Description of Contents
Parental involvement in the classroom has had a proven, positive effect on children's success. But how do you find time in your already-busy schedule to volunteer? The author points out 38 simple ways to make the most of the engagement families should have to improve the ties between the students and their schools.
With study after study revealing the dramatic impact of parental presence, the author synthetically leaves 38 ideas for improving family, and namely parental, involvement:
8 involvement ideas for younger (be a class reader, work as a center/lab helper, offer to tutor, volunteer as a class parent), and older children (Assist with a special interest club or drama group, speak to classes about your career or special expertise, work as library assistant, volunteer to help with sports programs;
20 involvement ideas from the National Parent-Teacher Association (namely, make all families feel welcome, communicate effectively, support student success, speak up for every child, share power, collaborate with the community, participate in PTA's Teacher Appreciation Week by organizing a breakfast or lunch, get to know your child's teacher by introducing yourself and scheduling a brief meeting, create a community bulletin board at the school to post information or ideas) and another 10 involvement ideas and several online resources to help one staying involved.
Review
The author, a journalist, addresses the problem of parental family involvement as a key critical facto on school success on a quite direct and practical manner – as journalist usually do -, knowing that even the busiest parents can get involved in the classroom without spending time they don't have or stretching themselves too thin. The secret is, the author says, knowing how to allocate your limited availability and which small-scale ideas have a big impact.
Thus, the most important strength of this resource is related to the fact that its language simplicity and the treatment it does to the information is absolutely coherent with the targets the author wants to address, parents and families. The author shares some simple ideas for how parents can get involved at both the early and later stages of their
children's academic careers.
Leaving simple, everyday life ideas, of how to get more involved in your children’s school subjects, this seems really a good and useful article that has an enormous dissemination potential.
