We are In This Together: Quick Tips to Keep Families, Staff and Communities Engaged
•Download as PPT, PDF•
1 like•1,047 views
Early childhood education it is a shared responsibility with all those who support children’s learning. As an administrator, you and your program are in a unique position to promote children’s well-being – in your school and beyond the boundaries of your school – by engaging families and the community at large Successful engagement starts when program administrators are committed to meaningful engagement and provide a clear message to staff, families and the community that they matter and they are critical partners in the program decision-making.
Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (20)
Viewers also liked
Viewers also liked (16)
Similar to We are In This Together: Quick Tips to Keep Families, Staff and Communities Engaged
Similar to We are In This Together: Quick Tips to Keep Families, Staff and Communities Engaged (20)
More from Luisa Cotto
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
We are In This Together: Quick Tips to Keep Families, Staff and Communities Engaged
- 1. uni t edwaycf e. org ECEwebi nars. com We are in this together: Quick tips to keep families, staff and communities engaged Luisa M. Cotto, M.Ed. Manager of Engagement and Communications
- 2. Get to know me! Luisa Cotto •B.Ed. in Elementary Education •M.Ed. Curriculum and Instruction, Instructional Technology •Worked as a coach and family liaison in two early literacy grants •Currently work as a manger of engagement and communications at United Way of Miami Dade •Love to blog about early childhood and technology and use social media @luisacotto 2
- 4. Poll: Who is listening? 4 Administrator Teacher Curriculum Specialist Trainer/Coach Other ?
- 5. Webinar goals • Enhance the effectiveness of all staff members in engaging parents and community partners. • Create welcoming and inviting environments that support families and the community in becoming early childhood advocates. • Create family partnerships where staff and families build ongoing, respectful and goal-oriented relationships. 5
- 6. The importance of engaging everyone Bronfenbrenner’s ecological system theory 6
- 7. What is engagement? When people are emotionally committed to an organization or cause. 7
- 8. What motivates people to be engaged? Motivation Trifecta 8 by Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive
- 9. What motivates people? Motivation Trifecta Autonomy: Giving people real control over various aspects of their work or allowing for contributions. 9
- 10. What motivates people? Motivation Trifecta Mastery: The desire to get better and better at things. 10
- 11. What motivates people? Motivation Trifecta Purpose: Connecting to a cause larger than yourself. 11 When you do something with purpose, you do it with determination. When your activities have a purpose, you have an aim or intention in mind. (vocabulary.com) WHY?X + 3 = 2 X = 2 – 3 X = -1
- 12. Engaging Staff
- 13. Engaged teachers An engaged teacher is equal to a productive, creative and intentional teacher. 13 Big Picture Connected community Ideas collaboration
- 14. 14
- 15. Creating a community within your school “A true community is a place where every person belongs and is known, valued, and supported. It is a place where ideas, skills, and feelings are shared as members work cooperatively toward common goals.” - Judith Leipzig (1994), faculty, Bank Street College 15
- 17. Poll: How many times are you part of a meeting that does not fully accomplish its goal? • Often • Never • All my meetings are productive 17
- 18. Lessons learned from our own practices Circle Time 18
- 19. Use protocols for your meetings 19 http://www.nsrfharmony.org/protocols.html
- 20. Story telling: A lesson from my dad • Personal stories help us get a better picture and they are great for community building. • Take time in meetings or during the day to share stories. 20
- 21. Value each person in your school 21
- 22. Agendas Meeting Agenda: •Me, •Myself, •and I 22 Meeting Agenda: •Be flexible •Ask for contributions •Send it in advance
- 23. Highlight your teachers and/or staff • Feature a teacher on your newsletter • Create a blog to showcase teachers’ best practices in the classroom • Send email to staff about what positive things are happening in the classroom 23
- 25. Families have a major influence on their children’s achievement in school and through life. . . When schools build partnerships with families that respond to their concerns and honor their contributions, they are successful in sustaining connections that are aimed at improving student achievement. (Henderson & Mapp, 2002, p. 7) 25
- 27. 27
- 28. 28
- 29. Focus on family strengths “Highlighting and appreciating families’ strengths is one of the key aspects of supporting families to enhance their own-efficacy.” (Turnbull & Turnbull 2001, p.67) 29
- 30. Community begins at home “Family is the first social domain that teaches children how to interact with others” -Joseph Shrand, MD 30
- 31. It is all about relationships January 8, 2015 31
- 32. How do we do this? January 8, 2015 32 “We respect and understand that parents or guardians are experts in their own children.”
- 33. Family 33 ALL KINDS OF FAMILIES
- 34. Family Family: “The people living in the children’s homes who love and care for them.” (Rieger, 2008) 34
- 35. Family-Centered Care and Education • You can’t separate the child from the context of the family. • Families influences are always present. 35 My mom, Ana, and baby Luisa
- 36. Continuity of Care Attachment Theory (Bowlby, 1969/2000) Children enrolled in the Demonstration School are grouped utilizing the concept of “families,”where a group of children and teachers remain together during the infant and toddler years to help promote stability and secure attachment during a child’s first three years of life. This practice is called continuity of care. 36
- 37. Family Round Table Family meetings are more effective when they are planned around what parents need rather than what the teacher or the early learning center think parents need. 37
- 38. Create a family-friendly environment Ask yourself these questions: •Are there any barriers between school and family (e.g. language)? •Do I have a way to know families preferred mode of communication (in person, email, phone, etc.)? •Are the scheduled family considering families’ input? •Do families have transportation? •Can children attend meetings or do I provide childcare at the school during meetings? 38
- 39. Governor Rick Scott at the Center signing House Bill 7165 Engaging the Community
- 40. Engaged Community An engaged community is aware and understands the needs of the community and your goals as an organization. 40
- 42. Let’s take another look at Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory 42
- 43. “Community engagement can enable partnerships to develop programs and collaborate in ways that are consistent with people’s and a community cultural framework.” (Airhihenbwa, 1995) 43
- 44. Connecting with community organizations • What community organizations in my area support early learning? • What organization in the area can support projects that will impact children’s learning? • How may these organizations help communicate our center needs? • How can these organizations help eliminate barriers for family participation our center? • What other early childhood centers in the area have common issues? 44
- 45. Building community by helping people care for one another. 45 Education Financial Stability Health
- 46. Poll: Advocacy How many of you have done one of these (Select all that apply) •Helped a family receive needed services? •Stood up for someone who was being treated unfairly? •Attended a parent/teacher conference at your child’s school? •Participated in a city council meeting? 46
- 47. Advocacy Advocacy is building support for an issue among audiences such as general public, elected officials, the media, and key opinion leaders. -The Ounce of Prevention Fund http://www.ounceofprevention.org/ 47
- 48. Social Media Storm & TweetChat: #LiveUnitedFL 48 #ActOnPrek, @firstfiveyears, #InvestInKids
- 50. Tours 50
- 51. Engage other teachers and administrators 51
- 52. Engage by giving a purpose 52
- 53. Recap • Engage EVERYONE • People get engaged if they have autonomy, mastery and purpose • Administrators cannot be the only leaders in a program • Empower teachers to be leaders • Allow time in your meetings to reflect, share and collaborate • Co-construct agendas • Use families’ strengths • Respect and understand that families are experts of their own children. • There are many kids of families and our own notions of families can get in the way of making meaningful connections 53
- 54. Recap • Provide teachers, children and families with a place they can feel secure – develop relationships over time • Leverage resources in your community • Make sure that families and community members share the same understanding • Advocacy can take many forms • Use social media to push your message • Welcome all kinds of people to your program 54
- 55. Q&A
- 56. Connect with us! unitedwaymiami.org unitedwaycfe.org https://twitter.com/UnitedWayMiami facebook.com/UnitedWayMiami youtube.com/user/UnitedWayMiami Luisa M. Cotto cottol@unitedwaymiami.org 305-646-7118 Twitter: @luisacotto 56
Editor's Notes
- It is the families responsibility to care for their child. However, I believe, like many others, that it takes a community or “Village” to provide the best environment for nurturing an individual. Communities that encourage involvement from different sectors offer learning opportunities for all children. In this slide, we can see Bronfenbrenner’s ecological system theory. In this theory the individual is in the middle and is surrounded by different types of environments. This theory discusses how an individual can affect its surrounding environments and how the environment can affect the individual. We all experience more than one type of environment and the relation between those different environments is a compatible one, development of the child progresses more smoothly. Throughout the presentation, you will see how these environments relate and how it is so important to engage everyone. OTHER NOTES: Bronfenbrenner: Co-founder of Head Start Interactions with others and the environment are key to development, we all experience more than one type of environment, including • the microsystem - the immediate environment in which a person is operating, such as the family, classroom, peer group, neighborhood, etc. • the mesosystem - the interaction of two microsystem environments, such as the connection between a child’s home and school, Home system <---> School system • the exosystem - the environment in which an individual is not directly involved, which is external to his or her experience, but nonetheless affects him or her. An example of an exosystem is the parent’s workplace. Although a child may never have any role in the parent’s workplace, or, in fact, never even go there, the events which occur at the parents’s place of employment do affect the child. For example, if the parent has a bad day at work, or is laid off, or promoted, or has to work overtime, all of these events impact the family and the child.• the macrosystem - the larger cultural context, including issues of cultural values and expectations• the chronosystem - events occurring in the context of passing time. These events may have impact on a particular birth cohort. A common example of this is the relationship between home and school. When role expectations are similar in both settings, e.g., try your hardest, do your own work, be on time, etc., children will be expected to perform better than if role expectations differ substantially from one setting to the next.
- But before we get deeper on this topic, let’s define what engagement is and…what does it mean to be engaged. Al story… Al understands the needs of our community and has equipped himself with skills to provide the best mentorship possible.
- Daniel Pink, the author of Drive explain what people need to have in order to be engaged. He call this the motivation trifecta. An individual needs to have autonomy, mastery and purpose to be fully engaged. Let’s take a look at each one of them.
- Autonomy: Giving people real control over various aspects of their work or allowing for contributions. If we take the example of the classroom rules or promises, we will see that when you buy a poster of classroom rules children often time do not follow those rules. When a teacher brings the classroom together to create classroom rules or promises, we see that children come up with more rules to follow and they will be more motivated to follow them as they were the creators. If we think about autonomy, it can be applied to every setting and we will see how giving autonomy to teachers, families and community members can take your engagement efforts a long way.
- Then we have mastery which is the desire to get better and better at things. Some people play instruments, they have their full time jobs, but when they go home, they practice their instrument…why do you think people do this? Why does people spend time doing something that doesn’t give them any tangible incentive? Why do we get stuck playing candy crush level after level? The answer is simple: We think is fun and we find satisfaction in getter better at these things, conquering every level, or chord. If you think about the Google model, they give their employees 20% of their time to work on something company-related that interest them personally. It sounds obvious, but people work better when they are involved in something they are passionate about. From that 20% that Google gives to employees, things like Gmail, Google News and even Google shuttle buses were born.
- Then, the last This is understanding and caring about the outcomes. Is the WHY are we doing this… If we remember Al, the volunteer reader, he is motivated to go every week to read, because he wants children in our community to be ready to go to Kindergarten. When I was kid taking algebra in school, I had many questions. I didn’t think I was good at math, but the reality is that I had no determination. When I first saw this algebra exercise, the teachers told me that in order to resolve for X, we have to move the number 3 after the equal sign and that action will change the number to negative. I ask why. The teacher told me: Luisa, you just have to place it after the equal sign, change the symbol, if is negative to positive and vice versa..then resolve the problem… What happened with this answer and why I still remember it, its because I still don’t have an idea of why….That is one of the many reason I really never cared about math…
- When a teacher is engaged she understand and believe in the vision, mission and goals of your organization and wants to contribute to better the community as a whole.
- This about providing teachers with the autonomy to create their lessons, time to engage in meaning-making conversation with other practitioners. Teachers who are leaders can contribute to their community of learners and influence others towards improved educational practice. Studies have found that teachers participating in decision making contribute to school effectiveness, teaching quality, and overall improvement (Glover, Miller, Gambling, Gough & Johnson, 1999) They make the school their own.
- You achieve this by creating a community within your school where every person belongs and is known, valued, and supported. It is a place where ideas, skills, and feelings are shared as members work cooperatively toward common goals.”
- But what do we find in most early childhood and education programs? We find this type of hierarchy. Administrators cannot, and should not, be the only leaders in a school. In order to maximize children’s learning. Teachers must assume roles of leadership and take on more responsibility for school-wide change. The role of the administrator, master teacher, coach should be to empower teachers.
- During circle time children are encouraged to make choices, share their ideas, talk about their day. During circle time, most teachers ask question, so children can inquire and children build a sense of belonging. What if we treat our staff meetings more like circle time? What if we provide teachers the time for sharing, reflection and collaboration.
- To start conducting more productive and meaningful meetings with teachers, I suggest you start using protocols. The National School Reform Faculty website has different protocols that will allow for everyone at the meeting to feel welcome, respected and heard. This website has a professional learning communities survey that will allow you to assess the your professional learning community. I really think is a great exercise to do as it will give you valuable information about your program. When you use protocols you exit the meeting taking something away.
- When I was a kid, my dad will tell me stories everyday before going to sleep. It wasn’t until later that I learned that he was telling me stories of his life or work. My dad thought me that by sharing stories you can learn from one another, you can relate to people and you can discover how we are alike or different. Sharing stories of your classroom, home, or community will allow others to see where they fit within your school community.
- We all understand the importance of creating classrooms environments that reflect the identities of the children and families present, and we also must remember to include the teachers, the cook, the admin,
- When creating agendas for meetings, they have to be co-constructed.
- Once you create a safe environment in your program, you can do some of these things. These ideas are not meant to create competition but to encourage and share everyone’s ideas.
- When early childhood centers, families and communities start to come together, everyone benefits. Let me give you an example..
- If a family member comes to the school and teaches children about the different building structures in the community, that family member is giving children and teachers important cultural knowledge while building public speaking skills.
- The construction company that gave that family member time off, with pay, to participate in his child’s school is able to hire and keep qualified employees.
- When a early childhood classroom inquires about water and start a project that study the PH or the quality of the water, learns about the local environment while is contributing to the overall health of the community.
- A key to working with families is to be sensitive, understanding, empathetic, and remembering their strengths. If you are not aware of your families strengths, do you have a way to find out? Use family strengths in your classroom. Learn about their interests. Empower families to use their talents and share them with other children in the classroom. This builds confidence in family members plus gives you access to subject matter experts for classroom projects. In this picture, children were learning about how machine works. Family members showed children how to use power-drills, and other tools to create “machines”.
- At home is where children begin learning certain basic rules, values, morals and ethics. Home is the springboard for our wider social interactions.
- When we help families understand the importance of quality early care and education, we are eventually helping the community understand its importance as well. Family members meet at grocery stores, beauty salons and they will talk about what they are doing at their child’s school, encouraging others to do the same. There no better marketing that word to mouth. focus on building trusting and collaborative relationships among educators, families, and community members; recognize, respect, and address families’ needs as well as class and cultural differences; and embrace a philosophy of partnership where power and responsibility are shared (henderson & Mapp, 2002).
- But how do we do this? We do this by creating an environment in our schools that says: “We respect and understand that parents or guardians are experts in their own children.”
- Families come in different forms. There are many definitions of family. Those definitions may focus on genetics, residence, emotional ties, rules, or legal status. So let me ask you a question, so you can reflect: How prepare do you think you and your co-workers are to work with different types of families?
- The definition I like when talking about families is that family is the people living in the children’s homes who love and care for them. Sometimes an educator’s notion of family can get in the way of understanding and respecting all kinds of families. How many times a day we judge people. We all have our own biases and they get in the way of engaging families and enhancing children’s learning. We need to start putting aside the idea of a “normal” or “ideal” family, This will allow you to getting to know them and build a relationship. Some early learning program celebrate holidays such as Mother’s Day or Father’s Day which are nice but can be painful for some single-parents or gay and lesbian families. Make those day Family Days.
- One thing I know for sure is that you can’t separate the child from the context of the family. I remember my mom telling me many times that I will be a mom someday and that I will remember her words. Believe me I do. How many times have you catch yourself giving someone an advice that you heard from your family? Me, many times. My family influenced me in so many ways. Early learning centers have a great deal to learn from families. When the teachers and the families are in sync, they both bring different strengths and skills. Also, when children see their teachers and families working together they feel more secure. The more the teacher and the family work together, it is more likely that there will be a consistency between what goes at home and in the classroom.
- Continuity of care promotes secure teacher-child attachment by allowing the teacher to develop meaningful relationships with children over time, as they become familiar with each child's individual needs, skills, interests, and ways of learning. In addition to this important relationship, children develop the beginning skills of friendship and empathy by spending longer periods of time with the same group of peers. Family-teacher relationships are strengthened as well, as families and teachers also have more time to get to know and trust one another. Within this relationship, parents are more likely to share concerns about their child, listen to the teacher's suggestions, and learn from observing teacher-child interactions. I know that implementing something like this in your program might require some serious thought, but I want to let you know that we will be here to answer any questions you may have about this. *NOTE: Preschool children also practice as they spend two years with the same teacher
- At our Demonstration School, we do what we call Family Round-tables. I love this meetings and their concept. Families are the ones that pick the topic of the meeting. Families have talked about breastfeeding, dual language, developmental milestones, behavior management, transitions and technology. They are informal and families who have children the same age can talk freely about their own experiences and oftentimes families answer each other concerns or questions. We make them feel they are the expert of their own children. These types of family meetings lend themselves to create a community within your classroom and your program. When you do this kinds of meeting, families form emotional bonds and you will see how they invite each other to their children birthdays or events.
- The positive connections among teachers, families, schools, and the community help schools fully utilize the many resources available to support student learning. these family-and-community connections play an integral role in making sure that every child has a quality education.
- We are always saying that engaging the families and community members is vital for any early childhood and education program, yet we sometimes forget to check if we share the same understanding of this idea with others. One of the first steps in building a momentum for any effort is to build a shared understanding on key issues and concerns. I believe this is the only way that schools, families and the community can maximize their potential. In this slide is one of our United Way’s priorities. 32 United Ways in Florida gather together to have one voice on key important issues. It is important that you do not see other programs as competitions but allies in pursue of quality early education for all children.
- If we take another look at Brofenbrenner’s ecological system theory, we can focus on the outermost circle, the macrosystem. Here you can see the values, laws, customs that influence the society at large can influence the individual and how the individual can also affect them.
- The main idea of engaging the community is the principle of social action, bringing people together to pursue a shared interest. When family and community engagement activities coordinate efforts to address family needs and support schools, service groups and organizations can more efficiently provide resources and support to families and schools.
- So you have to ask yourself these questions and I suggest you bring all your staff into this conversation.
- At the United Way of Miami-Dade we leverage the resources in our community and we focus on three areas – education, financial stability and health. We not only educate children but families, community members, stakeholders, business leaders about the importance of early childhood education. We provide financial literacy courses to program administrators and families in our community, we also help our community save money with their prescriptions thanks to a partnership with Family Wize. I have included in your downloadable handouts a familywize card that you can make copies of and share with the families at your program. These three key areas make our community stronger and can make yours stronger too.
- Most of the time when we hear the word advocacy we think about people in Washington, senators, a political rally. But the actions in this poll are things we can do everyday and they are also types of advocacy.
- One of united way center for excellence in early education guiding principles is advocate. The center empowers parents and educators to demand the highest quality care for all children, so it works with lawmakers, business leaders, and the community at large to support sustainable change. One of the Center’s partnerships is with The ounce of prevention fund. They have a toolkit that I have included in your downloadable handouts that can help you start your advocacy efforts. This guide provides you with examples, letter drafts, and ideas to engage the community on your advocacy efforts. http://www.ounceofprevention.org/advocacy/pdfs/EarlyChildhoodAdvocacyToolkit.pdf
- So one of the things we have done that have been really successful in social media are a social media storm and a TweetChat. The social media storm is done when you have a big meeting and all the people in it push one message to one individual or multiple. A tweetchat like #LiveUnitedFL or #ECETechchat are ways that you can engage with like minded individuals about a topic or cause. Start following elected officials, businesses in your area, and like minded organization like first five years and united way of Miami-Dade
- Invite people from your community to spend time at your program. The will allow them to see first hand your program and give you an opportunity to engage them further. They can help you put your message out by using social media, be part of your school committee or by bringing media attention to your school.
- At the United Way Center for Excellence, we provide tours to the community so they can see first-hand best practices implemented at the school. Feel free to come and visit us if you are in Miami!
- Remember when I say that you have to see other programs as you allies and not your competitors? Well, if you want professional development for your teachers and you think you can’t afford it by yourself, contact another program in your area and combine efforts. It is important that you make these connections with other programs, elementary schools, and even universities We have a program called Early Childhood Program Administrator’s Institute or ECPAI. With this program we helped administrators in our community to gain knowledge about the early childhood and education business: How to create their websites, create budgets, do policies and procedures. If you want to learn more about this program, you can visit the unitedwaycfe.org website.
- This food pantry or the Community Cupboard as we call it, was established to help address the issues of food insecurity among families with children attending our program. The great thing about this cupboard is that many business in our community want to donate non-perishable food each year and families can fill a bag full of the groceries they want once a month. We have created many ways to support this effort such as doing events that ask people to bring cans of food. Making a tournament among businesses to see who can gather more food. And putting boxes in businesses, so they can do this as a regular thing.