FAMILY ENGAGEMENT
Keeping It Fresh Yet Familiar
by Janet Shepard, DIrector
“Plant flowers every spring.” This line on the Life’s Little Instructions poster which hangs in our office jumped out at me this week for a couple of reasons. First it spoke literally and directly to a goal I had set for myself for this fall that had to do with dividing perennials and filling all of my flower beds with plants which would come back each year thus making them as maintenance free as possible.
The quote also seemed to gel the ideas floating around in my mind for this month’s newsletter about keeping fresh ideas for parent involvement circulating in your school while still doing some of the same things each school year. That idea began forming while in the very early stages of planning the newsletter. I kept asking myself what I could write about that was new and exciting for the back to school issue. Soon it dawned on me that, our message doesn’t have to be new and fresh each fall because we are speaking to a new audience or we are speaking to a familiar audience who has new students and new families this school year.
At your school you are working with parents who have just enrolled their oldest child in kindergarten and who just need to know that there child is happy and feels safe at school and need some guidance on how to be involved; or with parents who don’t quite recognize their child who is becoming a teen and middle schooler and who need some direction on how to stay involved without infringing on their child’s expressed need for some distance; or parents of seniors who will be transitioning at the end of the year into a university or the workforce and who are trying to guide and support their student into a rapidly changing world. Those concerns are the concerns of parents every year, but new parents transition with their children into your school or grade level each year. Each year a new group of parents need your reassurance, guidance and partnership. Your parent involvement plan is in place to assist you in meeting those same needs each year with each new set of parents.
Your plan should have both some perennials and some annuals. The perennials are the events and resources that folks can count on each year such as open house, parent teacher conferences, fund raisers and curricular family nights. The annuals or the new seeds of ideas each year might include the building theme, the topic for family nights or a totally new opportunity for parental engagement.
I think I knew I couldn’t really just plant flower beds and forget them. Just as you know you cannot create a parent involvement plan and expect it to implement itself. By planting some new seeds each year, we can add some interest and even excitement. We must also tend the perennials by checking or their progress, moving or making changes when needed. When we plant new and tend the dependable each year, our parent involvement planning and implementation becomes systematized and expected. Opportunities for family engagement can become rituals and rituals help shape the culture and climate of our schools. Missouri’s Parent and Family Involvement in Education Week observed annually the second week in September can be the perfect time to evaluate and nurture your parent involvement plan.
