Well, things got crazy (as they do) in the last week of school, so I didn’t post. I have spearheaded a ’21st Century Learning’ evening to bring some parents in to our school and get them thinking about the new and innovative ways their students are learning. Traditionally, parental involvement in our school is quite low, so I have really racked my brain about how to involve parents in student learning and get them interested in what their kids are doing. In consultation with our University coach (Dr. David Townsend), we came up with a method to connect our school leadership class to parents and have them run an evening in which parents will see first-hand some of the things great teachers are doing. Last week, students partnered with some of the most forward-thinking teachers in the school to produce a subject (but not curriculum) specific 21st century learning lesson of 15-20 minutes in length. For this evening (we plan on having more this year) each of the core courses will be represented. I moved from group to group during these planning sessions, and was astounded by the amazing work these groups did. What is different from traditional learning presentations to parents is that the students will be teaching the lessons to the parents. What I am hoping this will showcase is the student understanding of the new ways teachers are teaching and that they learn. Having students involved in this should create some relevance for parents as they realize that 21CL is important and relevant to their children, and to move the concept from ‘teacher buzz word’ status in the larger community. Let me know what you think. Have you tried to ‘reach out’ to your parent community? How? With what result?
Getting Parents Involved in High School
December 21st, 2009
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