ARP is rolling along and we seem to be having excellent reports so far.  All of the classrooms have their posters posted and we have included additional activities to be included so this is not viewed as a negative.  The children do watch this poster and make sure they have all of their checks based on the activities so far.  I think this has been a positive impact since we have not had any complaints from our parents about the poster and we have had feedback that their kids are urging them to attend so they can get credit!  This is what we had hoped for!  I have been attending all of the PTO meetings and recognized a few areas for improvement as it relates to their activities.  First, their meetings are not publicized well so unless you are on the PTO Board, you are not aware these are occurring.  Second, the teachers are not informed about their activities.  This is an opportunity for us to become more aware of what events are coming up and help promote this to our parents.  Also, many of our teachers have kids in our school and don't feel informed! 
I am still gathering my results on testing to see if the parent involvement is having an impact!  I have a "control" classroom on every grade level but one so we will be able to compare results of teachers who made sure to contact EVERY SINGLE parent versus those who reached some but were not able to reach all!

Currently, I am well on my way with my Action Research Plan.  I have already recognized that some of the activities will need to be modified based on changes from the administrators.  We discussed and agreed upon all teachers contacting every student in their class to try and reach them and invite them to our upcoming events.  Unfortunately, this was no longer a mandate and was changed to a “strong urge” from the administrators.  I was able to talk with at least one person in each grade level to ask them if they would make calls and keep track of them for my review.  We are going to have at least one class per level who will keep notes and follow the original plan.  I am going to compare the results from these classes to the rest of the grade level to determine if there were any major differences noted from the outreach! 
All of our Student/Parent/Teacher compacts have been created and sent home for signature.  Most of our students have returned these and received a copy for their home.  We refer to these compacts often as we want them to understand the importance of what they signed and what a compact actually is and means. 
The tracking chart has been created and is displayed in every single classroom in our school.  The kids are paying attention to these based on the feedback from the teachers.  We did have a number of teachers express their concern that this could embarrass a child should their parents not show up to anything.  We are not out to humiliate or punish the child.  We are going to add additional options such as Tuesday folder returned each week as one of the “checkmarks” so all children continue to get a chance for a mark to be made by their name.  The chart was up during Open House and many of the parents did notice we were tracking their attendance.  We made it clear that this is a partnership and we need them to be a part of school!  All in all, it was well received.

I am working on getting the initial lists together of which parents did not attend and how many of their children are classified at risk!  This is a big piece of our puzzle that we are trying to resolve.  Finally, I am working with our parent liaison to try and determine additional efforts that can be made to encourage parent participation. 

4th Week Web Conference - School Community Relations

Fantastic conference tonight.  I really felt like I got a lot out of listening to other people's ideas and their focus.  It is always interesting to see the different struggles we all face in different areas.  I love that Dr Jenkins will share with us what we missed on the mid term so we can check ourselves and learn from this.  I was also able to resolve my issue with the Course Embedded log...THANK YOU to Dr Cummings for working with me on this and to Dr Jenkins for passing this along.
Felt like tonight was a success and I will go to bed feeling like I accomplished a lot today!  :)

Attending the we conferences for our classes has normally been very useful!  I enjoy attending them and learning from other people.  However, in this class...School Community Relations....we seem to be drifting off course more often.  People are asking so many questions that are more related to obtaining our degrees but not the course in specific.  Also, people have been logging on late to the conference and then asking the same questions that have been asked several times earlier.  It would be helpful if they scroll through the chat log before asking questions.  I hope to continue on the conferences but want to focus on the class and reviewing the mid term and preparing for the final!

We have been reading so many articles about ways other schools have increased their parent involvement.  One common factor I am noticing, and it seems common sense, is that the teachers are on board.  I attended our CIDC meeting and our principal shared the poor results of her request last year for teachers to contact all parents at least once a nine weeks.  She stated it was SO DISHEARTENING to see the results.  This has me puzzled....you can't complain about parents not being involved if you, the teacher, don't reach out to them at all.  Our class sizes are NOT that large so that is not the case.  I am struggling internally as to how I would deal with this as a principal.  You can't throw down the hammer and demand it, but on the other hand it was a REASONABLE request.  I am trying to continue to soak in the info in these articles to see if I can come up with a different idea on how to get them moving! 

Lots has been happening since the start of school!  I feel like I am running and NEVER walking.  Regardless, we have accomplished a lot on the plan.  We were able to create our posters for the classrooms to track parent attendance at our events.  They looked great!  Our Meet The Teacher Night was good but our Open House was fantastic!  It was a rainy night but still had a packed house.  I had teachers from every grade level contacting their parents to come and it was very interesting to compare our results.  I am meeting with our Parent Liaison to review the final numbers.  Interesting point...I called all of my parents and had 15 out of 20 show!  I was pleased with this.  A colleague of mine, 5th bilingual class, called all of hers and had 7 out of 16 show!  Final note, another colleague who has many GT children, did NOT call and had 20 out of 23 show!  I will be back to share more official results but our entire focus is to increase their involvement.  So far, I am seeing better results than last year and hope this trend continues! 

DONE! - Well, kinda....

I wrapped up this class with so many outside activities occurring which seemed to make this so much more difficult to get work completed!  I felt pulled in many directions and prayed I was not cutting myself too thin!  Still not sure but my grades have been good!  :)  I know the class is complete but I still have a lot of work in front of me.  Not sure I have had a vacation yet but feel good knowing I have covered a lot of ground work!  I look forward to getting back to work and starting my research plan!  I have learned a lot in this class and look forward to putting it to use!