Another week of my internship has passed! The time is flying. Hopefully, before I know it I will be teaching in my own classroom and getting paid for what I love to do. This week was full of more interesting experiences. On Tuesday night I had my first open house. Out of 60 students between the three classes only 10 parents/guardians showed up. I have completely taken over third period and 7 of the ten parents who showed up were for students from that class. I really enjoyed the chance to talk to parents about what I was trying to accomplish in the classroom. Students are much more likely to succeed if their parents are aware of what is going on and encourages them to do what they are supposed to.
The classes I am teaching for my internship are AP and honors classes. The amount of parents that showed up really got me thinking. If the upper level students don't have full parent involvement, how much involvement is there at the other end? I am sure it is almost non existent. Fixing this problem will go a long way for improving the equality of our education system. We need to do whatever we can to get parents/guardians involved. If we identify a student who doesn't have support at home after several attempts we should set them up with a mentor. I know this would be a monumental task to take on, especially in urban schools, but something needs to be done before the United States education system falls even further down the ranks.
Keep attending conferences and really being a member of the professional community specific to your discipline. It really helps you perfect your craft and opens up the door to so many different opportunities.
ReplyDeleteParental involvement is crucial. We need to reach out to them if we want our students to excel. Wish you had more of a turnout but not bad at all considering these difficult times. As teacher we need to just keep trying.
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