Spurlock Master’s Portfolio

Parents and Community

Connecting and collaborating with families and community through partnership and

respect create a strong mutual relationship. Throughout the school year, I employ family and

community involvement in the classroom and at the school. I aim to meet culturally

responsible teaching practices (Gay, 2018) along with embracing the belief that all aspects of a

child's education must be connected for learning to be meaningful (Miller, 2000).

This slideshow is a Math in the Cultural Context Pattern Unit, taught to 2nd graders in

Alaska, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xQREJNfvnIEZeYfy-MWWT6TZiKlOgFtJ/view?

usp=sharing, exemplifies my ability to connect students with their community and culture

utilizing hands-on learning experiences, visiting community members, and a culminating

learning experience of a walk to the local museum for a scavenger hunt with another 2 nd-grade

classroom. Prince and Felder (2006) present an alternative learning approach that includes

teaching methods such as inquiry learning, discovery learning, and project-based learning. Their

research findings support that students learn best by incorporating new information into

existing thinking structures. Students are unlikely to learn if new information has little

importance to what they already know and believe. Community associations like family

members or community leaders and learning opportunities at local organizations provide

excellent opportunities for students to connect what they do know to newly learned

information. Student’s engagement is always heightened when we have visitors they associate

with and carry high respect for. Students also have many connecting memories and enhanced

educational experiences when we can learn in the outlying community. “Relationships

between teachers and community members can develop a greater understanding among
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families and school staff. Schools can also begin to acknowledge the expertise of other groups

and institutions in understanding their students’ developmental, social, and cultural needs”

(Hong, 2006, p. 5). Valuable community resources and commitments to school participation

should not go untapped.

I believe in the ideal that Holistic education holds the importance of focusing on

connecting the human experience, like the connection between the individual and the

community (Miller, 2000). Students’ family connections to their education embrace this idea of

connecting the whole human experience for all students and can have a huge impact on

students’ success at school. Parents are their children’s earliest and most influential teachers

therefore it is vital to get them involved with the classroom happenings, school expectations,

and student wellbeing (Wong & Wong, 2001). “Family engagement in education reveals large

associations between family involvement and success for students. Family engagement also

improves classroom dynamics: It is associated with increased teacher expectations, better

student–teacher relationships, and more cultural competence” (Boberiene, 2013, p. 4).

Displaying respect to both students and families creates positive relationships. I foster these

relationships by calling home before the school year starts, sending bi-weekly newsletters

home, and using ClassDojo, a safe simple classroom app that connects teachers, parents, and

students, to post weekly updates and photos that celebrate learning in our classroom. These

are proactive ways of encouraging parent involvement as well as create a healthy open

relationship to check in with parents about student behaviors when needed (Jones, 2007).

Families are also asked to attend Friday school-wide assemblies to celebrate and recognize

student achievement like student of the week and completing a book series. In the past two
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years, students have invited their families to our classroom for a chip and salsa party to

celebrate their success at mastering regrouping in Math as well as assisting students in the

classroom with an embroidery project. Students are proud to share their accomplishments and

learning experiences with family members. Connecting families with students’ school efforts

only reinforce the reality that students spend a large portion of their day at school. Open and

sharing parent-child communication supports students in making honest, respectful, positives

choices (Lickona, 1983). A child’s educational process does not end when they go home every

day and it can be linked to life at home and in the community to embrace the whole child

experience.

“When parents collaborate with teachers and make real-world connections to students’

learning, students show improved motivation, increased achievement, and higher graduation

rates” (Boberiene, 2013, p.4). Schools that participate in family involvement plans can have

increased student performance. I am most proud of the school I work at for its continual

commitment to family and community involvement. Our PBIS, Positive Behavioral

Interventions and Support, team orchestrates multiple opportunities for parents to collaborate

and participate in their student’s school experience, thus building positive connections with

home and school. At our school, staff typically host 4 family engagement nights a year, that

combine dinner and breakout sessions on topics related to parenting, education, and student

success lead by community members. We invite parents to join students at their lunches and

read during busy reading times in the classroom.

Schools should be a place of community inclusive of all children and families, where all

members feel they belong. “To strengthen a sense of community, schools must partner with
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families, local leaders, and other stakeholders to inspire engagement in a shared school vision”

(Boberiene, 2013, p.5). Once a month our staff designates our professional development to

build our school cultural and community initiatives to drive positive student and family

relationships with the educational experience. As a staff we share ideas of how we integrate

culture and community within the classroom as well as plan school wide calibrations and focus

initiatives that embrace the students where we live, like Yupik Spelling Bee and all school fish

printing with local artists. Training and preparation facilitate and support the success of all

students in “culturally responsive schools; effective teaching and learning occur in a culturally-

supported, learner-centered context, whereby the strengths students bring to school are

identified, nurtured, and utilized to promote student achievement” (NCCREST, n. d., para.2,

cited by Schulz, Hurt & Lindo, 2014, p. 5). We work with the local tribe, Curyung Tribal Council,

during these professional development meetings and in-services to cultivate relationships with

community partners that can share similar values, beliefs, and cultural norms but also “share

the hopes dreams and struggles of families” (Hong, 2006, p.6). When I connect and collaborate

with families and community through partnership and respect, I create a strong mutual

relationship that meets culturally responsible teaching practices and embraces the belief that

all aspects of a child's education should be connected for learning to be meaningful.

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References

Boberiene, L. V. (2013). Can policy facilitate human capital development? The critical role of

student and family engagement in schools. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 83(2-

3), 346-351.

Gay, G. (2018). Culturally responsive teaching: theory, research, and practices (3 rd edition). New

York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Hong, S. (2006). Building school-community partnerships: Collaboration for student success.

Harvard Educational Review, 76(2), 271-275. Retrieved from https://www.hepg.org/her-

home/issues/harvard-educational-review-volume-76-issue-2/herarticle/_170

Jones, F. (2007). Fred Jones tools for teaching: Discipline, instruction, motivation. Santa Cruz,

CA: Fredric H Jones & Associates, Inc.

Lickona, T. (1983). Raising good children: From birth through the teen years. New York, NY:

Bantam Books.

Miller, R. (2000). A brief introduction to holistic education. The encyclopedia of informal

education. Retrieved from http://infed.org/mobi/a-brief-introduction-to-holistic-

education/

Prince, M.J. & Felder, R.M. (2006). Inductive teaching and learning methods: Definitions,

comparisons and research bases. Journal of Engineering Education, 95(2), 123-138.

Retrieved from

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/220017716_Inductive_Teaching_and_Learni

ng_Methods_Definitions_Comparisons_and_Research_Bases
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Schulz, L., Hurt, K., & Lindo, N. (2014). My name is not Michael: Strategies for promoting

cultural responsiveness in schools. Journal of school counseling, 12(2), 1-35. Retrieved

from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1034778.pdf

Wong, H. & Wong, R. (2001). The first days of school: How to be an effective teacher. Mountain

View, CA: Harry Wong K. Publications.