Elizabeth Dunlap

CHD 265 – Field Assignment #2: Building Family and Community Relationships
02/17/20

Do they have Bulletin Boards with family information? Do they offer Parenting Classes? What
do they do to support dual language learners and diverse families?

The center I work and observe at is the Goddard School of Ashburn, where we offer services to

all kinds of families. We are a very diverse center where we believe all children should have an

equal opportunity at an education. I like that we do this, because children come from all

different backgrounds, families, and countries and I personally think it’s important to teach

children about self-acceptance and the concept of acceptance overall. We have events such as

International Night, where the teachers and the families celebrate the countries they come

from. This is one the many ways we celebrate diversity at the school.

In order to connect with families at the school, we provide daily reports for each child through

either the app Tadpoles or the app Teaching Strategies. This will show and tell the parents what

their child’s day consisted of: what activities they participated in, how much they ate, and for

the younger kids when their diapers were changed. We don’t have specific bulletin boards up

around the school, but we do send out a newsletter every month with the curriculum for that

month and what the themes will be, the character trait that will be talked about in each

classroom, and different events that are coming up. Outside each classroom we have the

curriculum listed as well as the daily schedule for each day. These are a few of the many ways

that we communicate with the families at the center.

In order to form relationships with the community, we use specific special events at the school

as well as open houses. When we taught the children about fire safety, we invited the local

department to the school to talk to the older children about the specifics of fire safety and

show all the children ages two and up the firetruck. It was a great, fun and educational

experience for the children and a great way to involve the community. We did a similar thing

when we had dental health week, but instead we local dentists to come and talk to the children

about the specifics about dental health. Open houses give the families who aren’t enrolled to

come check out the school if they’re interested, but usually if families are really in the school

they will go online and schedule a tour.