This is a blog I wrote a while ago, but I think the message is still important.
Students, Parents, Teacher: A Trifecta of Success
In the horse race of life, we all want our students to be winners. But coming into the winner’s circle is sometimes obstructed by hurtles, some small and some large. To better the chance of success, the student, teacher, and parent needs to work together as a team. These basic hurtles below need to be avoided to make that happen.
Lack of Parent Support- When a parent has a lack of interest in the student’s school success or unfortunately, sometimes the student’s life in general, the effect is felt. Lack of support in any new concept of education makes it harder to be successful. Without parental support, students may only see the connections between the subjects in the classroom setting and not in a real-world application. Parents may also miss these connections and then will be unable to help their children in this task. Teachers and administrators can educate and show parents how valuable integrated curriculums are in education. If parents still aren’t getting involved and helping their son or daughter make the connections, we need them too; then the teacher will need to be more involved in helping with the homework and research that the student needs to do.
Lack of Teacher Preparation-Teachers need to make sure they have the knowledge and or skill sets that are necessary to educate others in the subjects that they teach. Sometimes when a teacher is assigned a class that is not in their familiar knowledge base, for example robotics, they may have a hard time feeling confident enough to teach it. Failure to understand the subject that one is teaching will only lead to confusion for the students who are looking to the teacher to facilitate the connections to other subject areas. This can occur when there is a lack of time within the day to gain knowledge and skill sets from various disciplines and a general failure of the teacher to stay up to date on current methods and subject matter. Administrators can create common planning times for teachers so that collaboration of various disciplines can occur. They can also give teachers professional development opportunities that prepare them to integrate curriculum. For their part, teachers should spend time studying other disciplines standards, so they are familiar with them when trying to integrate subject matter.
Lack of Student Concern- This is probably the hardest hurtle of all. When a student “doesn’t care” about how they are doing, even when the teacher and parent have been working together to provide the student support, it can be very frustrating for everyone involved. Trying to find out where that lack of concern is coming from is paramount. This is especially true if it just recently happened. Building and maintaining a good line of communication with all students is important, so if there is a change, there is already a foundation of trust to start from with the student.
These hurtles can be overcome with the right amount of trust, determination, and communication. Students, parents, and teachers that feel support and genuine concern can achieve anything that they put their minds to in and out of the classroom.
