Teresa Worthy

ED 698
4/2/20

7. A teacher works with parents, families and the community.

Candidates know the importance of establishing and maintaining a positive collaborative relationship with
families, school colleagues and agencies in the larger community to promote the intellectual, social,
emotional, physical growth and well-being of children.

I first learned the importance of developing a relationship with families and creating

community connections while I was running an after-school program. During this time, I quickly

realized that if a student knew that I regularly spoke with their guardian our relationship would

improve. So, this year, my first-year teaching, I have made sure to invest plenty of time getting

to know the families of my students. This has been doubly important because I live in a small

Inupiaq village, thus these connections also help me to better understand and immerse myself in

my new community.

The artifact I chose to include is a letter I drafted, while completing my MAT, to send home

to families, which informs parents about upcoming literacy instruction and how the parent can

help with their child’s education. In the letter I describe my approach to teaching spelling. This

letter fulfills the Parent Teacher Association (n.d) Standard 2: communicating effectively,

because it engages the parent in meaningful communication about student learning by explaining

what I will be doing in class and what they can do at home. The letter clearly lists ways the

parent can help because the more a parent is invited to help the more their participation in their

student’s education will increase (Robbins, 2013).

While in certain educational settings families may respond to letters sent home, I was

informed by my collogues that they were rather ineffective here in the village. That did not stop

me from trying to send home informational letters at the start of the year, but their cautioning

was valid because when I made phones calls home to check on the clarity of the information in

the letter it was obvious that almost no parent had read it. Additionally, most people do not have
Teresa Worthy
ED 698
4/2/20
internet or data on their phones, so I was not able to use any of the communication apps I had

been using in Anchorage. Instead, I had to get out in the community and meet people. Price

(2003) states “sharing in village life is crucial in building relationships and trust in the

community. This participation also helps us as teachers to better understand the cultural frame of

reference through which our students view the world,” (p. 45). Through getting to know my

students’ families at community events and over the phone I was able to make them partners in

their students’ education. Furthermore, in concordance with Yamauchi & Purcell (2009)

arguments, these connections enabled me to include community values, knowledge, and ways of

understanding in academic content.

In conclusion, the classroom cannot be a place where a student thrives if it is completely

disconnected from everything else in that student’s life. Robbins & Searby (2013) state that in

order for students to be successful, teachers must become intimately familiar with their home

culture, background, and available support systems. This can be accomplished by reaching out to

both the student and their family. Families need to know that they are an important pillar in their

child’s education and that their voice matters in the classroom.

Teresa Worthy
ED 698
4/2/20

References

Price, K. C. (2003). Teaching as learning in a Yup’ik Eskimo village. The English Journal,

93(2), 42–48. https://doi.org/10.2307/3650494

Parent Teacher Association (n.d). National standards for family school partnerships. Retrieved

from https://www.pta.org/home/run-your-pta/National-Standards-for-Family-School-

Partnerships

Robbins, C., & Searby, L. (2013). Exploring parental involvement strategies utilized by middle

school interdisciplinary teams. School Community Journal, 23(2), 113–136.

Yamauchi, L. A., & Purcell, A. K. (2009). Community involvement in a place-based program for

Hawaiian high school students. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk

(JESPAR), 14(2), 170–188. https://doi.org/10.1080/10824660902854458

Parents, Family and Community Connections (Standard 7)

• Introduce the Standard you are addressing
• Project: Community project from ALST 603. Something from student teaching. ED 615
Letter to Parents. ED 619 Parent Conferences. Any project you’ve done that really
focuses on interactively working with the community and parents of your students.
• Statement frames: why what you highlighted is important for relationships. National PTA
standards provide a good schema. Reference theory/authority that influences your
practice in this area.
• References: of experts/authority cited
• The project demonstrates an innovative strategy for establishing and maintaining positive
collaborative relationships with families to promote growth in children, and reflects respect for
family choice.