How can you involve parents in the classroom without disrupting learning?

Guys, I know it's really boring, but the easiest way to do this is to create a teacher-parent notebook. For those who don't know, a teacher-parent journal is like a special notebook or an online place where teachers and parents can talk about how a student is doing in school. It's handy it makes it easy for teachers and parents to talk about a student's school life. They can discuss homework, behaviour, and how well the student does in class. Teachers give advice, and parents share what's happening at home. It gets parents more involved and strengthens the connection between home and school. Plus, it keeps a record of all the conversations for later reference so no one's in the dark. Bob's your uncle.

A positive practice that we follow at school is inviting a few parents to be silent observers of the class proceedings. They get to choose the grade they wish to observe in advance. Multiple such opportunities provide parents with an insight of how learning happens at school. It makes learning visible to the parent community.

I see parents as partners with the school community and it's absolutely important they are on the same side of the table as us. One of the practices we started at our school was to have parent teacher nights( no students) . During this it was a totally informal event where everyone involved engaged in games, dancing and just chit chatting. It had nothing to do with academics or their children. This helped the parent community to see the school staff as just like them. Even when there were issues we found parents were more open than they were before as they had somewhere experienced the teacher as just as one of them. This also gave the parents an opportunity to build friendships with other parents thus initiating lasting bonds.

Absolutely, clear communication is the key to sustaining any relationship, professional or personal. I must reiterate the importance of being 100% honest with such an important stakeholder. Something I tell my team, when a parent messages or asks for a meeting, it's usually because they are confused and need some clarity about their own child. Empathising with the parent and suggesting strategies at that point has really helped my team immensely. We send out weekly updates for core subjects and Bi-monthly updates for others. This covers academic updates, field trip information, upcoming events, Assessment details etc. This has been such a huge boon for us as we have less parents messaging us asking what was done in school.

In my experience the one of the best ways to involve parents is to make home visits.Of course it depends on availability of the teachers.

We ask parents to volunteer for field trips, community events. Our school has a CAS initiative called 'Cupcakes For a Cause' wherein they set up stalls and donate some proceedings to the community fund we have set up at School. We also invite them as Guest Speakers to conduct workshops, share their expertise with our students. We also have monthly walk-ins on a particular day, when students take their parents around the class and show them their work and talk about their learning, this helps when students have to conduct a formal Student Led Conference for their parents.

I totally agree with this. Creating a parent-friendly environment helps both parents and teacher getting involved in the learning process. Including activities in our lesson planning where parents can participate and provide feedback is a great tool for increasing students’ motivation as well. I also believe this can be extended as having parents participate in being the ones in charge of discussion groups, workshops, etc. giving them an opportunity to interact and learn from one another.

One thing I have found helpful in collaborating with parents is the use of an online classroom. Parents are given access to the online class too. Where teachers upload weekly lessons, assignments and projects. This helps parents see firsthand an overview of the week ahead and fashion a course to help their kids at home. Seeing that most parents may not be available for all the conferences and meetings this also avails them the opportunity to communicate directly with the teachers via the online classroom

Our school sees parents as an integral part of the school community. Whenever we host big events, the class representatives are called and over tea/coffee we discuss how they can contribute. At the end of this month we are having a cultural event. The parents are putting up food stalls and as part of the 'Joy of giving' week they are collaborating and ensuring we collect and distribute essentials to the less fortunate.

Whenever I have events in school, I love to engage parents. For instance, I select parents across professions to champion our career days. Just last week I took my students for British AUC Sports & Study Expo; I ensured that parents of all participating students were invited, and engaged. A number of them attended the Expo, and we will continue afterwards. It helps the school to keep them involved in the learning process.

We can also bring in both parents and grandparents to read stories to our learners. We usually have a month long reading festival in our school, where parents are invited into the classroom to read aloud, share stories, narrate folk tales and also engage in conversations about their culture. This brings the community closer. Parents feel valued. Our learners are proud of their parents visiting their classrooms. This has worked really well for us.

I love this suggestion. We implemented this idea by having every parent come to the classroom on a different day of their choice during which they brought in a food that was special to their culture. We then all shared in the explanation of the relevance of the food to their culture, how it was made, and why. We enjoyed learning about Ireland through Irish soda bread, Japan through vegetable sushi rolls, Italy through pizza, Greece through dolmades, and perhaps the most revelatory of all was the sharing of Teff, the homemade bread of Ethiopia. The breaking of bread together gave us all a deep and I hope, lasting, appreciation for the different cultures of the world, and importantly, for each other. Food is motivation and yes, food is love.

As an IB PYP school, it is essential to take feedback and work in collaboration with the parent community. At the end of each unit, sending a “My IB “ form giving the parents an opportunity to reflect on their child’s engagement through the unit, is a good practice. Taking feedback about the action component of the PYP programme, gives the teacher too a good understanding of what the child has taken back as learning. So it is very essential to involve parents in our teaching and learning practices. Another example would be to invite parents into the classroom to celebrate the unit at the end, during the culmination. This is an exciting time for our learners, as they present their understanding of the unit in front of their parents.

This may be difficult but I think the teacher should make the learners to be aware of family importance in their learning. Secondly, the teacher also need to show parents that she/he values their time by explaining the best way they can help as a classroom volunteers. Therefore, in order for parents to be involved in the teaching and learning in the classroom without interruption, he/she must invite parents to share their expertise, skills and experience with the class. ? The teacher should be transparent in his/her communication with parents and prepare the learners on the topic going to be taught in presence of the visitor.

Some ways I’ve seen parents successfully utilized in the classroom is by them serving as “special guest readers”. Depending on how much autonomy you want to give parents, they could select a book (from a book list), read it to the class, and ask followup questions. For older grades, parents can share their professional expertise through a group discussion (not just a career day format), sharing their journey of success and overcoming obstacles. I am a big advocate for learning centers (for all ages) and training parents how to scaffold student learning at one learning center can be helpful. Also, for the younger children who often enjoy reading to an adult, parents could play that role in a learning center.

INCLUDE PARENTS IN THE LEARNING PROCESS: When lessons are shared with parents, they can utilize the techniques and include them in home games and activities. The best example I've seen is "The Dice Game" where kids earn stars when they follow simple letter size rules for neat handwriting practice. It can become a fun and competitive family activity that expands the learning outside and inside the classroom.

Not sure if this fits here... in a previous school, We started something we called 'Teaching as Learning'. Students had to teach any one concept they learned during the week and get feedback from their parents about how they did and whether they were able to teach. This was really great as it helped students become 'teachers', take accountability and also helped strengthen concepts. This was a huge hit amongst the kids and parents giving them an insight on how their child thinks and learns.