Prompt 4 - Johnson

Having been an onlooker in a first grade classroom my senior year of high school and then working with the children in Providence are two completely different experiences. You will always run into the children with the families that don’t want to be involved with anything that goes on in the classroom. Then on the other hand you have the families that need to know exactly what is going on, when, where, and how. Being a teacher for elementary school children comes with its challenges. The class I am in now has little to no parental involvement. And worse, the teacher doesn't try to enforce it. "My parents weren't home to sign my paper," says a little girl in the class. The teacher says ok, and moves on. When I finally become a teacher, I am very interested in having the families being involved. My family was involved during my education and it was nice because they always knew what was going on so it gave us something to talk about. Having my family involved meant that I knew I had to do well because of the fact that they knew what was going on.



By the time that I become a teacher, I am planning on having activities that need the parent’s involvement. Open house is the first event that needs parents there. Newsletters seem like a great idea because they both let the parents know what is going on, and also are able to show them when their involvement will be needed in the classroom. Whether it is for a project, or a field trip, I believe it is extremely important to have them involved or else it will seem to their children that they don’t care. It is very important to show their children that they care because if the parents care, usually the kids will care also.

There may be a few challenges when it comes to involving them all in the classroom. There may be parents who work all day, who don’t want to come in, or who simply have no means to get to the school. There are only so many things a teacher can do to involve the family but I plan on trying my best and seeing how things go from there. I don’t plan on ever giving up when it comes to involving families in the classroom.

This prompt reminds me of the theorist Allan Johnson. He has this great saying that goes something like, “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.” The children in my classroom don’t live in the best neighborhoods, and their parents aren’t always there for them, but being a good teacher makes one part of their lives special. If I don’t implement a change in the lives of these students, I won’t be able to show them that it is a good thing to have parents and friends and community to be involved in what they are doing everyday in the class. Even if I have the parents read with their children a chapter every night and sign off on it, a little goes a long way.

If I just sit back and don’t try to involve the families, nothing will change. It doesn’t make me a bad person, but it doesn’t make the situation better. The reason why I want to be a teacher is to change the lives of the children in my classroom, hopefully it will start by involving everyone.