Educators have research and data that helps to guide their professional recommendations, but parents have a quiet little “voice”. That voice speaks to us to identify concerns, to confirm our intuition, and to protest when we know something is wrong. Our youngest daughter was identified at birth with multiple disabilities. Physicians told us that she would never be able to dress herself, manage her self-care, or engage in typical childhood experiences, but our little voices knew that her internal strength could accomplish more. We listened to that voice, found early intervention services, therapeutic resources, and sound educational supports to give her every opportunity to be successful.
For parents and teachers, the focus of attending school is for learning important conceps that will prepare children for their future, but if you asked a student what they care most about at school, they will tell you that it is their "friends". For many students forming those meaningful relationships is as hard as their academic studies. While there are not specific subjects whose focus is on friendship development, if a student lacks the intuitive ability to build those relationships, their school experience is diminished. In order to make relationships a priority, request that your school district prioritize the following: Create opportunities for peer interactions Build supports that
Student achievement is measured in a variety of ways, but both parents and students rely heavily on grades to inform them on how things are going at school. Grading is a "summative" measure that is determined at the end of a grading period, when it is often too late to affect changes to the student's performance. In order to work more collaboratively with your students and their teachers, developing an ongoing communication process will allow parents the opportunity to intervene earlier in the process. Solicit teacher feedback on an ongoing basis with the following strategies: Set up a communication schedule to receive feedback on an ongoing basis Utilize a communication notebook that ca
Everyone leads busy lives, so how can parents and teachers stay in touch with each other? Communicating with your children's teachers goes well beyond parent/teacher conferences, consider these other communicative opportunities to stay connected: Most teachers maintain a website, find out when new information is posted As homework support, many teachers post explanatory videos on YouTube Share with your children's teachers the best way to stay in touch, whether phone calls, a communication notebook, or via e-mail, knowing how to stay connected will help maintain the lines of communication Find out if your children's school has an online grade book to monitor their academic progress Ask the t
