During my extended practicum, I received many enriching opportunities to work with parents beyond the classroom setting. Building a good rapport with parents was the key to work and communicate with my students in and out of the classroom.

I helped in giving out numbers and prizes to students at Family Math Night.

One prominent example was the Grade 2 and 3’s Family Math Night. I particularly enjoyed this school-wide event to work closely with the parents together. School teachers and the Vice-Principal invited students and their parents to play math games, eg. tangram, bingo, candy number line, spaceship building, estimation jar, etc. on a weekday evening in the school gym. I helped to facilitate different stations handing out prizes for the bingo and stimulating family conversations about math. It was amazing to see that families came together to celebrate math through games, as opposed to doing worksheets at home. I have been very grateful for the support from parents and grandparents that made this family math night experience possible. For example, they arranged behind-the-scene activities such as transportation, food and chaperon. Parents were also present to support the math conversations between teachers and students at different game stations. It was eye-opening to learn math stories from students that we normally did not hear at teacher-parent interviews and student conferences. As an educator, I witnessed that a difficult subject like math becoming alive when students were given a relaxing opportunity to share a math experience in common with their families and peers.

Both at home and in school, parents held an important role in helping the students to succeed and grow. Through their presence, my school advisor and I were able to work effectively with the students to discuss academic or social issues on a daily basis, as well on the Report Card Day. Their support also meant a lot in our fieldtrips, student conferences and sports events. I deeply cherished all the little and big help given from parents and the school community, so that my lessons were meaningfully delivered to my students.