The benefits of parental involvement in schools are well documented. Knowing this, I wanted to make sure that I took every opportunity to involve parents in their child’s learning. In general, my school and SAs made this very easy to achieve. My initial introduction to parents was accomplished easily at the school’s start-up “Meet the Teacher Family Barbecue.” This social gathering allowed me to meet all of the parents and have brief chats about the coming school term. My SAs basically had an open-door policy for parents and this allowed for many more opportunities for informal chats when parents dropped off and picked up their children. I felt that this was so important because it set the stage so that parents felt welcome in the class/school and the teachers were seen as being easily approachable and available.

By parent-teacher conference time, I had already made connections with most of the parents. I found that one of the resource packages from the UBC PBL Cohort (Case 2 – “Communicating with Parents,” coauthored with Gloria Ma), had provided me with valuable information that I was able to put into practice. Of particular importance were the teacher tips for parent-teacher conferencing obtained from the BCTF’s publication, “The Practice of Teaching.” I feel that it is so important, not only to be prepared with work samples, but to be an active listener who encourages the parent to share information. I participated jointly with my SAs (Robin Parr & Miles Patrick), who provided this feedback in my Final Report – “Chelsey was present at the “Meet the Teacher” evening and contributed to the Parent-Teacher conferences, contributing thoughtful and meaningful comments. Parents listened and respected Chelsey’s perspectives.”

Case 2_Communicating with Parents_Gloria&Chelsey

In addition to the informational meetings (e.g. IEP, Parent-Teacher), parents were also involved their children’s learning by assisting with the completion of class assignments and unit study review sheets (Math, Science, Social Studies). Home-school communication and parental signatures in the agendas were ways of ensuring that the parents were aware of their child’s work and the progress being made.

I am aware that parent-teacher relationships may not always develop easily or as well as those I recently experienced. There are many potential barriers that may exist related to differences in language, culture and the parents’ own personal experiences with school. I know how critical parent involvement is for student achievement. No matter what educational setting I find myself in, I will continue to strive towards ensuring that all parents feel welcomed, involved, valued and listened to.