Web chats

After a interesting week of work, I have found that school and community relationships are a drving factor within schools. This is something that goes unnoticed yet is very important. It has been pointed out that it is very important for parents to reinforce teh learning that is happening in schools. But do they? I'm not sure. I understand how hard it is to manage everything in todays world. But our kids/ students are our future. After all they will be changing our feeding tubes :)

School and Community Week 2

Relationships amongst parents and teachers is something that confuses me and that I think has evolved. I am 28 years old therefore, am not to long removed from elementary school or high school (am getting older though). When I was in school in Fort Worth ISD through primary grades PTA was always a active thing. I remember my mother going to PTA meetings. It is my belief now that this doesn't happen. At our school now we have 74 PTA members. We have 620 students. I understand that there are siblings, however, it seems as though PTA has become a thing of the past. This scares me. As teachers we can only teach our students so much in the 6 hours that we have them. Those successful students are the once that have some sort of reinforcement at home. Why is this becoming common? Well I have my thoughts, and perceptions. 1. More family members work now and siblings are raising siblings. 2. Demographics in the state are changing. 3. Families are becoming more transient. 4. Finally it is my opinion that education isn't valued you the way it once was. It is now solely the teachers responsibility to educate the students. Yes it is our responsibility. However, it is also the parents responsibility to help talk about what is being taught and to help reinforce what is being taught at school.

SWOT

During this first week of School and Community Relations I have learned about the SWOT analysis tool. This was unique and helps me break down the way of looking at specific programs. It was something very close to me, because this Saturday we did our third annual Keep Ginnings Beautiful Day. This day is something that can benefit from the SWOT analysis. I used it for my Week 1 assignment. It was something that I loved talking with parents and community members about.