Tonight was open house and out of my caseload of 14 students, only 2 parents showed up; pretty much the same turn out as last year. I explained to them my role as case manager in their students' lives, what our resource room is used for, and how awesome I am. And I mean, let's be honest here, I am pretty awesome, so it only makes sense that I make my students' parents aware of this as well. So anyways, I wasn't very surprised in regards to how few of my parents attended open house. Generally, it is a very sad trend that I see: I co-teach in all low level classes where, unfortunately, there is very little parent involvement. I have found that the struggling student whose parents you feel really need to be involved are usually the ones who are the most difficult to get in contact with. Once I decide to go back to school to get my doctorate degree (which I would really do mostly for bragging rights and to demand that everyone calls me Doctor) I would research the effect that parent involvement has on student academic success. From my experience thus far, it truly does have a huge impact.
So with that being said, here is my New Teacher Tip of the Day for you: Do not become discouraged when a parent shows little interest in their child's education. Instead, let it empower you! You may be the influential person that this child needs in their life. It will become your job to motivate the student to not only become actively involved in his or her education, but to also realize the importance of education. If they are not receiving the support at home, then you have to be the one to fill that role.
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