- How was your family involved in your education in pre-k through high school?
- What did your teachers and school staff (pre-K through high school) do to involve your family in your education?
- What barriers or obstacles prevented your family from being more involved in your education?
- What could your teachers and school staff (pre-K through high school) have done to facilitate your family’s involvement in your education?
1. Looking back I would say the only involvement would be when homework has to get done and open school nights/days when the would discuss grades and get to meet the teachers.
2. They would require parents to sign tests and quizzes if a child had low grades.
3. The barriers that prevented my family from being more involved in my education was due to the fact that my parents were always at work.
4. The teachers and staff could have had a open door policies, faster when responding to emails.
Mel — Thanks for your comment in this activity. What you describe is typical of schools in the US. I wonder, what would it be like if there was an open door policy and families came to school any time they wanted and could spend several hours in a classroom?
1.How was your family involved in your education in pre-k through high school?
My family was involved since I was in head start they would help around to fix if there was an event happening and they would go to school meetings. In elementary to middle school they would only go to open nights and help with homework.
2.What did your teachers and school staff (pre-K through high school) do to involve your family in your education?
They would ask to be part of school meetings and sign exams if grades were low and give phone calls to tell my parents that they were scared of me repeating grades.
3.What barriers or obstacles prevented your family from being more involved in your education?
My parents only speak Spanish and sometimes the teachers I had did not speak Spanish.
4.What could your teachers and school staff (pre-K through high school) have done to facilitate your family’s involvement in your education?
I feel like they should have found a solution where they can communicate with my parents in Spanish at the time.
Madelin — Thanks for your comments in this activity. I am sorry that your teachers & school staff were not able to communicate with your family at times. I wonder, what are some solutions that could teachers & school staff have developed to communicated with your family.
1.- My parents were involved in my education by providing their economical support. Taking me to school everyday before they went to work, helping me doing my homework when needed. We used to have a board in my house where my father used to explain the class to my siblings and I in order to reinforce our understanding. When I was in high school my parents used to check my progress, and if I there was a class that I didn’t understand, they used to take me to private classes. My parents always made sure to support our education even when I went to college.
2.- My teachers and school staff (pre-K through high school) didn’t do anything to involve my family in my education, because my family was already involved. I guess when talking about my parents involving with the school, I would say that my school used to have some social events such as Christmas were I used to perform, so my parents use to go to see my performance. In addition, once every trimester, my parents used to attend parents-teachers’ meetings in order to check on my progress in school.
3.- What barriers or obstacles prevented your family from being more involved in your education?
No barriers because they were always involved.
4.- What could your teachers and school staff (pre-K through high school) have done to facilitate your family’s involvement in your education?
In my case my family was always involved. However, in order to involve my family even more, I think my teachers could have made social activities where my parents and I could interact together in the classroom.
Marcela, Thanks for your comment in this activity. I wonder, in Ecuador, do teachers “complain” that families are not committed to their child’s education?
1.How was your family involved in your education in pre-k through high school?
My mom was always involved in my education, she was a single parent taking me to school every morning while she worked a full time job and then she would pick me up from after school program. My mom would help me with my homework up until I didn’t need help anymore. I remember when she packed my lunch box and when I would open it at lunch time I would have my favorite sandwich, juice and a few snacks, one for lunch and the other two for after school program. I always had a note in my lunch box telling me to have a good day and that she loves me.
2.What did your teachers and school staff (pre-K through high school) do to involve your family in your education? I was in head start first I believe but all my teachers have always involved my family with emails, school conferences, texts, in person conversations and phone calls. My teachers were always on top when it came to engaging with parents and contacting them or having a brief discussion with them on how I did that day, what I learned, what I can improve on and so on.
3.What barriers or obstacles prevented your family from being more involved in your education?
None. They’re were not any obstacles.
What could your teachers and school staff (pre-K through high school) have done to facilitate your family’s involvement in your education? Nothing, they did everything that they were supposed. I was lucky enough to have been in really good schools with amazing teachers who were super involved with my parents.
Selanie — Thanks for your comment. It sounds like your mom was very involved in what was happening in your education! I wonder, was there anything that your mom wanted to be involved in or do in your school but she was not able to participate?
1)The way my family was involved in my education during pre-k through high school was they would make sure to inform my mom on how I was doing so far in class or if I needed help. My mom would help me with my homework we would do it after school.
2)What my teachers and school staff (pre-K through high school) do to involve your family in your education was they would have a lot of frequent PTC meetings, and school nights where everyone was able to communicate and suggest their own ideas.
3)Some barriers or obstacles that prevented my family from being more involved in your education I think is the most common which is the language, my mom didn’t speak English at all so she tells me it was difficult at times to communicate because lets say if she was in a meeting they would have to figure a way to get a bilingual person to translate.
4)If my teachers and school staff (pre-K through high school) have done to facilitate your family’s involvement in your education would be making sure the translator was accessible at all types.
Lesly, Thanks for your comment in this activity. I am sorry that there were times that the school staff & your teachers were not able to communicate with your mother. Having a translator available is one important step to ensure staff could communicate with your mom: I wonder, what else could your teachers & school staff have done to ensure they could communicate with your mother?
1) My family was not really involved in my education. They just helped me make sure that my grades stay up to par.
2) My teachers would always give out letters and send my family a copy of my progress report.
3) One barrier that prevented my family from being more involved is there would be a lot of confusion and lack of communication. Everything would just be through letters.
4) I think my teachers could have had stronger communication with my family instead of just sending letters home because sometimes the letter would not have all the information.
Diamunique — Thanks for your comment in this activity. I am sorry that there was a lot of confusion & a lack of communication between your teachers/ school staff & your mom. In addition to using other forms of communication besides letters; I wonder, what else could your teachers/ school staff have done to have stronger communication with your family?
1. How was your family involved in your education in pre-k through high school?
-My family was involved in my education in pre-k through high school by making sure I was doing well in class, they made me went to after school programs, they helped me with the homeworks when needed, and they also supported me economically.
2. What did your teachers and school staff (pre-K through high school) do to involve your family in your education?
-Teachers and school staff involved my family in my education through letters, emails, and school conferences.
3. What barriers or obstacles prevented your family from being more involved in your education?
-Sometimes work schedules but they always tried to keep up with everything.
4. What could your teachers and school staff (pre-K through high school) have done to facilitate your family’s involvement in your education?
-Maybe try to communicating with parents during office hours via Zoom, so my parents could have been more involve.
1.How was your family involved in your education in pre-k through high school?
My parents were involved in my education, they would help me with projects and if I needed any help in homework they would try to help but since english was not their dominant language they would seek help in school.
2.What did your teachers and school staff (pre-K through high school) do to involve your family in your education?
Well only in elementary school we did more activities with parents than in middle school and especially in high school. In elementary school the teachers had parents come to our class to do arts and crafts or play educational board games.
3.What barriers or obstacles prevented your family from being more involved in your education?
The only obstacle was not being able to understand english, when my mom would help me with my homework we would have a dictionary to look up the word and understand the definition. When it came to school meeting I had to go and try to translate what the teachers were saying.
4.What could your teachers and school staff (pre-K through high school) have done to facilitate your family’s involvement in your education?
They could have been more inclusive. They should have communicated more with parents because after elementary school parents stop attending events.