Calling All Parents!
After visiting many schools, homes and talking to teachers I have realized we need to create collaborative groups. It takes everyone to raise and educate a child. This has been said, researched, and proven before. I am not saying anything new.
What I am saying is, in many cases we are still not doing it. Parents are busy, teachers are over worked and distraught by all the pressure created by "High Stakes Testing". People in general are angry, frustrated and upset by the educational process in the US. We have to set aside all our emotions because ultimately it is the children who suffer and lose out when we are blinded and frozen by these same emotions. We need to have clear heads and remain focused as our goal needs to be our students educational welfare.
Saying that, I realize it is always easier said than done. I am calling on all parents to try to put your emotions, anger, frustration on the back burner. Let's think about what can be done to build safe, happy and productive learning environments to help our children learn and grow.
Here are a few suggestions to get started:
1. Talk to your child/student in order to find out what they like and dislike about school. This applies to parents and teachers.
2. With the above information ask what the child thinks might help them enjoy their education more. What would they like to read about, learn in math, science, and geography. Tap into and ferret out their interests.
3. Ask yourself what you can do to assist engaging your child with school. Parents need to spend at least 15 minutes each day working with their child.
4. If you have the luxury of a little extra time volunteer to help in your child's classroom. Most teachers love and welcome the help and interest.
5. Make games out of school work. Write math problems, vocabulary words and test questions on 3X5 cards and hide them around the house and yard. Everyone loves games make learning fun, play together.
There is loads of data which proves to us the children who spend at least 15 minutes each day reading with their parents actually can gain one year reading level with any other special program. This doe snot mean you tell your student to go do their homework or go read alone. It means you share reading together, then you discuss what this just read. This allows you to check their comprehension. Imagine, only 15 minutes a day, no extra monetary costs, no traveling to special tutors, no magical phonics or reading/math programs which more often than not end up in the back of some closet.
I would like to end saying we need to evaluate our two greatest resources, our children and our time. Human contact is one of the more precious things we are losing on today's society. Children spend more time on technology than they do with family members. What separates us from animals is that we learn and acquire information from each other. Let's embrace the little time we have with our children. This is why I am "Calling All Parents!
What I am saying is, in many cases we are still not doing it. Parents are busy, teachers are over worked and distraught by all the pressure created by "High Stakes Testing". People in general are angry, frustrated and upset by the educational process in the US. We have to set aside all our emotions because ultimately it is the children who suffer and lose out when we are blinded and frozen by these same emotions. We need to have clear heads and remain focused as our goal needs to be our students educational welfare.
Saying that, I realize it is always easier said than done. I am calling on all parents to try to put your emotions, anger, frustration on the back burner. Let's think about what can be done to build safe, happy and productive learning environments to help our children learn and grow.
Here are a few suggestions to get started:
1. Talk to your child/student in order to find out what they like and dislike about school. This applies to parents and teachers.
2. With the above information ask what the child thinks might help them enjoy their education more. What would they like to read about, learn in math, science, and geography. Tap into and ferret out their interests.
3. Ask yourself what you can do to assist engaging your child with school. Parents need to spend at least 15 minutes each day working with their child.
4. If you have the luxury of a little extra time volunteer to help in your child's classroom. Most teachers love and welcome the help and interest.
5. Make games out of school work. Write math problems, vocabulary words and test questions on 3X5 cards and hide them around the house and yard. Everyone loves games make learning fun, play together.
There is loads of data which proves to us the children who spend at least 15 minutes each day reading with their parents actually can gain one year reading level with any other special program. This doe snot mean you tell your student to go do their homework or go read alone. It means you share reading together, then you discuss what this just read. This allows you to check their comprehension. Imagine, only 15 minutes a day, no extra monetary costs, no traveling to special tutors, no magical phonics or reading/math programs which more often than not end up in the back of some closet.
I would like to end saying we need to evaluate our two greatest resources, our children and our time. Human contact is one of the more precious things we are losing on today's society. Children spend more time on technology than they do with family members. What separates us from animals is that we learn and acquire information from each other. Let's embrace the little time we have with our children. This is why I am "Calling All Parents!
posted by PJ Nickels and RE Hughes at
3:27 PM
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