As a teacher, I find it hard to get the parent's involvement in their child's education. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Divide your class list by 7 and every night for a week call a child's parent to welcome him to your class and how happy you are he/she is in it. (BEFORE there are any discipline or workhabits problems.)
Get their e-mail addresses. I make an e-mail list of all the courses I teach and send home regular e-mails--what we did today, what the homework is, what cool things the kids did (without names because of privacy)
In low income or first generation populations, the parents may not know how to 'do school' or have had terrible experiences as students. Invite them. I invite them to come to the class, to come eat lunch or breakfast with me (well, have coffee in the am) to join us on field trips, to come in to help. It also helps to have evening programs for single working parents--maybe a performance of the kids. Don't expect a lot of response from everyone, but, especially with middle school students and up, the students try to give the impression that they are 'grown' and don't need any support, and they really still do.

Answer 2

Send out a form home for volunteers in the classroom. Those who do not fill it out call. See if they can help in other ways. Some people cannot afford to take time off of work but they may be able to do a group tutoring session in their home on a certain evening. Depending on the age of students but maybe in elementary you can have them cut out some cutouts. Have a back up in case they didn't do it. Maybe you can have some parents afterschool help grade papers or group tutoring. Instead of using the same parents call up a parent and ask them to come to the field trip. Find out about the parents and what they do for a living. Maybe some of the parents who seldom participate can come in and talk to the class about the importance of education or is the life they are living the way they expected when they were younger, or what job to they do that they can talk to the class about. Maybe a group of children can do some volunteering and you can ask a few of the parents to help oversee the volunteering. It helps the students and the parents get involved.

Answer 3

Well I found that same problem in my little girl`s class.(She was in kindergarten)And I was always`s eager to help what I could but the other parents were not I found it quiet sad that the parents did not care more.And the kids would cry because there were all kinds of things that the kids did and the parents were supposed to come and did not and the kids would cry and cry.All of the kids loved me so much because I was there. I don`t know what you could really do except maby have a meeting where all of the parents were invited to come like an open house.And explained then that there involvement was needed send home letters home that informs the parents what is going on.That is what my little girl`s teacher did and everyone found it helpful.And maby in the letter you could find some games that went along w/ your lesion plan and include how to play them.But sometimes no matter what you do it`s not going to help.So just try your best and good luck.

Answer 4

I promise I'm not being sarcastic, but Ask! Many parents of many cultures think that you do not want them involved in the education of their child and that their job is to feed and take care of their basic needs only. They believe it is the teacher's job to do all of the teaching, including homework help. If you call parents and ask them to come in and help a little or help at home they will be more comfortable with you and the whole education "thing." When you build community with the family they will hopefully realize how important education is to their child's future. I personally send weekly newsletters, emails, and make phone calls to constantly stay in contact with the parents of my students. Even though they are busy, they make every attempt to help their child and be active in the school when they can.
Good luck!

Answer 5

I find what works best is by creating as many possible resources for parents to help participate.

For example, one teacher I worked with had created a 'homework hotline'. Each week, the teacher would update the outline for homework each week. From there, if the child was sick or if the parent just wanted to check on the child's homework, the parent could call in.

Sometimes, parents need that extra option. Kids aren't always forthcoming with what they learned that day or how much homework they have.

So anything that helps the parents participate even when they have a busy work schedule.

Answer 6

I feel that it is important for parents to interact with their child's education. I suggest at the beginning of the school year you invite the parents to come to visit for the day. Have the students tell why they would like their parents to be involved then give the parents a way to interact with their child. The parents would see how involvement in the childs life helps him to learn and grow.

Answer 7

Alot of parents don't have time to be involved which is sad because kids need to know their parents want to be there and care about what they are doing in school.

I think it would be good if you had a website you could give out to parents to visit to see what kids are doing in class, pictures and projects. Have a message board where parents could post and you post to parents too. Have a private email where they can talk to you by email as well and maybe a chat room too for conferences if they can't come in person. Send out a notice at the beginning of the year that it's mandatory to the childs education that you meet with parents in some form at least 3-4 times a year, and leave them options, in person, phone, email, or chatroom and then you can set up times/dates, etc later. It might be easier for a parent to pop into a chat or email at work for a minute to talk rather than try to take time off work to come in, plus it could be where they do it at home or whenever convenient too. I think alot more parents would appreciate that and be involved. You could send out progress reports too by email.

Answer 8

I agree. Sadly some parents just don't want to get involved. Then you have other like me (I'm in my 15th yr as a volunteer) When school starts try sending home a paper asking for help....some parents don't realize that they could help at home cutting supplies. Some are intimidated due to a lack of education and perhaps you could relieve this by telling them ways they will be helping ahead of time. Try and see if you can get a room parent volunteer. Sometime a parent asking another parent for help is a great way to recruit. GOOD LUCK!

Answer 9

As a retired teacher from a low income area I found that parents of elementary school age students took more interest in their children and expected the older ones to take care of themselves despite the fact that the middle school students were doing poorly.
You have to work on the kids to make the parents want to come.
Our PE teachers got great response to parent-child activity nights. The students got extra credit for attending.

Answer 10

It depends a lot on your classroom's demographic :-) I'm a children's librarian in a very low-income area, and I struggle with the same thing. Parents want to use the library as a babysitting service, and don't particularly care whether their children are learning, doing homework, reading, running around, or looking up pornography on the Internet.

If you have children who are primarily from single-parent families, the issue is probably time. Single parents are working one or more jobs and are already feeling guilty that they don't have more time with their children - so some shrug off school as "free time for me to do work" and don't support their children's academic endeavors.

I guess my advice is a) it's a lost cause for most of the parents, b) if you can type up a letter to the parents detailing what small things they could do to help, some of them may actually read it, and c) be ready to step in and "be a parent" for some of the children in your classroom if they need it - they probably aren't getting it at home.