Focus Area 3.7 - Engaged parents/carers in the educative process
Plan for appropriate and contextually relevant opportunities for parents/ carers to be involved in their children's learning
Involving parents in students learning experiences has seen to initiate positive outcomes in the learning environment (Anderson & Minke, 2010). During a health unit examining Healthy Lifestyles, I had created a diary for students to take home and complete with their families. The diary was asking students and families to identify how many serves of fruits and vegetables they were eating and how many minutes of physical activity they were doing each day. They were to do this over two weeks, with week 1 being their normal lifestyle, and week 2 focusing on improving their statistics. Students at the start of week 2 were then asked to bring home the relevant information (Physical activity and healthy eating guidelines) to discuss with their families and set goals for them to achieve over the last week. At the end of the second week, they had to answer questions about how they felt, what they had realised after making changes, and why is it important to have a healthy eating and active lifestyle. From here, I collated responses with the students by creating graphs to compare how as a whole class we could promote healthy lifestyles in the classroom and the school.
healthy_lifestyles_family_diary.pdf |
To continue involving parents in their child's learning, I often post learning activities for the students on the platform Seesaw. Here parents are able to comment on their children's work, provide them with feedback and also see what they are learning. I often take photographs of students and their work in class to keep families involved and up to date with their learning. I have been using seesaw to also communicate about any other concerns or issues that may arise with students. For example, having a behavioural issue with a student came up one year, which began to impact the way that student was working and learning. By contacting their parent on Seesaw, it allowed me to develop a solution to their behaviour by identifying issues at home and creating a behaviour initiative with the parent. Regular contact with the child's family and the student had improved their behaviour at school, which resulted in the quality of the students work improve greatly.
Parent engagement in learning has been known to lead to improved outcomes in students learning. (Australian Council of State School Organisations) Parental engagement in learning underpins children and young people's cognitive and social, and emotional development. On a yearly basis, I run my own cricket center in Terms 1 and 4, with students aged 4-12. So far our record numbers have been at 165 students in the one center, whilst also developing other younger children to coach participants. When planning and undertaking this program, I always begin with parents and the participants having a hit/catch/throw together. Once the program commences, parents are always encouraged to help out on various activities and engage in the learning. During the last week, I plan activities that parents participate in from the very beginning, to the very end.