Artifact #2

Educators Value the Involvement and Support of Parents, Guardians, Families, and Communities in School.

B.C. Standard #4

I feel extremely lucky with the amount of support that I got from the parents at my school during my practicum. There were a few of them who would come in a couple times a week to do home reading with the students. This was extremely helpful considering some of them did not always have the opportunity to read at home or could use more support.

We also had great support for classroom activities. During my time at the school we had a couple different events where parents came in. For Halloween we set up craft tables which parents stationed and assisted students. There was a pancake breakfast put on for Valentine's Day and it was a couple of moms who did the cooking. We also went on a field trip to Science World and I was surprised by how many parents attended. There were more chaperones then necessary which made the trip a breeze. These activities were only possible because the parents volunteered their time to help. I am really grateful I was able to work with such a great group of people.

The support from parents when it came to the success of their children was also great in this classroom. I had the chance to talk to all but one student's parents/guardians during my practicum. One student's Nana in particular was always checking in after school to see how his day went. She would come in and chat about how things had gone and together with my TM we would dissect the good, and not so good. Doing this would give us an idea of what was working for him and what needed to be adapted. She would discuss what he was like at home, that morning, and over all. Working as a team and connecting his home life with school really helped us to find strategies that would work for him. We discovered that when he was hungry, he was unable to cooperate. We aloud him the freedom to eat whenever he needed to boost his mood. Without the frequent contact a fix this simple may not have been discovered. As I think about teaching my own class I will reflect on this discovery and be sure to frequently communicate with parents around the behaviour of their children so we can work together to help them be there best.