Technological Parent Involvement

By Lisa Taylor

A part of a village that is very vital to the academic success of students are parents. Parents are the first person a child sees when they come into the world and children rely on them for guidance and wisdom. Children often mimic their parents behavior and share the same values that their parents have. This also holds true when it comes to education.


Research has shown that students whose parents are positively involved in their education are more likely to show more interest in school, learn more, have improved standardarized test scores, and have higher rates of attendance. Furthermore, children have fewer rates of suspension, fewer instances of violent behavior, and decreased use of drugs and alcohol. However, the problem is not what happens once parents are involved, the problems stems from actually getting parents involved and having them as equal members of the school community.


I teach in school where the economic status of the kids is fairly low. My parents want to be involved more but they have other needs to take care of. Most parents are working long hours (if not more than one job) to maintain a household. Many are single parents who don't have enough time in the day to take care of day to day business let alone make time to come up to school on a regular basis. As a person living in these economic times I understand but as a teacher it is very frustrating because when parents are involved in tends to make the teacher's job just a little bit easier.


So what can be done so parents can become more involved?


Blogging.

This past year I had a parent workshop where only a few parents showed but those that did participate actually were able to talk with other parents and have a free forum to share ideas. Even though the discussion was rich, I was wondering what could I do so more parents could access the information. Then I learned about blogging while taking a technology class.



Blogging allows information, ideas, and comments to be shared by many. Blogging lets parents to read over the information and freely talk to me and other parents about the information. It allows parents to utilize the information on their time. They can share their insights with one another and pose questions to other parents without having to come into the classroom. Teachers and parents can participate in parent information sessions from the privacy of their own computer. Although not as personal, the information will be able to reach more parents and may help those parents who are not able to come to the school to receive valuable information.

This upcoming school year I definitely plan to use blogging to bring more parents in the classroom and hopefully it will help parents to be more involved. Of course, I do expect challenges and some resistance but hope that the successes make the challenges seem minor. Blogging will hopefully become a new and improved way to communicate with my parents.