Over the last seven weeks, it has become apparent that 22 preschool students cannot participate effectively through

our remote
learning program. These students will require in-person instruction to reach the suggested milestone and be ready for kindergarten
next fall. An internet-based program is available for families. This program consists of three short videos and two activities a day. All
Instructional
interaction between teachers and families occurs via Bloomz, a program that can be accessed via a smartphone/ tablet app or on
the internet through a web browser. Families view "post" from teachers that include links to previously recorded videos and interact
Challenge

through instant messages in the app. Videos include a morning message that consists of a welcome from the teacher, word of the
day, and letters of the week presentation. In addition to the morning message, there are a storytime and activity demonstration
videos. Parents work with their child to ensure participation in the day's activity and post comments, pictures, or videos of the child's
work.

Application Evaluation

For these 22 students, all four-year-olds would be better served
through an approach that embraces Vygotsky's Constructivism.
Vygotsky's Constructivism states that both cognitive development and
learning require social interaction. This social interaction gives
meaning to the learning, which then leads to the child's healthy
development. These children will be brought into the school and
instructed through small-group or one-on-one sessions with the
teacher and co-teacher, 1-2 times a week. Our program's goal is to
prepare a child for kindergarten and prepare the child and family for
life-long learning through social, emotional, and cognitive
development.
Providing in-person instruction to this group of children ensures they
develop the social-emotional and cognitive skills for kindergarten and
beyond. A few strengths of using this constructivism theory are that
there will be a More Knowledgeable Other, MKO, the teacher, and co-
teacher, who will support and lead the child through lessons and
development activities. Also, the child may feel more connected to
the schools learning community and invest in the learning. However,
this solution assumes that the child is experiencing a disconnect from
the school and does not perceive that current instruction as a school.
If the case is that the parents are not investing or working with their
children, the gains made through in-person instruction won't have
lasting effects on the child's overall development. If this is the case,
then a new approach will be considered, providing parents/ guardians
with workshops to equip them with skills and knowledge to work with
their child academically.
 30% of the students enrolled in the Head Start Program are disengaged and have a poor participation record. Students
enrolled in the Head Start program, ages 3 and 4, are currently receiving instruction via prerecorded videos and
interaction through a mobile app; these videos include a Morning Message and various learning activities that act as
Instructional

learning assignments. When contacting parents concerning participation, parents' average response is that their child
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gets bored with the videos. These students are not engaged because they are not able to learn passively. Children in the
age group are just beginning to develop imagination and cannot think abstractly. Therefore, an effort to engage students
through hands-on activities, and either one-on-one or group live video sessions, needs to occur.

Application Evaluation

Piaget’s Constructivism will be applied to design a lesson that
will engage students with hands-on activities and small-group
live video sessions. Teachers will provide “take-home”
manipulatives for parents to use/ provide for the student. The
student will use these manipulatives during live-video sessions,
allowing students to have a physical representation of concepts
such as numbers, colors, and animals. Students will also be
able to organize these blocks by color, animal, etc. More
importantly, students will interact with their teachers and peers,
allowing for imaginative play and interaction among the students
and teachers. Teachers will challenge the children’s schemata
as they discuss the lesson and activity, allowing for assimilation
and equilibration.
Using Piaget's Constructivism as an approach, teachers will
challenge the students' schemata of things as they discuss the
lesson and activity, allowing for assimilation and equilibration.
Teachers can video conference with a small group of students,
working with manipulatives as part of the lesson; Piaget states
that assimilation and accommodation require an active learner,
not a passive one, because problem-solving skills cannot be
taught, they must be discovered (McLeod). In opposition to this
approach, Piaget's Constructivism relies heavily on a child's
readiness and cognitive maturity. According to Piaget, children
should not be taught a concept until they are cognitively ready
for it. Adhering to this may cause a division among students,
advanced students, and those who need extra help, creating a
further gap for students already struggling.
 There are 141 students enrolled in our Head Start, of the 141, 12 siblings giving us 129 families. The families' breakdown
is 94 two-parent households, 27- single-parent households, five grandparents-guardian, and three foster families. When it
comes to parent workshops, attendance is between 10 and 15 percent of families (14-20 parents). This is regardless of
Instructional

the workshop/ training topic, anything from potty training to conscious discipline. Last year's mid-year survey revealed
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that parents felt the information presented wasn't relevant to their families. When present with options for new topics,
more culturally relevant, attendance remains the same. When surveyed, parents admitted that although the issue was
interesting, they were not sure how to incorporate it into their families.

Application Evaluation

In this case, working with families who are often disengaged, and
diffident, problem-based instruction may be the way to get them
engaged, learning, and participating as a learning community. Instead
of presenting parents with facts about child development, the
facilitator can submit an issue or common problem faced by parents
or preschoolers. Parents will be given h information to define the
problem and any relevant variables—then allowing them to work in
small groups or work through the issue as a large group, everyone
sharing their ideas and communicating with the group.
Because there would be a “real” problem faced by
families, and there will be no prescribed answer or curriculum,
parents should leave the workshop with new knowledge and a deeper
understanding of the issue and new ideas and information to address
these issues at home. x
Problem-Based instruction would be useful in this case because parents will be given
real-life problems faced by them, allowing parents to direct the course of the
workshop. These "problems" would have more than one solution and no specific,
right, or wrong answer. And working as a group, they can move past the zone of
proximal development, they may be at on their own, as they work in a learning
community.
This strategy's benefits are that parents can share their experience and expertise
with other parents and the school. Parents are not bound to a specific curriculum or
rhetoric, but the process and solution can be more fluid and natural. Allowing for
some experimentation and failing.
One drawback of the maybe that parents and facilitators may feel unprepared or ill-
equipped for the workshop because there is no right or wrong answers or prescribed
lesson. This can be addressed by providing parents with an early copy or rough
outline of the workshop/ training. Also, there is the question of relevancy and
applicability; Topics will have come directly from Family Needs Survey and PIR.
 In the Ili Uusim Mahtawa’apo/ PYT Head Start, there are 129 families with enrolled students; of these families, 94 are
two-parent households, 27- single-parent households, five grandparent-guardian, and three foster families. One goal of
Family Engagement is to provide parents with the skills and tools, to act as lifelong educators, and families as learners.
Instructional

We work toward this goal by hosting parent workshops based on the school curriculum and inviting parents to participate
Challenge

in their child’s education to create a partnership between parents and school staff. The significant challenges in
accomplishing this are that parents rely on the school to teach, and parents feel inadequate to teach their children. This
issue has become exasperated this school year by remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as parents are now
their children’s main educator, with the school in a support role.

Application Evaluation

To address the lack of parent participation based on parents' inadequacy
beliefs, I propose hosting an online synchronous two-night, 2-hour,
workshop to present the upcoming theme; themes change every three
weeks introducing new words, letters, stories, and concepts. Using the
principals of cooperative learning, we will create parent-student teams.
Central to the workshop will be a presentation and discussion of
metacognition, emphasizing learning style and needs, planning,
organizing, and arranging a study space and schedule. We will show
parents how to use modeling, discussion, and guided practice to teach
their children to be aware of their thinking and the instructional content.
We will also teach parents generic teaching and studying skills to
practice in their parent-student groups working through some of the
content material. At the end of the workshop, parents will present things
that worked well and those that didn’t, to get parents to support each
other, offering advice and suggestions.
One common idea around cooperative learning is that when individuals work together
to learn, they feel responsible for one another's' learning and own. This motivational
theory behind cooperative learning is what we hope to exploit by creating the parent-
student group, that parents will feel responsible for their child's education.
Cooperative learning is also beneficial because the child who may otherwise be
reluctant to share will be at greater ease with their parent, explain and discuss
perspectives, and obtain a greater understanding of the lessons. With the current
situation and remote learning instruction, many of the tasks associated with
implementing cooperative learning are readily available. Working together with their
child, listening to one another, questioning one another, keeping work progress
records, producing the assessment task provided by the school along with all
materials, and finally assuming personal responsibility, and being involved.
Draw-backs cooperative learning in the instance is the pair-share group style that
there are limited perspectives and solutions; the child will have to work with their
parent. This could cause a minimal viewpoint. On the other hand, this could allow
the parent to share information from a culturally perspective. In addition to the Two-
night workshop, school staff could set up parent groups, who then organized
Instructional
Challenge
Motivating fathers/ father-figures to engage in their child’s school life is a continual challenge. In the 2019/ 2020
school year, we had an average of 7 fathers participate at school functions; this represents 5% of our students had
their father engage with them at a school event.

Application Evaluation
A solution to motivate fathers to participate with their children both at school events and within Using the 6-C’s to motivate fathers to participate more in
the schools' learning community may be to use the 6 Cs of Motivation when designing fathers' the school may be the key to designing and implementing
programs.
Choice: During student orientation, have fathers choose from a list of events and activities for the activities and events for fathers to engage with their
school year. For example, Harvest Feast and Pumpkin patch; to assist with the garden, help a children at school. This gives them, fathers, control over
teacher in the classroom, sign up to read, etc. Given variety and choices often will open p how the school uses them, their skills, and their time.
opportunities for fathers to find something they are interested in and feel they can do. This process is encouraging because it provides a flexible
Challenge/Control: Presenting fathers with a few broad choices of events they can plan and outline to begin working with fathers.
implement. Options can be a sensory walk, a field day, or a kickball tournament. To increase the
challenge, we could offer fathers the chance to participate in lesson planning for a week.
Constructing Meaning: provide a series of short messages to fathers explaining the importance This approach assumes that father engagement is lacking
and effect a father's role plays in the educational success, social-emotional development, and because fathers are unmotivated or discouraged. There
general well-being of their children. Many fathers are unaware of the cognitive and social, may be other factors that keep fathers from participating
emotional development of children. This will allow them to learn and construct meaning about in school activities. However, this outline does allow for
their participation at school.
Consequence: Highlight the work fathers are doing by displaying fathers' photos during activities them to carve their niche in our learning community.
and meetings, displaying their work for other parents and children, including their own, to see.
School leadership can invite fathers to present at oversight committee meetings and during
Promotion celebrations when students can share what their fathers did at the school.
Collaboration: Father will be working in groups of 2-3 and possibly more. Groups can include
other fathers, Head Start staff, Buildings & Grounds staff, and their child. Working in these
groups during planning and implantation can give fathers a chance to participate where their
strengths lie and an opportunity to spend time with their kids.