Have you ever wished that there was a way to engage more parents in schools and schoolwork? Frustrated by poor attendance at school functions or the same parents showing up for Parent Teacher Meetings the same parents doing all the volunteering.

We would like to suggest that there are solutions that can be shared so we are organizing a “Smackdown” of parent engagement tools, activities and resources that folks are using in their schools and communities.

On Monday December 10, 2012 at 4:00 PM PST/7:00PM EST we will meet in our BlackBoard Collaborate room sharing our own favourite tools and resources. This is your chance to join us, take the mic and spend 2 minutes talking about a tool you use, a website that inspired you, an event you’d like people to hear about.

You don’t have to worry there are no cameras involved and you can relax in front of your computer and listen/live chat with us and other participants as we all talk about engaging parents in schools.

To help with the planning we have a Google Doc ready for you to post your ideas and let us know how you use it. We’d love it if you let us know you can join us.

Please head to http://tinyurl.com/PEngTools to share the tool or resources you and see what others have contributed. Then, if you can, join our Parents as Partners webcast on Monday, Dec. 10 (more details below).

Not sure what to share?

* Does your parent-teacher organization have a great idea that would help others?

* If you are a teacher, what website, book or strategy helps you think about interactions with families?

* How do you harness the power of parents for the benefit of student learning?

Join Parents as Partners webcast on Monday, Dec. 10 4:00pm PT/7:00pm PT to share and/or hear about others’ suggestions. A few minutes before showtime link to http://tinyurl.com/ETTpasp

Chris Wejr, Principal at a K-6 school in Agassiz, BC. joined us on Parents as Partners on Monday November 26, 2012 to share his experiences and philosophy in working with parents. I know you will really enjoy listening to his presentation.

If you are not familiar with his work, please reaad his blog post “Parent Communication to vs with “. It generated a lot of conversations with both teachers and parents who enjoyed Chris’s refreshing approach in engaging parents in his school. You will hear Chris’s experiences using facebook to communicate and invite parents to join activities at school as well as allowing them to post questions and comments. Some of these conversations on the Facebook page generated Chris’s blog post about split grades. Will my child be OK in a split grade It takes a special principal to openly engage with parents online in a public forum.
Show Livebinder of resources shared http://www.livebinders.com/edit/index/310605
Please listen to Chris’s presentation.
More about Chris: http://about.me/chriswejr

If you are looking for an exciting and innovative way to engage parents in your school or school board, please listen to the recording for Episode 53.
Tracy Bachellier shared how the Avond Maitland District School Board organized an event that brought parents, teachers, administrators, trustees and the community together to support student learning. Ignite Parents was inspired by the Ignite Show initative. The Parent Involvement Committee took the lead on creating this event; organizing speakers, gathering donations and advertising the event. Twelve presenters were challenged to present to parents their passions in education and how their students benefit. Each presenter had 5 minutes to present with 20 slides that advanced every 15 sections. Ignite Parents was the Parent Reaching Out project and funded by the Ontario Minister of Education.

Live Binder of links and resources for Episode 53
Audio Recording and Chat Log

Parents as Partners is pleased to announce our upcoming show on Monday October 15, 2012 at 4:00PM PT/7:00 PM ET

Tracy Bachellier will be our special guest. Tracy has been self-employed since 1998 and owns two small businesses together with her husband, Dean. She lives in Stratford, Ontario and is the proud mom of three children, Isobel (age 13) and twins, Evelyn and Stuart (age 11). Tracy holds a BA in English, an Honours BA in Psychology and she is currently a part-time student at Wilfrid Laurier University studying for her Master’s of Education. She is also the owner of a sustainable forest and you can often find her and her family playing in their woods near the shores of Lake Huron.

Tracy began in 2004 helping other parents and families navigate the education system by providing assistance, connections, resources, tools and information. Her passion for parent involvement and supporting families with their children’s education grew over the years. Tracy has served as Chair of Hamlet Public School Council, Co-Chair of Stratford Regional School Council (SRSC) and Chair of the Avon Maitland District School Board Parent Involvement Committee (PIC). She has been a part of many parent engagement initiatives including, WeTube: An Interactive Evening for Parents, The Parent Voice Website, several Parent Reaching Out Grants, and Ignite Parents.

Tracy will be sharing some of these exciting projects that have been used in her local Ontario School Board to engage parents.

Join us at 4:00PM PT/7:00 PM ET at http://tinyurl.com/ETTPasp
Time Zone Convertor
We broadcast our show using BlackBoard Collaborate. IF you have never used Black Board Collaborate please watch this video.

Maria Fisk and Lorna Costantini are starting up the new fall season of Parents as Partners at Edtechtalk. Our first show will star you! We are starting off with a brainstorming session and you are invited to join us. You can take the mic if you want ( please have a USB headset ready) or simply share your thoughts in the chat.

We have made a change in our show time slot so we are now broadcasting the 4th Monday of the month at 4:00 PM PT/7:00 PM ET
Time zone converter

Our first show is Monday September 24, 2012 at 4:00 PM PT/7:00 PM ET
To join the show go to http://tinyurl.com/ETTPasp All our shows are hosted in BlackBoard Collaborate.

We want our show to meet your needs and we are open to your suggestions. We have created a google form for you to use. Please fill it and share your ideas.

If the form does not display for you here you can access the form with this link:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/embeddedform?formkey=dDJHUFBweTA5dmhINWd4ejBmLWVrN3c6MQ

If you have never participated in a Black Board Collaborate session, please watch this getting started video.

Please enjoy the recording of our interview with Aaron Puley. It is an extensive discussion about engaging parents and 21st Century Fluencies. Our conversation filled a good hour+ as we delved into numerous ideas that Aaron uses in his role as Student and Parent Engagement Consultant with the Hamilton Wentworth District School Board in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Highlights include:

• How important parents and community are as pillars of HWDSB Annual Operating Plan
• A description of a Tiered Approach to Parent engagement
• The difference between Engagement vs Involvement
• Using the Hamilton Wentworth District Commons HWDSB Commons to make the learning process visible and transparent to parents
• The development of a tool kit designed to help Raise Responsible Digital Citizens and supporting parents support their children with the same in partnership with the classroom teacher.
• Parent Engagement tool kit where strategies and best practices already occurring in schools can be aggregated and captured in such a way that principals and schools co-author an authentic resource that captures the spirit of a dynamic web 2.0 world and the board community as a whole.

We plan to have Aaron back in the fall to update us on the Parent Tool Kit for Principals and the Council of Ontario Directors of Education Raising Digital Citizens Tool Kit.

Here is the link to the full Blackboard Collaborate recording

Audio Recording Audio Recording

Chat Log

Parents as Partners at EdTechtalk LiveBinder

Or watch the embedded video in the side bar.

Monday June 11, 2012 Aaron Puley – @bloggucation will be the special guest on
Parents as Partners.

Aaron Puley is a K-12 educator and Parent / Student Engagement Consultant with a 21st Century Fluencies Lens for the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) and Secondary (9-12) Teacher (Certified by the Ontario College of Teachers). As a consultant, he works with students, teachers, and parents, building capacity for the improvement of student engagement and achievement by embedding technology into daily teaching and learning to ensure that education is a relevant, collaborative, interactive, and responsive experience for students.

You won’t want to miss Aaron share is role in engaging parents. Few boards in Ontario have taken the step forward to assign a specific person and role in supporting parents. Aaron has some great stories and advice to share so,

Please join us:
DATE: Monday June 11, 2012
TIME: 9:00 PM EDT (GMT-5) Time Zone Converter
LOCATION: http://tinyurl.com/ETTpasp

You can join us in the elluminate room at http://tinyurl.com/ETTpasp The slides, websites and chat conversation will be held in this room. If you have a USB headset with microphone you can come to the mic to ask questions. The room will be open 15 min before the webinar for the orientation on how to participate in a BlackBoard Collaborate meeting room.

If you missed the show on Monday April 2, 2012, Heidi Hass Gable gave a wonderful presentation on parent leadership describing how parents can work with schools. You can view the full Black Board Collaborate recording here or watch the video in the sidebar.

Every once and awhile you get a chance to giggle. You down right feel happy and excited about what is going on in your life. I had a giggle (I know it is one of many I am going to have) when Maria Fisk (www.thinkparenting.com) agreed to co-host Parents as Partners at EdTechTalk. Maria has a tremendous wealth of knowledge about working with parents.

She is the creator of ThinkParenting.com, author of Teach Your Kids to Think: Simple Tools You Can Use Every Day, teacher, and mother. Maria’s back ground includes a bachelor’s degree in psychology at the University of Virginia, a Masters in preschool through middle school education at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Educational Studies at the University of Michigan. She has directed an alternative certification program for teachers; provided professional development for parents, teachers and administrators; served as a consultant to schools and school districts; and contributed to a project on digital games. Maria lives in Santa Barbara, California, with her husband and two sons.

Now my second giggle happened when Heidi Hass Gable,a parent leader in Coquitlam, British Columbia agreed to join Maria and I on Monday April 2, 2012 for Parents as Partners at EdTechtalk. Heidi is an Ed Tech Consultant and the president of District Parent Advisory Council for District 43 in Coquitlam. Heidi blogs at iwasthinking and learningconversations.ca She is very well known for her inspiring video “What I Want for my Children”

So imagine putting these two heads together to talk about How to Work Together not Against Each Other: Parents as Part of the Educational Change Conversation. I know that our conversation on Monday night is going to be full of suggestions to help build relationships with parents and school.

Please join us:
DATE: Monday April 2, 2012
TIME: 9:00 PM EDT (GMT-5) Time Zone Converter
LOCATION: http://tinyurl.com/ETTpasp

You can join us in the elluminate room at http://tinyurl.com/ETTpasp The slides, websites and chat conversation will be held in this room. If you have a USB headset with microphone you can come to the mic to ask questions. The room will be open 15 min before the webinar for the orientation on how to participate in a BlackBoard Collaborate meeting room.

Link to Parents as Partners webcast: http://tinyurl.com/ETTpasp
Test your computer settings Test your settings

Monday night there was a great conversation going on in the Chat in the Parents as Partners webcast. Shannon Smith was giving a great presentation about using social media in schools. We were talking about using Twitter as a way to connect parents to the conversations at school. The issue of challenges and solutions emerged as we discussed the reasons why parents, teachers and administrators shy away from using Social media tools. It is natural that with any conversation there are two sides of a story each based on personal experiences, roles and perspectives.

I went back over the recording to review and reflect on the comments. Openness, transparency and trust were cited as key reasons conversations can become constructive rather than destructive. Getting to a level in which conversations build rather than destroy is not an easy process.

In my years as a trustee I know personally what it is like to be “attacked”. No knifes involved but words slanted to create public impressions usually to advance a political position. I have also watched parents stand on the sidewalk carrying placards calling for the removal of a principal. I heard the comment “nelly-negative parents” and my mind said oh ya!.

I squelched that thought because also I know what it like to be on the other side of the conversation petitioning against actions and policies that ignored the input of parents; what it is like to be ignored and patronized when decisions are made before input is sought; what it is like to work hard to support students and not being recognized for the efforts. I am sure you can understand that I often find myself on the teeter-tooter of educations issues.

Recently I listened to Darren Kurpotawa in his presentation at Educon. He talked about the use of social media and mentioned Twitter as a vehicle for sharing information. He described a twitter conversation about an employee considering changing jobs to work with a large tech company. The individual talked openly on twitter about reservations with joining a company whose position on issues were not the same. The twitter conversation got back to the tech company and the company responded that they were interested in discussing the reservations. A conversation ensued and twitter world got involved in the conversation to the point comments on the website were shut down. My description here might not be totally accurate but I think you get the idea. The very openness and transparency we seek can bring out some very strong emotions and destroy credibility of those involved. I have found that as the conversations expand the negativity takes over the positive and has everyone goes away with a bad taste. Would school boards and principals want to put themselves in a similar situation? Of course not.

I listened to Aaron Puley in the chat share his advice about using social media in schools. He talked about increasing positive comments, sharing information, responding to comments so that negative comments looked out of place. He also said that there are times when sharing information or responding to comments can provide answers to others who may be thinking the same thing as an individual making a complaint. Although I agree with Aaron I wondered if parents might perceive this as creating a pretty picture that might not reflect their reality? Nevertheless he is right when he says –

“A negative comment could be a perception as well and may not appear as negative to someone else – a public answer could also help others that have the same thoughts”

Marc Carbone shared –

“I think there is a growing understanding of the benefit of SM tools, but there are also responsibilities too.”

That is a really good point about being responsible for what you say and do. I wonder, who is the watch dog that keeps conversations focused on issues and not personal problems? Is there a way you are responding when tools like Twitter go beyond transparency and dig deep into an individual’s performance? Will we ever be able to engage all teachers in giving parents a window into the classroom? Will they feel like they are under constant performance appraisal? How are you building the trust factor between parents and schools?

If you listen carefully, what do you hear?

image by JASON ANFINSEN