Summary: Connecting With Diverse Families

In chapter 9 of the book Black Ants and Buddhists it talks about the different situations that families and teachers may encounter inside and outside a classroom setting. One of the situations that it talks about in this chapter is about different types of families and their origins. Talking to students about their families it might be challenging because as a future teacher we might not know what is their situation or who is taking care of them. For instance, last year when I worked in a school I told a student that his mom and dad would be so proud to see that he had made a 100 in the test. I noticed that he was upset when I told him that, he later on told me that he lives with his grandma, I felt bad for the entire day because I didn’t

Chiles Elementary School’s improvement plan, for its vision statement is to strive “for excellence by actively involving all students, parents, faculty, staff, and the community in a safe, nurturing, and respectful environment” (Lawton M. Chiles Elementary SIP, 2015-2016, pg. 8). Building relationships is extremely important in order to facilitate successful collaboration, which is why the school improvement plan also listed different ways for learning student cultures, building safe and respectful learning environment, and getting parents involved. For example, in order to learn more about student cultures, teachers are encouraged to involve all students in activities to share about themselves, their families, and their work with peers. Teachers are also encouraged to meet with parents, to listen to concerns, and to learn about special needs that a child may have. To create a safe and respectful learning environment, teachers have general tasks that they must do before, during, and after school, such as providing supervision in their grade level’s common area before the first bell, utilizing school-wide classroom management system, and supervising students in the car loop or bus loop

Parental involvement in a child’s education can be detrimental to the teaching process in more ways that someone might realize. The article by Ron Clark, “What teachers really want to tell parents” outlined the problems that can arise in the way parents perceive their child’s teacher, on the other end of the spectrum than the most commonly known problem, which is when parental involvement is lacking, it can cause a direct relation to inhibiting their child’s ability to learn, and do well in school. Clark discusses the problems that arise when a parent doesn’t appreciate the teacher’s involvement in their child’s life. He first acknowledges the fact that new teachers are only making it 4.5 years into the profession, which some of the reasons

I have learned that there is more to the children in a classroom setting than what is on the surface. It can be said that the child 's anchor is the family and as a future educator it is important to have a relationship with them. I think the most significant component is effectively communicating with the families in a way that is meaningful to them. From lecture, we have learned that we must treat families with “dignity and respect” when working with them. We can do this by taking a closer look at the family in the context of culture and family dynamics. In a short sample, I will synthesize interview responses of two parents through the lens of Bronfenbrenner 's ecological model to further explore their discipline, feelings,

How do your professional experience with diverse families impact the way that you interact or will interact with children and families.

Kara Lysy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education spoke to a group of educators on behalf of the Harvard University Achievement Gap Initiative suggesting that in the past she has made visits to the home of her students twice a year (fall and spring). Lysy’s hope was to open up lines of communication between the parent and teacher, learn more about the family dynamics, and to offer suggestions to the family in helping their children achieve success. Lysy states that, “family ties are important to success and assist in literacy and writing” (AGI Conference, 2011, Lysy). As a parent this sounds fantastic, yet in the real world it is not possible. Jade Beltran, Special Education teacher at Kohlberg Elementary in El Paso, Texas states, “this sounds like an easy fix but in actuality it is not. Teachers in the El Paso Independent School District are prohibited from visiting children at their homes” (Beltran, 2015, Interview). Beltran illustrated the achievement gap in comparison to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs by saying, “there is a prevalence of Hispanic students whose parents are working multiple low paying jobs just to put food on the table, education is not a priority for them” (Beltran, 2015,

The most direct and meaningful impact on children’s education and advancement of social competence comes from parents and families. Students work harder, excel more, show attitudes and behavior that is positive, and feel at ease in new settings. Educators must connect to families so that they may develop relationships that employ them as active partners in their children’s learning

Throughout the school year, they have a handful of nights where the parents can bring the student and socialize and get to know others. Parents are always welcome to volunteer and help out during the day in the classroom. While these are great ways to include parents in their child’s education, Joyce Epstein of Johns Hopkins University mentions 6 levels of involvement. The first level is parenting, teachers should help establish a home environment that supports learning for the child. Secondly, communicating from school-to-home and home-to-school. Some different ways to do this are phone calls, newsletters, and emails. The next level is volunteering. Teachers should not only promote but ask for family support in and out of the classroom. Learning at home is the fourth level of parent involvement. Teachers should include information about what their child is learning and how they can help with the child's reading and homework and what needs to be improved. Fifthly, teachers should include parents in school decisions and create family organizations such as PTA. Lastly, teachers should collaborate with the community and provide information about community health, cultural, social support, and other programs or services. (Weissman and Hendrick 49-50). By communicating about community cultural services, I believe that it shows that a teacher shows interest in the familys' culture.

One in five children that live in the United States are living in poverty (Sime, 2016). Poverty is the state of not having enough money to meet one’s basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter. What is it like for a child to live in a home with a low income? What effects does it have on children? Children living in low income homes face more challenges than others. They often have to endure the pain of not having family members at home when they need them. At times children living in poverty have to cope with the stress of taking care of themselves as well as their siblings, while trying to maintain satisfactory grades in school. In this paper I will discuss the impact of poverty on a child’s social development, academic performance,

Overview The Family Unit In human sociological terms, the family is described as a group of people that have affinity traditionally, organized through husband, wife, and children and/or extended relatives. This unit, called the nuclear family, was a historical organization that served economic and cultural needs, educated children in societal behaviors, and offered stability. In the modern age, however, families of all kinds exist. There may be one-two, three or more parents involved in the child's overall plan; those parents may be traditional, grandparents or care-givers, same sex couples, or multiple divorces, etc. We live in a diverse world, not just in the United States, but globally. Preparing children for a leadership role in this world also requires that we take into account individual micro- and macro-differences, celebrate those differences, and view the family as assisting in any way possible the positive relationship of the community, the schools, and other resources to help those children actualize (Hareven, 1991; Berman, 2010).

When it comes to being a teacher, it is important to have communication with a student’s parents and family. Working in a school for almost three years now, and being a student for many years, I can see the importance of communicating with a student’s family. There have been many situations in which the teacher does not have a relationship or communication with a student’s family and in the end it has a negative effect on the student, the teacher and the family. After reading some chapters in the book, and journals, there have been many sections and topics that have changed my thoughts and made me rethink about doing things differently when dealing with parents and family involvement and being a student myself and having to deal with these issues. According to an article written by William H. Jeynes; over the last three decades, a substantial body of research has accrued indicating that parental involvement has a considerable degree of impact at both the elementary and secondary school levels (Green, Walker, Hoover Dempsey, & Sandler, 2007). Also according to research conducted, family activities such as checking homework, establishing household rules for when it is time for work and leisure, and attending school functions are associated with higher scholastic outcomes to a statistically significant degree among elementary school students, but have little or no relationship to these outcomes at the secondary school level (Jeynes, 2005, 2007b).

Early childcare education and afterschool services is a long-term investment. Between bills, saving for college, and high healthcare costs, childcare cost one of those things that turns out to be very expensive but also a necessity. Parents of children in grades K-8 should be able to, afford childcare costs without government assistance and without going into debt themselves. But being able to afford childcare is only half the battle. Just because a parent or a guardian can afford childcare doesn’t mean its quality childcare. Parents must be able trust the caregiver in hopes that they are leaving their children in a safe environment and that their money is being

I am so thankful for the opportunity that Presbyterian College provided me with by hosting Tammy Pawloski’s conference “Why Poverty Matters: What Schools Can Do Every Day”. I believe that the subject of “Why Poverty Matters” was important for me, a future early childhood educator, to hear so that I know what to identify in my future students and how to best implement strategies to enrich the learning, knowledge, and confidence of my future students. Although the entire conference was rich in information and insight, I believe that one of the things that stuck out to me the most was how prevalent poverty is within a child’s early years. Many children grow up in poverty; with limited resources, weak background knowledge, and low self – efficacy.

Children from low-income familes are more likely than their counterpart to struggle with attendence and compliance issues, receive poor support from their familes and fall behind in their education. The underlying reasons behind this brief list of the challenges faced by low income children are plentiful, and largely outside the scope of this review. There are potentially eleven million children under the age of three that are at risk for

Poor children aged three and four were enrolled in preschool for two and half hours a day. In addition, their teachers visited the children and their mothers at home once a week for about an hour and a half. Most of the children stayed in the program for two years, a few for just one. This program as called the Perry project. It allowed children to explore the meaning of those activates with their teachers. The project was assigned to 123 neighborhoods children and the outcome was widely disseminated. But what makes them particularly striking is that they were achieved with such modest means, and with unusually high-risk children in severally disadvantaged communities. The author then goes on to mention two profound limitations on early intervention as it now practiced in United States: 1. Unlike many other advanced societies, we cannot link our early-intervention programs to national-level health care or family-support systems would allow us to provide services to children and families reliably throughout the course of childhood. The absence of those systems means that our programs for children and families are usually unstable and short term: most, indeed, never get beyond the "pilot program" stage. It also means that the most effective programs must spend a great deal of their time and energy brokering basic support services that ought to be provided routinely through national policies. Above all, it means that most families that could