Philosophy of Family and Community
As a teacher and educational practitioner, my philosophy for working with families and communities is grounded by three basic principles. The first is by instituting a connection between my student’s homes and our shared classroom. Second is the nurturing of family involvement with my classroom and school building. Finally, I work to make my school a true community learning center which all families can utilize both during and after school hours.
Home-School Connection
The modern family has changed in recent years. When thinking of the recognition of change in the family, Peters (1999) says that “such contemplation produces thoughts of times when family was less complex and more connected or congenial.” Part of making this connection comes from recognizing the importance of involving families daily in the education of their children. Therefore, my goal is to provide parents with weekly notebooks including the curriculum covered that week. Each week, I aim to create a letter describing the weekly curriculum. The families will be asked to review the letter. The letter will ask the parent to talk with their child and ask what they learned about a particular subject or topic covered. Families will be asked to sign a log in the folder indicating that they have discussed the curriculum topics with their child. The students will be encouraged to share their learning and will gain confidence and excitement for the content that has been covered.
I will also make use of the homework hotline to facilitate parent awareness of assignments and assessments. Another plan is to maintain an active and updated website, which will include the school calendar, upcoming events, and homework assignments for each class, class newsletters, the school curriculum plan, student achievements, and awards.
Family Involvement
An essential element to my philosophy is to eliminate barriers to family involvement and ensuring that I am able to effectively incorporate families into the learning process. According to University of Maryland professors Bianchi, Robinson & Milkie (2006), “by increasingly engaging in multitasking and incorporating their children in their own leisure activities, parents have deepened their time to circumvent the simple zero-sum trade-off between work and other areas of their lives.”
The first component of my philosophy includes finding more avenues to involve parents into the educational web. I will look to include ways to communicate positive and negative occurrences, curriculum goals, student achievement, and educational needs to families. As part of my personal commitment to teaching, I will read literature regarding dealing with such situations and other areas of need and concern. Additionally, I will use classroom methods that include providing families with interactive assignments and reinforcement activities that will assist families in becoming more involved in the learning process.
Along with taking advantage of the professional development opportunities made available to me, I will also participate in after-school family involvement opportunities. Part of my planning will be spent obtaining gift certificates from local businesses to use for student and parent prizes in raffles and contests.
I will recognize the value of family volunteers. Therefore, a high importance will be placed on recruiting and utilizing family volunteers as members of the PTA, PTA events, school-sponsored events, and after-school activities. All volunteers will be provided with the opportunity to become involved in their area of interest.
Creating a Community School
In his writing on family resilience, Walsh (2003) dwells on the community aspect of the family system, noting that it is important to “tap into kin, community and spiritual resources to deal with challenges.” For my philosophy, community members who do not necessarily have students attending the school will also be included in my learning community. The creation of a Community Family Teacher Coalition (CFTC) will eliminate the exclusivity that exists among many traditional PTA's. These community members who do not have students in the schools can still be of great service to the educational staff in the form of guest speakers, teachers, or even model learners.
I also recognize the importance of informing the school’s “media outlet” of the achievements of my learning community. The media will be able to convey our achievements to the larger school community, getting others involved and improving the public relations of our school. Therefore, student achievements, school awards, teacher and staff recognition, and family contributions will be published in the PTA newsletter, and perhaps the local section of our community newspaper.
References
Bianchi, S., Robinson, J.P., & Milkie, M.A. (2006). Parenting: How has it changed? Changing
Rhythms of American Family Life, 1, 1-19. Sage: New York.
Peters, J. F. (1999). Redefining western families. Marriage and Family review, 28, 3-4.
Walsh, F. (2003). Family Resilience: A framework for Clinical Practice: Family Process, 42, 1-
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