Parental Involvement

Parent involvement consists of the involvement of parents in a child's life. Children's behavior is often the factor of parent involvement in their lives. In todays world, there are many different types of parents: biological parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, adopted parents, and more. The word parent today has turned to caregiver. Caregiver is the same as parent it is the one that has stepped up to care for the needs of the child. If a child sees his or her caregiver involved and wanting to better the child's life by being in it, the child will often have a positive behavior. "Parent involvement refers to the collaboration between the parents and the school to improve children’s education experience and academic performance." (ParentingforBrain.com) This quote from ParentingforBrain tells us there are many ways for parents to get involved for their child's academic success. Some ways parents can become involved in the classroom are to create relationships with their child's teacher. This can be through conversations at drop off or pick up, making time to meet with the teacher to discuss the child's success in the classroom, or even following instruction the teacher gives to help the student succeed. Sometimes teachers will give feedback on progree reports to encourage parents to work with their child at home to better their understanding of material that they learn in the classroom. Parents are the first teacher and we want to make sure that it stays that way!

Parent with child. I have been in classrooms where parents truly want the best for their children and others who just go with the flow. I was working in a practicum for younger toddlers. In this classroom their was a set of twins that were completely oposits but identical. One was ahead in all of the millestones while the other was behind. When my demonstration teacher would bring up concern, the parents were eager to figure out what needed to happen for the success of both of their children. After communicating and working together to make a plan the child started to make improvements to reach her milestones and catch up with her sister. This simple example of parental involvement is what helps students to reach their goals and to succeed in the classroom.