Bringing Families and Schools Together

As the text Breaking Down the Wall emphasizes, building strong partnerships with parents is essential to the growth of all students, but especially ELL students who need more support when entering a new classroom.  At my school, we have always had the standard parent teacher interactions, such as open house and conferences twice yearly.  In recent years, however, we have made an attempt to open up even more.  It is important to present a welcoming atmosphere if you want parents to be a part of the school community. 

As with any project, making a school more inviting begins with an initial foundation and grows from there.  We began with “International Days” where we asked families to come in and share recipes, food, music, arts, just about anything you could imagine representing their culture.  Parents volunteered to teach students cultural dances.  Others showed off art and clothing.  Some demonstrated a tradition of storytelling with and without musical instruments.  Due to the overwhelming response, we expanded our vision of a school community.  Now we use the shadow boxes in the hallway to showcase cultural or familial artifacts brought in by the students.  These artifacts include tickets, war medals, dresses from various occasions, cooking implements…the list is impressive.  Students were encouraged to write a few sentences about what their artifact meant to them and place it in the display with their items.  Now, as classes pass through the school, they can look and read about their classmates and get to know them on a different level.  In addition, this year, we passed out a survey to find out which countries were represented in our school community.  Full sized flags were then purchased for every country and these are currently hanging throughout the school.

Tours of the building are a frequent sight, allowing potential parents the opportunity to see the school facilities firsthand.  Parents have the chance to talk to teachers as well as view the curriculum resources we use in the school.  The groups are usually families of students attending Kindergarten the following year, but we often have families looking to transfer students in from other schools as well.  Throughout the year, we have several “dining” opportunities for teachers and community members.  They are fund raisers, but teachers volunteer to cook and serve various meals to attending school families. We have had several “Zoom Painting Nights” led by our art teacher.  Students are sent home with all the art materials they need to create a masterpiece.  Families can login at night and participate in the Zoom lesson.  A strong PTO also spreads the word about all the great things going on in our building.

At the classroom level, I try to have at least one celebration of work every quarter.  With every big writing project we complete, I ask the students to do something creative or visual to go along with it.  Our celebration is then referred to as a Museum Day.  For the duration of the showing (usually around 90 minutes), parents can come in and browse the exhibits created by students, spending as much time as they are able.  I like to organize our celebrations this way so parents don’t have to worry about rushing only to miss their child’s presentation, or asking parents to sit through a dozen presentations to see their child, only to have to rush back to work.  If there is one positive to come out of COVID, it is the ability to Zoom various classroom activities.  So if parents are unable to attend the live event, they can join us through Zoom.  For several years now, my class has been writing poems with Brown University students.  This lasts about two months, culminating in each student getting one poem published in a classroom anthology.  We celebrate with a reading of the poems.  Last year, we recorded this event and posted it in the student Google Classroom so parents who could not attend were able to enjoy it later.

I think the most important thing that I have learned, that I would pass on to any new teacher, would be that every journey begins with a first step.  When I started at Vartan twelve years ago, I would never have imagined all the great things we do to get parents involved.  Reflecting back, it has been a journey of incremental growth.  Each year, add something new.  Then make it habit to do it each year.  Before long, the opportunities for family engagement multiply.  Keep what works, make changes to what doesn’t; share your ideas, and don’t be afraid to use an idea that worked for someone else.  That is the way communities come together.