I have been given the privilege of observing a four year old classroom at Head Start for the past several weeks. This week I was able to observe a parent involvement day planned with the children and staff. The center provided the materials and the shirts and the parent and child worked together to design a create summer shirt. It did not go smooth at first because the class had a huge amount of parents to come and participate. I interacted with the teachers and did the best I could helping them organize and make certain all the children had the correct size of shirt and their name written on it. I am always present during the early mornings when the parents are arriving and dropping off their children. I have actually been able to share and discuss the purpose of my visits with several parents. I have received direct input from some parents on whether or not they feel parent involvement is important. Every parent has answered yes, but one parent shared with me that they sometimes feel they disrupt the classroom instead of benefiting the classroom.
I had a special learning experience last week because I got to meet with the nutrition specialist for Head Start. She discussed her concerns with getting parents to attend the nutritional classes. I ask her when she has them and she responded late morning. I suggested early morning when the parents drop the children off or late in the afternoon when the parents pick the children up. I have learned from talking to many parents that we must consider their available time and think about how expensive gas is right now. Head Start serves low income families, so we must consider economic components. One of my focus questions is about nutrition and how to better encourage parent involvement. These encounters over the past couple of weeks helped with ideas toward my topic and focus questions.
It is great that there was a huge amount of parents to show at the event. Sometimes it seems that when to many people are present, the event is not as effective as what you may want. I love talking with the parents every morning when they drop their children off, this makes them feel better and also gives you a sense of what is going on with the child that day. Some parents do disrupt more that benefit, but that is a risk you always take when having the parents come into the classroom.
ReplyDeleteWe do not have a nutrition specialists, it would be nice to get the input to see what we could do to make things better for the children in our Pre-K program.
Excellent point on cosidering economic components. When planning events, I do not always take those into consideration, which may be the reason for poor attendance. I like how you feel comfortable enough to make suggestions whenever needed. We can all learn from each other. Teaching is a never ending learning cycle. I am also really happy the parent involvement day was a success. Our parent nights have very poor attendance and I wish we could make improvements. Any suggestions on what they did?
ReplyDeleteSo I have the show "Extreme Couponing" on in the background, where people save tons of money on their groceries. Do you think it would be worth teaching low-income parents how to coupon for healthier foods?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I volunteer at a Head Start program in Chicago that also lends out garden plots every year for the families in the program. That might be something worth advocating for as well. Here is a link: http://neighbor-space.org/pg_howard_area.htm
I enjoyed reading your post, I want to say that In head start you have to have parent involvement. Parent involvement give the parents a chance to find out what is going on daily in their children lives at school, they also give them the chance to interact with their children. Parent involvement also give the teachers and Parents a chance to make a positive connection with each other that can help the child and the classroom. Parent meetings are given to the parents so the director/staff can give them important information that they need to continue in the program. At the center I work at we have parent volunteers daily. Parents might come in and wash off tables, tie the children shoes, cut out papers, read a book, etc. The children love to see their parents help out in the classroom/ center. When you talked about the cost of gas for the parents to come to meetings, most of our parents meeting are in the evening time after the parents are off work or school, when they are picking their children up. I feel that when parents come to any Headstart Program they should be given the headstart standards so they could understand how important Parent Involvement is and how it can help there child in many ways. I think that was great that you got involved with the center meeting, Also Parent involvement could never be a negative thing because it is all about the well being of the children.
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