Family Involvement
It is my firm belief that family involvement is crucial in educating a child. Families are the first teachers of children.
The majority of my research block of my masters program revolved around family involvement. It is simply too valuable to disregard.
I constantly engage with parents through ClassMessenger (an app developed by Scholastic,) emails, conferences, phone calls, and the Friday Five.
In addition to these, I feel I go above and beyond in family involvement in two ways: Home-School Connection Nights and the annual Battle of Front Royal Driving Tour.
The concept of Home-School Connection Night was simple: teach the parents how I teach the students and we all stay on the same page. I give presentations in the evening, broadcast them live on YouTube (and organize them into Math HSCN and Reading HSCN playlists,) and send home paper copies for parents who could not attend. The HSCNs culminated in a Math Hunger Games: Students vs. Parents. Click the header to gain further insight and feel free to check out a blog post here.
Battle of Front Royal Driving Tour
The Battle of Front Royal Driving Tour grew out of my love for the Civil War. Front Royal was the site of a battle that had many significant events, including urban warfare and brothers literally fighting brothers. Teaming with another teacher, I play "tour guide" on one Saturday every year and lead the families who attend on a field trip around town. This blog post further details the trip.
