Discussion Board

Post your questions or leave your comments here regarding parental involvement for high school programs.

Sheena Strickler asks:  What kind of Parent events or classes have you found successful?  How do you reach out to the parents about the events?

In Texas, we have great Family Involvement with the idea of Maker Spaces. In our High School Programs, the concept of Making is really big and we have just captured their parents by extending the concept in to Family Engagement Activities. A popular one is coding and video games or programs like Google CS First.

Here is the link to one of the tools that Jessica Chung was referring to.  You can get to these resources by going to the Tools section and choosing the module you are interested in.  https://www.y4y.ed.gov/tools/knowing-families-and-cultures

I will have to look into Maker Space. Thank you.

Check out https://makerspace.com/ or http://makered.org/. Lots of free resource guides to get started.

Thank you Shawn, I appreciate the direction.

We hope that our participants from the webinar will join us today with our subject-matter expert Melanie Spencer

I was hoping Melanie could share more about Parental Involvement strategies.

I find that most parents of high schoolers tend to come out for their child’s special performances.  It’s always a good idea to use a few moments before or after a show to offer information, or even invite a local community based organization to “table” your event, and distribute information to the parents on topics such as immigration/victims services/housing/food pantries, etc

Be sure to partner with your school’s PTA to be a part of their functions and consider enlisting the support of local faith based organizations and churches to inform parents and families about your program.

It’s also a great idea to contact your local Senior Community Centers to distribute information as we know many seniors are raising their grandchildren.

Eric, I hope that helped.

We have had success with integrating families into the student activities.  The best example is our Top Chef class.  The students each week are given one “mystery” ingredient that they must work with their group to integrate into a yummy dish.  We began having students invite their family members to participate as well.  Each group was allowed one adult family member.  While it started out very slowly (with just one mom), after a few weeks attendance rose dramatically.  As students saw that is was fun to work with their families in this way, they began actually inviting them.  We had moms, dads, and even grandmas attend.  It also opened the door for families to attend other events.

We also moved to an online registration system recently.  Since many of our families either lacked internet/computer access and/or were not super computer savvy, we started offering registration labs.  The families came just to use the computer or get help with the form but it allowed site staff to start conversations regarding students, activities, and family needs.  Many of the families later attended other family events after this starter activity.