newsletter, apps) - provide after-school programs that involve parents and community organizations -organizing social activities for teachers and families to mingle. -providing parent education and family literacy programs -recommending programs that link families to needed health and social services locally. Will reach into the community by -training volunteer parents and community residents to provide families in nearby neighborhoods with information about school programs and services, and offer ideas on how to help children study at home. -going to local public areas like supermarkets to reach out to families about local programs based solely for children and families. Mesosystem from Bronfenbrenners Ecological System
-Children and students are greatly
impacted by the world around them.
-Parents, teachers and caregivers are
all a part of the microsystem and positive interactions between these parts will create balance for an individuals growth and learning the interactions are all part of an individuals mesosystem (Landon, 2014). As the mesosystem in Teachers, parents and youth Bronfenbrenners model make clear, organizations are all impacting and connections to the neighborhood and overlap in a childs development on a daily basis. the larger community- both formal Working together will help children organizations and informal social succeed. networks, influence parent-child relationships (Berk, 2013). Epsteins Types of Involvement Dr. Joyce Epstein developed a framework for defining six different types of parent involvement. This framework assists educators in developing school and family partnerships programs. Dr. Epstein was inspired to develop the framework to help all children succeed in school and later in life. Parenting
Help all families establish
home environments to support children as students.
Parent education or training
for parents Family support programs to assist families with health, nutrition and other services. Home visits at transition points to pre-school, elementary, middle and high school. Communicating Design forms of school- to-home and home-to- school communications about school programs and childrens progress. Conferences with every parent at least once a year Language translators to assist families as needed. Sending notices, memos, phone calls and newsletters Volunteering
Recruit and organize
parent help and support School and classroom volunteer program to help teachers, office staff at the school, students and other parents. Family center for volunteer work, meetings and resources for families. Sending surveys to find out availability, talents, and locations of volunteers. Learning at Home
Provide information and
ideas to families about how to help students at home with homework , activities, decision and planning. Information given to families on skills required for students in all subjects. Information given to families on homework policies and how to monitor and talk about homework at home. Family participation in setting student goals each year. Decision Making Include parents in school decisions, developing parent leaders and representatives. Active in PTA meetings, or committees for parent leadership and participation.
Advocacy groups to work for school improvements.
Networks to link all
families with parent representatives. Identify and integrate resources and services from the community to strengthen Collaborating with and support school programs, family needs, and Community student learning and development. Information for students and families on community health, cultural, recreational, social support and other services. Information on community activities that help with learning skills and talents (i.e. summer programs for students) Services to the community by students, families and schools (i.e. recycling, art, and other activities for seniors or others in community) How Can we Incorporate Epsteins Types of Involvement? Collaborate with WIC on discussing family health and nutrition. Provide family with bi-weekly newsletter that discuss events and updates for the school and students. Organize a food donation during the holidays for parent and student involvement. Provide detailed instructions for families in regards to homework that students need to complete at home, including a due date. Promote and reach out to families to join monthly PTA meetings, and provide incentives for attending Reach out to local hospitals, or medical and health professionals, environmental specialists to arrange for a guest speaker to discuss important topics to students. References Berk, L. E. (2013).Child development. (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Hubbli, K. (2014, June 26). Impact of parent
involvement on child development. Retrieved September 19, 2017, from https://hubbli.com/impact-of-parent-involvement/
(n.d.). Retrieved September 19, 2017, from
http://www.cceionline.edu/newsletters/August_08. html