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Parents and Learning Workshop for Teachers |
| This research-based workshop for teachers discusses the most significant variables that affect learning and focuses on one of them—the home environment. This workshop covers the “curriculum of the home,” the parent-child interactions and patterns of family life that influence children’s school learning. It stresses the role of educators in encouraging these positive home practices.
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Working Together for Student Success Workshop for Families and Teachers |
| A workshop for educators and families that emphasizes the roles each plays in student achievement and how those roles work together for optimum results. This workshop serves to strengthen the working relationship between families and school staff and focuses on the learning process, the development of study habits and learning skills, and how the roles of parents and teachers relate to the process.
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Family Learning Series
Family Learning Series (7 minutes)
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Delivered by trained parent leaders, each Family Learning Series provides families with information on how they can better support their children's learning at home and at school and help them to develop academic responsibility.
- Getting Started—This resource takes you one step at a time, from beginning to end, through each step needed to implement the Family Learning Series in your school.
- Leadership Handbook for Group Leader Training
- Ready, Here I Come (Pre-K)—This workshop series teaches 15 family activities that help children develop gross-motor skills, fine-motor skills, language, visual discrimination, and memory. All of these skills are presented within the context of play, everyday tasks, and preparation for school.
- Reading at Home (K-3)—This workshop series includes activities for the whole family and is targeted for parents of children in kindergarten through third grade. Activities include storytelling, family reading activities, interactive reading, word-sound exercises, and methods for reading to learn.
- Studying at Home (4-12)—This workshop series includes family activities that are targeted for parents of children in fourth through ninth grade. Its purpose is to create a home environment that encourages learning and builds strong study habits.
- Raising Good Kids—This workshop series examines the sentiments of sympathy and fairness and considers the ways families shape children's self-respect, respect for other people, and sense of responsibility.
- Champions Together (Special Needs)—Children with special needs are best served when their families and their school are working in unison and each sees the other as a constructive partner for the child's benefit. This series includes training for Parent Mentors, para-professionals who help parents understand special education processes and provide support for them. Champions Together also provides curricula for courses for parents of children with special needs.
- Parent Workshops
- Storybooks and Storytelling—This workshop, created for families of primary-grade children, promotes reading skills by talking about the book, asking questions, sharing thoughts, talking about the words, pictures, story plot, and even the design of the book. This special sharing time expands on what the book has to offer to increase learning, communication, and family experiences.
- Family Reading Activities—This workshop for parents looks at the building blocks of reading and provides engaging adult/child activities that focus on the Five Areas of Reading Skills
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Family Resource Library
Family Resource Library (3 minutes)
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A Family Resource Library can be anything from a section of the school’s library to a cart in the hallway that includes parenting materials that parents may check out. Publishers and organizations will often donate materials to schools for this purpose. Use the resources in this section to help develop a family resource library at your school.
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Parent and Community Volunteers
Community Volunteers (12 minutes)
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The presence of parent and community volunteers in the school conveys to students that parent and community members view the school's work to be important. Volunteers can also be an excellent source of enrichment for students and support for school staff. Use the ideas in this section to put volunteers to work for your school.
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Parent-Child Interactions
Parent-Child Interaction (5 minutes)
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Nothing we do is more important than encouraging interactions between parents and their children that focus on learning. Families interacting with their children at home in ways that support learning at school is the most important form of parental involvement. Use these ideas and tips at your school to promote parent-child interactions.
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More Education Resources |
| These resources provide additional information on learning, working in small groups, and tips for parent leaders on leading small groups. |
Community Building Ideas |
| Take a look at what other schools have done in their work to engage families and better connect them to their school community in an effort to support student success. |
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