I had the pleasure of interviewing Larry Ferlazzo last night on Parents as Partners at Edtechtalk.com. Larry talked about his new book “Building Parent Engagement in Schools”, Read Larry’s blog for more information about the book and Larry and Lorie Hammond’s thoughts about engaging parents. http://engagingparentsinschool.edublogs.org
There are numerous good ideas and stories about parent engagement but there are a few points that stuck in my mind as I reviewed the webcast. Larry spoke extensively about home visits and listening to the needs articulated by the families they met while visiting. Larry talked about irritation and agitation in the context of parent engagement. Larry explained ( this is my translation of his words). Agitation happens when energy is given to people to get what they want. Irritation happens when the energy is used to get what you want to happen.
A contributing factor in successfully engaging parents is the need to act on the issues identified by families. Agitate and not irritate. Please listen to the
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recording for more information about how the visits were funded and organized.
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