by Linda Allen and Anita Sherman
"As children transition out of the early
childhood environment, parents bring away with them the experiences and skills
they have learned from the child's initial exposure to school. Most important,
parents also have the commitment to helping their child succeed in school. By
investing in parents, we invest in children." ( DiNatale
,2002)
The Importance of Family Involvement
How to get started:
Options and Methods
Telephone
(Web pages, email, Web
Communities)
PDAs
See Application of New Communication System in
Link to Sample
Pages using SchoolNotes
Technology savvy teachers
everywhere are creating their own web pages.
These web pages provide information about the teacher and the school,
but the essential information they provide is clarification of assignments and
links for email. This allows parents to
become a partner in the child’s education.
If parents are aware of activities and assignments on a daily basis,
they can reinforce lessons with activities at home. They can better help with homework and
projects. They can help their child with
asking the right questions. And they can
give valuable input to teachers by emailing questions and problems. Most schools have technology specialists that
can help with the technical aspects of designing and posting the web page. In an article appearing in Learning &
Leading with Technology, Melissa Huseth reports the
following feedback from parents regarding her use of a webpage:
|
“I
really like the e-mail form of communication. [Because] my son is not always
a great communicator himself . . . I
really appreciate having all the information at my fingertips.” |
|
“I ask
my daughter over and over again what is going on and what and when homework
is due. Inevitably, she tells me that
she doesn’t have anything coming up.
When I get this e-mail, I print it out and post it, which hold her
accountable. I love it! |
Web Communities Back to top
“A web community is a website where
common interests can be shared with others online. The site can be customized to include the
features that best suite the needs of the person creating it. Calendars, picture albums, document storage,
message boards and community e-mail are a few of the features that are
available at no cost to the user” 
(Carpenter, 2002 Core Knowledge ®
Conference) Click
here to create a community Ü
Microsoft’s presentation software is,
naturally, a great tool for making presentations to families. These electronic presentations can be
attached to an email or web page to present just about anything. With the help
of a digital camera or scanner, children’s work can be displayed electronically
and transmitted to families. Even
families without internet access may be able to view the work on a floppy
disk. Click
here for a PowerPoint in the Classroom tour.