EDLD+5370+Reflections+on+assignments+in+EDLD+5326

**EDLD 5370 Reflections on assignments in** **EDLD 5326 School-Community Relations** Definitely, the school needs to include programs that effectively involve family, school, and community, for example, the Giving Tree Event involves family, school and community in a strong relationship. Even though, the event is takes place on a certain night, the preparation takes weeks. The student first read the Giving Tree book that and they write an essay, it implies that Reading and Writing skills are required. Also, they must analyze the message of the author. The message of this book exalts values that are shared by the students to their parents and the community.  I can say that the administration takes the initiative to start this programs, but teachers, parents and students participate actively to make these program happened. In the other hand, communication is important to establish a bridge with parents, the community, and the school.  I learned that on effective way to do is sending letters home. The school’s website is other way to communicate and meetings that are conducted as open house meetings or in school’s events. Also, important people in the community could become involved, such as prominent businessmen, sportsmen or politicians that belong to the school minorities because they could be role model for students and they could inspire them to make strong effort in school in order to increase the program’s effectiveness.  During this course I learned the importance of networking with parents and social organizations to find people that belong to the students’ minorities to participate in the school events. As administrator, I can use some information from this course to develop an appropriate parent compact to bring together a team to talk about your school’s needs and the shared responsibilities of the school community and is a requirement for our school. The participation is not limited to the programs mentioned previously. One idea was ask these people to participate in other programs such as Career Day of the Science Fair.   This course was important because I know that engaging parents and community members has grown just as critical to a school’s success as lesson planning, classroom instruction and testing, as stated by the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, (2000). In general, I noticed that learning at home is one of the needs that some students have and are not supported properly. This is not for parents’ negligence. We need to understand that some parents don’t speak English and they cannot provide a good support to the children at home. Many students spend too much time with other relatives because both parents work. We can make a community to help students after school hours with the participation of teachers and volunteer parents.

**References: **

Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, (2000). Family and Community Involvement. Reaching Out to Diverse Population. Retrieved from http://www.sedl.org/pubs/family29/family_involvement.pdf  Region 16 ESC, (nd). Developing a School-Parent Compact. Public Law 107-110, Sec. 111. Retrieved from http://www.esc16.net/users/0020/docs/Developing%20a%20School-Parent%20Compact.pdf