Communication and Collaboration

Communicating and
Collaborating with
Families and the
Community

Aaron Sacks
3/20/23

Thank you Ms. Partain for allowing me time to present today as part of my
induction program to clear my credential. Hopefully, we can all walk away from
this presentation with some solid ideas and methods to implement in the future

Aaron Sacks
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Communication and Collaboration

Inquiry Question and Standard

How can we as educators better com m unicate with and advocate for the students, their fam ilies, and the
greater com munity of stakeholders?
NEA Teacher Leader Model Standard Dom ain VI: Im prov ing outreach and collaboration with families
and com m unity

Educational Hook

Educational Hook/Guiding Question: How can we as educators better

communicate with and advocate for the students, their families, and the greater
community of stakeholders?

NEA Teacher Leader Model Standard Domain VI: Improving outreach and
collaboration with families and community

Thoughts to keep at front of mind throughout the presentation

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Communication and Collaboration

Overview
● Communicating with Families
○ Favorite Methods
○ Why it’s Important
● Collaborating with the
Community
○ Favorite and Unique Ideas
○ Why it’s Important
● Shared Electives Educator Slide
Doc
Presentation Objectives

Overview of what we will be discussing today

First, communicating with families

We’ll discuss some of our favorite methods of reaching out to families and then
go over why it’s important to do so, some of which will be obvious, some of
which will not
Then we’ll discuss some of our favorite and unique methods of community
collaboration and then go over why involving the community is important to the
education process
Finally we’ll end with a shared document I created for the Electives team to
have a central repository for community contacts and info

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Communication and Collaboration

Communication with Families

With the colleagues around

you, please take a minute
to discuss your
favorite/preferred
methods of
communicating with
families.

Educational Hook

Small group collaboration

With the colleagues around you, please take a minute to discuss your
favorite/preferred methods of communicating with families.

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Communication and Collaboration

Communication with Families

Please share what

methods of
communication with
families those in your
small group prefers.

Progress Monitoring

Sharing small group collaboration and sharing ideas

Please share what methods of communication with families those in your small
group prefers.

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Communication and Collaboration

Communicating with Families

Importance can be both obvious and subtle
● Deliver crucial information that students can
miss/omit
● Builds trust between educators and parents
● Collaborate to create best school experience
possible
● Engage parents when the may otherwise not
○ Better grades and assessment scores
○ Better behavior and stronger social
identity
○ Higher graduation rate Presentation Content

We all know it’s important to communicate with families, but the importances
can be both obvious but also subtle
Deliver crucial information that students can miss/omit - often student either don’t
catch or neglect to transfer info to their families; i.e. concert dates and
preparations even when posted multiple places
Builds trust between educators and parents - Comm early and often shows we are
here for the students and to help them reach goals, not just correct problems
and be authoritative
Collaborate to create best school experience possible - Families know what their
kids need most, we can work collaboratively to make sure social-emotional
goals met
Engage parents when the may otherwise not - Parents often not engaged, comm
can force them to become involved, even push some guilt and a watchful eye
on those that wouldn’t normally
Better grades and assessment scores - Dual involvement and pushing students to
practice work and prepare for class makes them better prepared for
assessments
Better behavior and stronger social identity - Students understand their strengths
and needs better and can better address, open comm with parents-students
know there can be consequences
Higher graduation rate - Better grades and behavior keep students in school,
leading to higher graduation rates

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Communication and Collaboration

Communicating with Families

Dual-Coding Aid

Dual-Coding Aid

This flowchart show the more direct relationships between obvious and subtle
benefits of family collaboration

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Communication and Collaboration

Collaboration with the Community

With the colleagues around
you, please take a minute to
discuss your favorite/unique
methods of collaboration with
the greater community that
you’ve done in the past or
look forward to in the future.

Educational Hook

Small Group Collaboration

With the colleagues around you, please take a minute to discuss your
favorite/unique methods of collaboration with the greater community that
you’ve done in the past or look forward to in the future.

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Communication and Collaboration

Collaboration with the Community

Please share what

unique and favorite
collaborations with the
community your group
has had.

Progress Monitoring

Sharing small group collaboration and sharing ideas

Please share what unique and favorite collaborations with the community your
group has had.

Aaron Sacks 9
Communication and Collaboration

“Takes a Village to Raise a Child”

● Helps keep students in school
○ Contextual understanding of
curriculum
○ Meet family, economic, and
social needs of the student
● Eliminates sense of isolation in
students
○ Life outside of their own four
walls
● Restore and revitalize trust in
education system Presentation Content

As the old adage goes, it really does take a village to raise a child. We can only
do so much as educators, and involving the community in the learning process
truly helps to better prepare our students for the future and the hurdles they
will encounter.

Helps keep students in school - Involving the community in the learning process
truly helps students stay in school, showing them the reasons they want to
continue their learning and education
Contextual understanding of curriculum - Community shows students why what
they’re learning is relevant; i.e. Algebra in culinary arts
Meet family, economic, and social needs of the student - We understand school
culture, but not what’s around corner from school; community is in those
places and can provide context/understanding to us as educators
Eliminates sense of isolation in students - Students often feel like there is nothing
outside of their desk at school and room at home
Life outside of their own four walls - community involvement shows them that
there really is a whole world often right outside their doorstep
Restore and revitalize trust in education system - We as educators are often seen
as the enemy for sometimes inexplicable reasons; pulling community members
into curriculum shows them that we not only care about the students but also
their place within the community once they leave school

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Communication and Collaboration

The Network
● Raise preparedness and future
engagement in the workplace
○ Students know what to expect
and be ready for it
○ Guided towards better career
choices
● Provides resources that the school
cannot
● Create networking opportunities
for the students
● Inclusive and shared responsibility
○ Diverse skill sets, everyone
contributes

Presentation
Content

Especially in the arts, one of the most important things we can develop is a
network of professionals
When I was playing professionally, it all started through networking - Cabrillo
players → first gigs → sub for musicals → getting more calls;
Working with the community helps students develop their networks and
networking skills early
Raise preparedness and future engagement in the workplace - Community
collaboration better informs students for what jobs they may want
Students know what to expect and be ready for it - i.e. chef for ten years and hated
it, would have gone into another field if I had known beforehand what it was like
Guided towards better career choices - Exposes students to more options and
more choices while they are in school and not required to be paying rent, bills,
etc
Provides resources that the school cannot - We are experts in our field but not all
fields; i.e. I know winds, strings, choir, but not much of a percussionist
Create networking opportunities for the students - When I was playing
professionally, it all started through networking - Cabrillo players → first gigs →
sub for musicals → getting more calls;
Working with the community helps students develop their networks and
networking skills early
Inclusive and shared responsibility - When community is involved, they have some
responsibility in the students success; they are actively part of the process and
preparing students for when they enter their fields

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Communication and Collaboration

Diverse skill sets, everyone contributes - More perspectives = broader and

stronger foundation to build upon

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Communication and Collaboration

Community Collaborations

Dual-Coding Aid

Dual Coding Aid

This chart shows the direct relationships between the acts of Community
Collaboration and the benefits to the students for doing so

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Communication and Collaboration

Shared Communication/Collaboration Resource

● Diverse Subjects → Diverse Range of
Collaborations
● Shared Slide document - Central
resource that can be added and
returned to
● Both save our ideas and spark new
ones
○ Subject
○ Detail/Contact Info
● h t tps://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1cMC7CHwc
W ltDCsB96pbpqHVymvwKPKM5KB1NSZ-
LY hc/edit?usp=sharing

Culm inating Activity

Shared Communication/Collaboration Resource

As the Electives department, we have a diverse range of subjects, and that

leads to a diverse range of collaborations
I’ve created a shared slide document to provide a central collaborative resource
where we can upload our community contacts and involvement ideas to both
refer back to but also explore for more ideas and cross-disciplinary
opportunities
For each subject (visual arts, Public Safety, Culinary Arts, Engineering,
Spanish, and Music) there is a table with columns for both the community
contact info as well as a section to detail what that contact is for and/or how
you will use it

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Communication and Collaboration

References and Further Resources

● “Th e Posi tive Results of Parent Com m unication ” - https://www.pearson.com/content/dam/one-dot-com /one-dot-com /ped-
bl ogs/wp-content/pdfs/Di gitalAge_ParentCom munication_121113.pdf
● “Equ i table, i nclusive parent com munication i s key to h elping students thrive” - h ttps://edsource.org/2022/equ itable-
i n clusive-parent-communication-is-key-to-helping-students-
th ri ve/670489#:~:text=Th e%20importance%20of%20communication%20between,to%20graduate%20at%20higher%20rate
s
● “Bu i lding Parent-Teacher Relation ships” - https://www.readingrockets.org/article/building -parent-teacher-relationships
● “Ei ght Ways Educators Can Col l aborate with Parents” - h ttps://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/artificial-
m atu rity/201311/eight-ways-educators-can-col laborate-parents
● “Sch ool -Com munity Col laboration” - h ttps://dropou tprevention .org/effective-strategies/school -community-collaboration/
● “Th e Im portance of School and Com m unity Col l aboration ” - h ttps://www.michigan.gov /-
/m edi a/Project/Websites/mde/2006/04/19/The_Im portance_of_School _and_Com munity_Col laboration.pdf?rev=aa0997
ebcb8f452290ea5ad5eeef855c
● “Wh at are the ben efits of school and com munity partnerships?” -
h ttps://socialsci.libretexts.org/Cou rses/Fresno_Ci ty_Col l ege/Education _30%3A_In troduction _to_Education_(Perez)/08
%3A _Effective_School s/8.04%3A_What_are_the_benefits_of_school _and_com munity_partnerships
● “6 Ben efits of a Con n ected School Com m unity” - https://school box.com.au/blog/6-benefits-of-a-con nected-school -
com m u nity/

Here are my references for this document if you would like to explore what
we’ve discussed further

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Communication and Collaboration

Thank you!!!

Please venture to this

Google Form for
feedback

https://forms.gle/4zQ4
49uoYvkZBohH9

Culm inating Activity

Thank you for your time and patience!

Please venture to this Google Form as an exit ticket and provide your feedback
on what I’ve presented today

Aaron Sacks 16