Educators value the involvement and support of parents, guardians, families and communities in schools.
I believe that maintaining open lines of communication with the support system available to each student is essential to helping them succeed in the learning environment.
During my final practicum experience I had the opportunity to work with the support teams within my school community on a frequent basis. My grade 8 class presented some unique challenges in terms of social and emotional needs which required constant communication with youth care workers, and a school based team that included administrators, learning assistance teachers, counsellors, youth care workers, and others. I participated in bi-weekly school based team (SBT) meetings, which involved working with support systems within the school to get help for students with concerning learning or behavioural difficulties.
In both my 490 and 491 practicum experiences, I also communicated with parents via email in regards to sending home updates and school work for students of concern in class, and also for those with attendance concerns. As well, I had the opportunity to send interim report cards home, and afterwards schedule and host zoom/phone parent-teacher interviews. This involved sending home a physical letter and a follow up email to inform parents of parent-teacher night.
Along with sending out interim report cards, and hosting parent-teacher interviews, I also was responsible for creating I-packages, and coordinating their completion with the Grade 8 Learning Assistance Teacher.
In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic also presented a unique challenge where I had to create work packages to send home to students. This was also the case with an unfortunate number of suspensions that I saw across both practicums. The at home packages involved detailed instructions, notes, and handouts. (See example below)
