I wasn’t sure if I was an interloper, a part of the middle school community, or a combination of both. I wasn’t meeting “my kids’” parents this time around, so participating in Parent Night felt off somehow to me. I could feel it in my approach toward other teachers, somehow not in full solidarity with them as they faced the enormous tasks of presenting who they are, why they care about what they teach, and building bridges with students’ families to help support those students throughout the year.
I had my bilingual flyer about advisory printed, and I brought an attractive table cloth from home along with peppermints to attract folks to my table (in the gorgeous atrium of the building, we set up about 10 information tables). I was naturally vexed by the photocopier yet managed to have my copies and table ready by five minutes before the event started. And, it turned out, I was sharing a table with a very talented colleague at the school, one who works for an external organization to provide additional group and individual counseling at the school.
The principal convened all the parents inside the cafeteria. The teachers lined the back of the cafeteria, standing in attention while the families sat. She had an agenda and started with data from last year’s test scores. There were challenges, problems, kids weren’t passing. And then the dress code (basically a uniform) and how the man for whom the school is named had made a large donation so that school emblemmed shirts could be purchased at half the price for students. Collars, solid colors (and not the local blue and red gang colors)… no Dickies, only khakis and blue jeans… no baggies. Parents had some concerns. Meanwhile, a man who works for the school provided Spanish translation for Spanish-speaking parents.
Parents then went to their children’s classrooms to meet all the teachers, class period by class period. Those of us at tables stayed in the atrium. My counselor colleague was fascinating, and I’m learning a lot from her and another outside agency counselor who work at the school. I had mints; she had free books and a game with a wheel for spinning—full of interesting and non-threatening personal questions. Spin the wheel, answer the question, get a free book.
“Hey, I like books,” a sixth grade girl said, cozying up to the table.
“Take a spin, and get a free book!”
Through various questions on my colleague’s brightly-colored board, I learned that parents admired their children, that the kids often chose their moms and dads as their heroes, that one dad said, if he could achieve any goal this year, it would be helping his son do well at school… That dad was hungry for a book, too, and the counselor had a ready stack of Spanish books from which he chose. I thought about the literature about the number of books in homes and student performance and saw how excited these families were to get the books (I would have been, too—I love books). What if these books were always free for families… And doesn’t their interest in getting free books (remember, this is a school where 98% of the children receive free and reduced priced meals) disturb our concept of “poor” families?
I told the parents and students about the three tiers of Garcia’s advisory content in English or Spanish, asking them which language they preferred. Community building/relationships, decision-making/life planning, college preparation/study skills. All but one parent seemed to offer a positive response to it, “Great! Oh, this will help our kids a lot!” I wrote my phone number on several of the information sheets and explained that I wanted any more feedback or questions that might come up as we start the program. The one man who didn’t seem to like the program walked away from me and my request to get his opinion. I wish I could have understood his concerns as part of my interest in making the program fit the needs of the community. Nonetheless, from the fifteen or so parents with whom I spoke, I got the sense that they supported it.
I need to build in some kind of feedback system where I continue to get parent feedback. Perhaps the PTA will allow me to have some time at their meetings to get feedback from them throughout the year.
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