Supporting Parents Through Conferencing and Newsletters During the Coronavirus School Closures
With thousands of students home from school because of the coronavirus, schools are hosting conference days for parents by phone and online. Through these meetings, parents meet with teachers to learn how they can support their children’s academic success at home. To prepare for these conference days, teachers compile diagnostic reading and math data and portfolios of students’ work to show the parents what their children need to learn and what they have achieved to date. We also provide parents with guidance on how they can help their children at home.
Newsletters for Parents
I created a winter newsletter that highlighted our second graders’ second semester updates. These included:
- Summarizing the various math operations and strategies the students are learning to solve various math and word problems in class
- Guidance on how students can help their parents shop at the grocery store by adding the total of ten items that are being purchased.
- Reading assignments and strategies that students are learning to build independent reading stamina with diagnostic testing support to become more familiar with online test-taking skills
- Guidance for parents to reinforce reading with their children at home for at least 20 minutes daily.
- Added guidance on how parents can support their children’s writing at home by encouraging them to self-edit their work and read the various stories that their children have created.
- Information about the various social studies and science modules that students will complete in class with follow-up research and experimentation at home.
How Parents Support Teachers and Students
As I work more closely with my students’ parents at home and through the school’s online system, I am humbled in how supportive they are in providing all students with essential resources for class projects and parties. The parents have gone beyond my expectations in trying to help me succeed with each and every student in my class.
Happy learning with your children!
Danielle
Copyright © 2020 by GenParenting
Danielle’s first step in education did not begin with education at all. It began with her first love for science. She received a B.S. in Biological Science, with a concentration in Molecular Biology. Her five years of experience as a chemist in the biotech industry at SYVA and Dade Behring Diagnostics include both areas of quality control and research and development. Her contributions were qualifying products for release to sell to the diagnostic market as well as developing new diagnostic technology for immunoassay detection. Danielle’s subtle transition to discovering her passion for education was through the birth of her daughter. She became a stay at home mom. Her uber volunteerism at her daughter’s elementary school gained her access to her path of education. She now holds a multiple subject teaching credential and M.A. in Education from National University. She has over ten years of experience at Sakamoto Elementary School as an educator in kindergarten, sixth grade, second grade, and a 2/3 combination class. Her teaching is rooted in a constructivist model while fostering independence and accountability in the classroom.