After attending last night's Parent Night and Open House, I found myself to be a bit dissappointed. A few parents that I expected to see did not attend. On the other hand, several that I did not expect to be in attendance were.
Sadly, I came to the realization that school events such as Parent Night are always the activities that the parents that "you" want to see are the parents that do not show up. It is discouraging as a future teacher to see these kinds of things, but at the same time, it is something that I guess I will have to get used to.
Also, I found that the parents that were in attendance were more concerned about talking about their child and about things that the child is or isn't good at instead of learning about what the child will be doing in our classroom. What some of the parents fail to realize is that Open House is not set up to be a conference for each parent. I wonder... Do those parents realize that 45 minutes in the evening added on to be in school all day is enough time! Sheeesh! :) The parents were given information by myself and Mrs. Morris to schedule conferences or call in the event that a conference is needed. Also, they were given an email address to be able to have regular contact with their teacher.
These are only a few things that were on my mind and in discussion that I held with my mentor teacher last night after meeting with the parents and being here 20 minutes longer than we should have because of parents wanting to conference. This discussion continued this morning which prompted me to write about it in my blog!
The key to successful parent interaction is finding ways to connect with the parents that didn't come. Are there ways to find out why they didn't come? Single parent (with younger siblings at home)? An evening job? Activities with other siblings (ball games, Scouts, etc.)? Sometimes we assume that lack of attendance means lack of interest, and that's not always the case. Challenge yourself to find out why those parents aren't invovled, and see what you can do to change it! :)
After attending last night's Parent Night and Open House, I found myself to be a bit dissappointed. A few parents that I expected to see did not attend. On the other hand, several that I did not expect to be in attendance were.
ReplyDeleteSadly, I came to the realization that school events such as Parent Night are always the activities that the parents that "you" want to see are the parents that do not show up. It is discouraging as a future teacher to see these kinds of things, but at the same time, it is something that I guess I will have to get used to.
Also, I found that the parents that were in attendance were more concerned about talking about their child and about things that the child is or isn't good at instead of learning about what the child will be doing in our classroom. What some of the parents fail to realize is that Open House is not set up to be a conference for each parent. I wonder... Do those parents realize that 45 minutes in the evening added on to be in school all day is enough time! Sheeesh! :) The parents were given information by myself and Mrs. Morris to schedule conferences or call in the event that a conference is needed. Also, they were given an email address to be able to have regular contact with their teacher.
These are only a few things that were on my mind and in discussion that I held with my mentor teacher last night after meeting with the parents and being here 20 minutes longer than we should have because of parents wanting to conference. This discussion continued this morning which prompted me to write about it in my blog!
The key to successful parent interaction is finding ways to connect with the parents that didn't come. Are there ways to find out why they didn't come? Single parent (with younger siblings at home)? An evening job? Activities with other siblings (ball games, Scouts, etc.)? Sometimes we assume that lack of attendance means lack of interest, and that's not always the case. Challenge yourself to find out why those parents aren't invovled, and see what you can do to change it! :)
ReplyDelete