Student Moms-A Must Read

What are your thoughts on supporting student moms? At this point in my life/career I feel that communities should support these student moms. If we can help these students become good parents and valuable members of the community then we have made a positive impact on many levels. I know that all of this takes money and support from schools and communities but the benefits would far out weigh the negatives. The idea of counting a student unexcused for being at a doctors appointment seems crazy to me. If we want them in school then we might have to think outside the box and be flexible with some of the rules and expectations we place on students. We can have our personal feelings about the fact that they are pregnant in the first place but the main focus becomes how do we help them and their baby.

I'm also going to give links to 2 other articles I found interesting. These are not part of the must read by the way but they caught my attention.
The first is a blog about valuing our children and their education and the second is about pre-service teachers cheating on exams.

I hope everyone had a great break and was able to spend time with family and friends. It was so nice to take a step back from everything and just focus on family. I'm thankful that I have family and friends that are supportive of my decision to begin this masters program. I'm also very thankful for my health. Recently, I've had two people very close to me be diagnosed with cancer and it really makes me realize how lucky I am that I am healthy and that my husband and children are healthy.

Vulnerability

I was not looking for this exactly but decided to spend the 20 minutes watching. I typed in to the search bar parent engagement in schools and this video was one that came up (I think the word engagement was in the description). Although it is not education based so much of what she talks about has an effect on what we work through as parents, teachers and students in a new masters program. I really like the comment she made about not thinking we need to have perfect children. What we do as parents obviously has a direct impact on how our children do in school. I want my children to know that mistakes are okay and it is okay to not be sure about something but to try and see what happens and learn from mistakes and make better choices in the future if needed. I also connected with her comment of being okay to do something even when we don't know for sure how it is going to turn out. This masters program is new to all of us but if we engage in it and let ourselves be vulnerable I believe great things will come from it.

Involvement vs. Engagement and other stuff

This post is a piggy back on what Megan posted. This blog tries to explain the difference between parent involvement and engagement. I think their definitions are appropriate. I have more parent involvement happening in my classroom than engagement. Some parents are able to help lead themed centers for an hour but many can not because of work schedules or other children at home. We also invite parents in for a poetry reading but again it just depends on their schedule. One idea I want to try is sending home a survey for parents to fill out that asks if they have any areas of interest that they would be willing to come in and share/explain to the students. It could be something that matches what we are discussing or something different. I would also ask if they would like to come in and listen to students read or play a game with a small group of students. I'm excited to find out more ways to engage parents in what is happening in our school day. I would also open all of these activities up to grandparents as well. I'd love to hear of ways you involve/engage parents in your classroom.
I've also found a lot of great articles about the benefits of early childhood education. Many of the articles are very long so I have not used these as my weekly articles. I'm really excited to find out more about what we offer in our town and how to get more opportunities available for families.
Tomorrow I'm going to a Dr. Jean workshop. I can't wait to get more science and social studies songs to help with our curriculum and more hands on activities for reading and math. I use a lot of Dr. Jean songs already but I've never been to one of her workshops so I am really looking forward to that. The sub for my classroom is new to our school building so that is always a concern for me when I am gone. I'm hoping that my plans are understandable and that he will do well with my students. Obviously flexibility is going to be needed tomorrow in my classroom. Let's hope the students and sub are able to do that!

Teacher Leadership

I enjoyed this article because I feel like stepping into this masters program has put us in a leadership position. We are going to be researching and working on issues in our school that need leadership. The author of the blog makes many great points about when to and when not to take on leadership roles and finding a balance between our classroom duties and our additional responsibilities. I know that for myself balance is sometimes pretty hard. It feels as though there are not enough hours in the day sometimes. Saying this though reminds me of something a Super Camp (Quantum) leader said to me when I told her that I didn't have enough time-she said-it's not that you don't have enough time, it's that you need to use the time you have better-those were not her exact words but you get the idea. As we take on this leadership role we are also taking on the added responsibility and time commitment. How are you doing with the balance of work and this masters program?