Sunday, December 6, 2009
Challenges that I may face with parents
If i were the teacher of this classroom some of the challenges that i may encounter would be that some of the parents may not speak English. According to info works twenty-four percent of the students are bilingual, which means that is a possibility that the parents aren't able to speak English. In Goldenberg's article he says that eighty percent of parents were born outside of the united states. Some of the problems I may encounter is not being able to communicate with some of my students parents. Seeing as Goldenberg states that the majority of EllS are Spanish speakers. I could learn Spanish as a second language in order to be able to communicate with certain parents. I'm interested in learning a second language because I think it will benefit the child if the parent is able to contribute to his or her education. Not only will it get the parents involved, but I will be more successful in teaching ElS students, because learning a skill in their first language helps them learn a skill in their second language. Another challenge that i will encounter is that fact that some parents don't take interest in their child's education. I need to be able to figure out a way that i could get these parents involved. Some way that I could get the parents is involved is by sending notes home. If that doesn't work I could call the parent and request that he or she comes in to discuss their child's progress in the class. During my experience as a tutor, I spoke the the classroom teacher about a child's behavior. He was usually always misbehaving, but one day he was excellent. I was so happy with his behavior that I told his teacher how good he was. After I had told her this she said "well he better be behaving after the stunt he pulled yesterday." She went on to tell me what had happened. The student walked out of the building without permission and walked home before school had ended. The fact that the school allowed this to happen was awful, but once they noticed that he was gone they immediately called the mother. The mother was not at all upset with the school. Her response was oh hes already home. She didn't seem to care that her five yr old walked home in Providence by himself. I was shocked that she wasn't upset with the school. I think her reaction showed that she didn't show much interest in her sons well being. When I asked the teacher why she thought the mother reacted that way her response was half the time she doesn't show up to pick up her son. After hearing this from the teacher I realized that the student probably doesn't try hard in school because hes not getting the support from his mom at home, which is why I think it is so important to try to get the parents involved. I think that by sending notes home to the parent or by calling every month or so would be a great way to demonstrate any concerns that the parents may have. I will try to make an effort to call parents if their child is having a hard time in school, or just to inform the parent how well their child is doing. I think that by involving the parents in whats going on with their child will make a huge impact of the child's learning experience in a positive way.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Samantha, it is apauling that this boy's mother did not care that he walked home by himself at five years old. It is even more heart wrenching to hear that she forgets to pick him up from school. I agree with you that the reason that this boy does not care too much about school is because he does not get the support he needs at his home. he probally needs all the encouragment he can get in school to maintain confidence and care about school. I do not want to jump to conclusions about his mother because everyone has their own situations, and I do not know their personal situation, also she probally works very hard and has little time to herself and children, but I think the children with support from their parents thrive better in school. I know this is particularly true for a student in the classroom I volunteer in. One day a boy who does not pay attention well walked into class late. The teacher asked him why he was late and if he had his homework. He said that he did not and the teacher said she was goign to call his mother because this was the third time in a row he did not have his homework. He responded by saying that she probally would not care anyway. I felt bad because I know that one of the reasons why he does not pay attention is because he does not understand the material, and if his parents paid more attention to him getting his homework done, than he would have more practice with the material, and therefore understand it better. I think it is a good idea to make an effort to involve the parents or guardians of your students. It gets to know the parents better as well as the students.
ReplyDeleteI know you are interested in learning spanish to better communicate with your students. I think this is a great idea. I know a little spanishthat I learned in high school. but I cannot put a sentence together to save my life. I too would love to be a better spanish speaker and interpretor to help myself as well as my students. If you do have ELLs as students in your class I am sure it will be difficult, but yoiu can learn the best way to teach them. There are a lot of discrepancies about what the best way to teach ELLs. Goldenberg's research says educators are trying to figure out if the best way to teach ELL students is to teach English language development as a separate subject at a distinct time in the day, or if it should be integrated in the cirriculum throughout the day. I personally think it should be integrated throughout the cirriculum because people learn throguh personal experience, and if it is separate they may not learn it as well as it being a part of the regular cirriculum.