Concepts @ Work Documentation of Conversation with Irate Parent An irate parent arrives at school just as elementary students are coming into the building to begin their school day. The parent is visibly upset, nabs you in the hallway where you are greeting students, and lets you know in no uncertain terms that she thinks it was totally inappropriate that her daughter was not allowed to attend yesterday’s science assembly as punishment for not following recess rules. You, of course, were unaware that her daughter had not been allowed to attend the science assembly. As discretely as possible, you usher her into your office and begin to listen. Based upon what you are learned via this website, how would you respond to the following questions? List the types of information you will document during your conversation with the parent. What questions will you ask to elicit information if it is not readily given? How will you assure the parent that you will follow through and get back to her? Describe how you will approach and set up an appointment with the teacher who made the decision the child should not attend the science assembly. List the types of information you will document during your conversation with the teacher. What questions will you ask to elicit information if it is not readily given? Design a form on which the teacher and you will document the plan you put in place. Who else might need to be included in deciding how situations like this one should be handled in the future? Developing a Parent Survey As principal you would like to use a survey to invite parent input on several topics important to the elementary school. The faculty with whom you work has never done a parent survey and is feeling a bit skittish about purposefully asking parents for their thoughts. Because several of the school improvement efforts underway and soon to be initiated would benefit from parent input, you decide to push the issue. You are committed to making this a positive experience for the faculty while successfully gathering meaningful parent input. Based upon what you are learned via this website, how would you respond to the following questions? Brainstorm a list of topics or issues at the elementary school about which you would be curious to know what parents think. Consider school improvement plans and ordinary everyday procedures that could use some tweaking. List things the school does well and things that could use some improvement. List practices in place that the faculty feels good about and practices that aren’t quite where they should be. Spare nothing! Sort through the list of topics setting aside for now the difficult issues. You will tackle those when confidence levels are higher. For now, look for issues that directly impact students and are within the elementary faculty’s control. Pay special attention to topics that have the potential of resulting in mostly positive parent feedback, but might identify a few areas for growth. Select the topic for the survey. (Be sure it is something you really want to know.) Consider how you will develop the survey questions. Plan how and when you will distribute and collect the parent surveys. What will you put in place that will maximize parent participation? How will you share the results with the faculty? What will you do to rejoice in the positive? How will you guide the faculty in using the parent input to plan and implement changes? How will you share the results with parents? How will you assure parents their input is being taken seriously? Involving Parents in the Decision Making Process From the articles they have been reading and through their own observations, the elementary faculty is convinced that children whose parents come to school events and serve on school committees are more successful in school than children whose parents are not involved. Because the staff wants all children to succeed, they are searching for meaningful ways to involve parents in their children’s education. As principal, you suspect that involving parents in decision making processes is going to be the biggest challenge. Everyone is feeling comfortable with parents participating in fundraisers, classroom parties, and other school events, but it is going to be a big leap to have parents on decision making committees. Knowing that students will benefit from the insight and ideas that parents can contribute, you are determined to raise the level of parent involvement at the elementary school by reaching out to include parents in decision making processes. Based upon what you are learned via this website, how would you respond to the following questions? List all the ways you can think of that parents are already involved in contributing to the elementary school. Think of the many ways in which their volunteer efforts are currently benefiting the school. Add to your list ideas for parent involvement that have been considered, but are not yet in place. Add ideas that would be easy to implement and ones that would be more difficult to implement. Add at least one idea that you have never thought of before. From the list you have just composed, identify parent involvement strategies that involve parents in a decision making process. Select one strategy and plan how you might invite parents to participate in that process. Consider what specific responsibilities and decision making powers could be given to the elementary school’s parent teacher organization? Working with Parents...an Elementary Principal's Perspective Previous Next

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