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New Horizons for Learning Online Journal
Vol. XII No. 1, Winter 2006From the Editor
Nathalie GehrkeAs I begin my service as the Interim Editor for the Journal, we find ourselves in a period about which Charles Dickens could once again say "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times." On an international level, our increasingly sophisticated communication methods have made us aware of natural disasters, human plights, political and ethical dramas, and economic catastrophes about which we might previously have remained ignorant. They have also shown us the near miracles of life, the creative products of human beings, the wonders of our world and universe, glimpses of a future with peace and justice. We can hear instantaneously, read about events and issues in detail, and bear witness to a vast array of matters. In the realm of Education, so many topics and issues-new and perennial-present themselves that it seems almost impossible to choose which one to highlight for our readers.
But I am pleased and proud that in this, my first issue to go on line, we bring you a rich collection of articles about Engaging Families in Children's Learning. What could be more basic, more primordial than the relationships among family members-- the "caring for" and "being cared for" among family members? Although many approaches to this caring are rooted in ancestral archetypes, each generation has had to find new ways to care for the next generation in the context of their changing world. Today, educators are exploring a multitude of ideas for helping families care for their children in the school context. In the collection of articles presented here we find educators who are engaging families while responding to the needs of diverse, multi-lingual communities, high technological impact, the clash of traditional, informal knowledge bases with formal academic learning, alienation of children and families from schools and communities.
Several of our authors write from their perspective as school practitioners, sharing a variety of successful family engagement approaches in their own highly diverse schools. Gloria Mitchell and Lynn Winnemore write of their work in an elementary school with a predominantly African-American population in Seattle. Paul Deering and 13 teachers tell about how they've engaged families in six multicultural middle schools of Hawai'i. Principal Richard Esparza describes his school's efforts to involve parents in a small Eastern Washington high school with a high percentage of Mexican-American students. Ellen Taussig describes her independent secondary school's methods of relating to parents, some of whom reside in other countries. As you read these four articles, you can't help but be impressed by the ingenuity, persistence, and commitment of these practitioners as they engage "one student, one parent, and one teacher at a time," in Richard Esparza's words.
A second set of articles is offered by authors who write from perspectives outside schools but closely connected to the work of practitioners. Jonelle Adams and Rebecca Sadinsky are each executive directors of organizations that support and serve school and districts through a variety of strands, one of which is the engagement of families. Les Parsons consults with schools in Canada on anti-bullying issues, including cyber-bullying, around which parents must be informed and active partners. Author Robert Schoenfeld advocates a special role for families in school service learning curricula. Stan Crow describes a rites of passage program for adolescents in which parents are given special roles in welcoming youth to their more mature selves.
Our college and university-based authors provide the last cluster of articles, telling about their research on family-school engagement. Marta Civil and Beatriz Quintos write about their project to engage Arizona Latina mothers in classroom observations of mathematics teaching by their own children's elementary teachers. David Marshak describes the results of his many interviews with parents about the merits of multi-year classrooms. Betty Cobbs and Margery Ginsberg relate the important kinds of learning acquired by a group of educational leadership graduate students when they carried out in-home interviews with Somali, Mien, Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Latino families in Seattle. Finally, Kehinde Alebiosu, a Nigerian science educator, tells about her efforts to glean the informal science practices of local women, and then share them with secondary science teachers to help integrate traditional knowledge with the formal curriculum.
You will see that each of the Engaging Families authors brings different, useful ideas to us. But they all speak with one voice and from the heart about the importance of family engagement. You can also find earlier articles on this topic on our NHFL site by using the search function to find "parents and teachers."
The "Other Articles" area of the winter journal holds several thought provoking pieces too, and we encourage you to browse there, and in the "Have You Seen" area. We've picked out some special websites related to our theme and beyond. Please check them out. We all hope you will enjoy and learn from what you find here. Please contact the authors or us with your comments or for further information. We'd all love to hear from you.
Spring Journal Theme: Growing as Persons, Growing as Teachers: What Does it Take? See the full call for papers at http://www.newhorizons.org/nhfl/notices/current.htm or below in the Bulletin Board section.
The University of Washington would like to understand who is using our New Horizons website and for what purposes. New Horizons for Learning is facing an uncertain future. Because a future collaboration with the University of Washington may be a way to keep the site alive, we urge you to please take a few minutes to respond to a brief survey. Click on the survey link here or on any of the main pages of our site.
Gratefully, The New Horizons Staff & Board
https://catalysttools.washington.edu/tools/survey/?sid=13859&owner=julia123
Engaging Families in Children's Learning
ARTICLES
Who Needs Parents Anyway? Richard Esparza
The principal of a successful Eastern Washington high school describes how the school has achieved 100 percent engagement of parents in annual conferencing. A true academic relationship with each student and parent has been accomplished by rearranging the counseling system and engaging "one student, one parent, and one teacher at a time."Collaborating with Multicultural Students and Families, Hawai'i Style Paul D. Deering, et al
Involving families in children's learning is important for all schools, but it is particularly important, and often hardest to accomplish, in low-income and culturally diverse contexts. Both the import and difficulty of such collaboration are further increased in the education of young adolescents, students between the ages of ten and fifteen who are facing the challenges of puberty. Middle grades educators in the highly diverse state of Hawai'i have achieved some success in home-school collaboration through proactiveness, innovation, inclusiveness, respect and, of course, food.Education by Intention, Not Default: How Independent Schools and Families Create Respectful Learning Cultures Ellen Taussig
Education takes place within the culture of a society, which is reflected in schools and households. But does our society have a culture? This article explains how one independent school creates a microculture congruent with that of the families whose children it serves.Creating Common Experiences for Parent/Youth Dialogue Stan Crow
Rite of Passage Journeys, described here, is a program for early adolescents begun in 1968. In its current form this outdoor-based summer program includes important opening and closing activities and rituals for family involvement. The activities are designed to send all the family members forth to live in a different, creative way as a family.Wanted: Anti-Bullying Partnerships with Families Les Parsons
Research is confirming that teachers can't change the bullying cultures in schools by themselves. Cyber bullying, relationship aggression, and the values that underlie and direct prosocial behavior are just three of the essential areas that require a meaningful and comprehensive partnership with all stakeholders. The day has long passed when a school ended at the schoolhouse doors. When teachers, parents, and guardians actively collaborate, student bullying in schools can be stopped.Lessons Learned from 15 Years of Family Engagement through Powerful Schools Rebecca Sadinsky
Powerful Schools is a nationally recognized non-profit based in south Seattle, dedicated to promoting student success in the city's academically and economically challenged public elementary schools. Powerful Schools' five core programs funnel vital resources into these schools, including academic expertise, skilled mentors and tutors, an integrated writing, arts, and reading curriculum and ongoing involvement and support from families, neighboring businesses and communities.Why Parents Who have Experienced Multi-Year Classrooms for their Children Love Them! David Marshak
Single year relationships among students, teachers, and parents were invented in 1806 in Prussia and brought to the United States in the 1840s by Horace Mann. This is a pre-psychological model for organizing school that is illogical and destructive. It's way past time to let it go. Schools that feature multi-year relationships among students, teachers, and parents offer profound academic and social and emotional advantages over single year schools.Engaging Families in Children's Mathematical Learning: Classroom Visits with Latina Mothers Marta Civil and Beatriz Quintos
This article presents a model for parental participation in mathematics in a working-class, primarily Latino community. The authors highlight one of the activities in their work: classroom visits with parents. These visits allow researchers and parents to engage in a dialogue about critical issues related to their children's mathematics education (e.g., language issues, different approaches, beliefs, curricular issues).Learning to Listen through Home Visits with Somali, Mien, Cambodian, Vietnamese and Latino Families Betty J. Cobbs and Margery B. Ginsberg
This article describes a summer learning experience that helped educational leaders listen to and learn from underrepresented voices. It provides a mosaic of insights contributed by 24 doctoral students from the University of Washington's Leadership for Learning (L4L) superintendent program.From Good to Great: Improving Schools Through Family and Community Partnerships Jonelle Adams
Schools are strengthened when families take an active interest in their child's education. But just how do schools involve parents in this partnership? Research is pointing to several key findings and specific leadership strategies that can improve how schools engage and welcome parents which ultimately leads to improved academic success. This article describes the Washington Alliance for Better Schools support for member districts in establishing and maintaining partnerships with families.The Power of School Autonomy and Family Involvement In Positive Learning Outcomes Gloria Mitchell and Lynn Winnemore
T. T.Minor Elementary School, serving 260 predominately African American children, has undertaken an intentional process to increase school autonomy and develop authentic family involvement. In a four-year period, student outcomes school-wide have improved dramatically. Key elements are described here.Indigenous Science Practices Among Nigerian Women: Implications For Science Education Kehinde A. Alebiosu
The study examined indigenous science practices among some Nigerian women with implications for science education. Three hundred and twenty skilled and unskilled women and 85 high school science teachers drawn from various parts of Yoruba land in Ogun State of Nigeria participated in the study which revealed the common patterns in indigenous science practices among women. Various high school science concepts that blended with the practices were revealed and pooled.Service-Learning: Bringing Together Students, Parents, and Community to Create a Better World Robert Schoenfeld
Robert Schoenfeld illustrates how to create a Service-Learning program that not only enriches students' lives by engaging them in meaningful service to address real-life needs in the community, but also provides valuable knowledge related to classroom studies. This article presents the key components of a successful Service-Learning program and explains how the entire family can be instrumental in the success of a project.
OTHER ARTICLES recently added to our website:
Seattle Students and Facing the Future in China Wendy Church
Seattle high school juniors traveled to China to teach environmental lessons to students in Beijing in the summer of 2005. Their experiences in meeting and teaching their Chinese counterparts are described in this article.Clickers, Be Aware! Cheryl Edwards and Lydia McCardle
Through their experiences teaching a senior-level methods class and supervising student teachers, two teacher educators found that teacher candidates are increasingly looking to the Internet for help with lesson planning. However, many lack discretion in selecting effective lesson plans from the proliferation of websites. This article points out the importance of raising candidates' awareness of pitfalls and informing them of ways to identify reliable websites and effective lesson plans.Part Three: What Would It Look Like If All Students Felt Included? Carol Frodge and Lori Armstrong Lynass
The successes and challenges of beginning and implementing a small school model are highlighted in this article. Detail is given to how a shift in staff and administration affected this newly formed model, now in year two of implementation. Lessons learned and future outlook from this experience conclude this article.Breathing Life Into Our Schools Jason Kerber
While women have increasingly participated in leadership roles in the organizational life of schools and school districts over the past several decades, the original masculine structures were established before women played a role in leadership. Kerber's argument is that a better balance between the masculine and feminine would create more collaborative and creative work environments, healthier organizational structures, and better learning environments for boys and girls in our schools.Is Physical Education a Part of the Childhood Obesity Problem? Stu Ryan
The prevalence of childhood obesity in the United States has risen dramatically in the past several decades due to several reasons. Increasing physical education is often highlighted as a possible solution to the problem. However, inappropriate physical education practices may serve as more of a hindrance than a cure. The term "developmentally appropriate" has helped to improve the quality of physical education programs. This article looks at college students who participated in a class assignment that revealed the negative side of developmentally inappropriate activities and how they may affect the childhood obesity problem. The student assignment included unsolicited comments to a class activity that involved replaying childhood physical education games and activities including dodgeball and kickball. The responses revealed the impact inappropriate physical education can have on a child.S.M.A.R.T. Management For Teaching And Learning Elizabeth Webber
Classroom management is critical to successful teaching and students' effective learning. Five management strategies for effective classrooms are introduced here with examples of actions for teachers.Step by Step With Cambodian Leaders John Morefield
A retired school principal and member of the UW Center for Educational Leadership returns to Cambodia as part of a new school reform program in that country, and says, "The seed planting has produced healthy and vigorous plants in this now not so small garden of leadership in Cambodia. School leadership is catching on."
BOOKS OF INTEREST
A Tree Lives by Richard Lewis http://www.touchstonecenter.net/publications.html
Looking at a tree, you might see only a tree. But by looking more closely, by spending more time with a tree, you might begin to sense what a tree knows. This knowing, lodged deep inside the life of a tree, is the source of Richard Lewis' simply stated poem A Tree Lives. Originally written for a group of New York City schoolchildren, and accompanied by the lyrical paintings of Noah Baen along with examples of the inspired art and writing by the children who first heard the poem, A Tree Lives reveals another way of poetically and imaginatively perceiving the profound knowledge in all that is alive.Leading from the Eye of the Storm: Spirituality and Public School Improvement by Scott Thompson http://rowmaneducation.com/Catalog/SingleBook.shtml?command=Search&db=^DB/CATALOG.db&eqSKUdata=1578862116
Topics of discussion include: core values, moral purpose, building shared trust, ownership, and vision. These and other dimensions of spiritual leadership are given grounding with practical examples and tangible results.
BULLETIN BOARD
Call for Articles, Spring 2006 Issue
Good teachers never stop learning; never stop growing; never stop searching for new ideas. They want to get better at what they do. But what does it take to be a better teacher? How do teachers need to grow as persons, as citizens, as professionals in order to be the kinds of teachers we want to work with our children?
In school-based learning communities, through district and statewide programs, through federal initiatives and national movements, teachers are being given an array of opportunities to learn. Which ones are worth doing? What are advocates and critics saying about how teacher development should be done? And to what ends? (Is teacher development being too narrowly cast in the service of student learning as defined by achievement tests?) How are scholars and practitioners thinking about teacher learning and development, and how are they actually helping to make it happen? What is the evidence that it works?
We want the Spring issue of the New Horizons for Learning journal to offer articles that will bring fresh ideas about promising practices in teacher development. Scholars, practitioners, and commentators are invited to submit manuscripts on this important topic by March 11, 2006. Please see the guidelines for submission in the "About New Horizons" area of this site. Questions? Contact Editor Nathalie Gehrke at nathalie@newhorizons.org
Conference: 4MAT Renewal Conference
June 23-26, 2006, Chicago metro area
Speakers include: James Zull, on The Art of Changing the Brain, Andy Hargreaves on the emotions of teaching and leading, Jeanine O'Neil Blackwell, from Aveda Corporation on Corporate outgrowths of 4MAT , and Bernice McCarthy, founder of 4MAT. For additional information on the conference, please contact About Learning at (800) 822-4MAT, or link to our Renewal Conference web page.
http://aboutlearning.com/renewal/renewal06.htmCourse: The Soul of Education: The Foundation Course: Connection, Compassion and Character in Learning
Facilitators: John McCluskey, Bruce Rose, and Laura Weaver
Fri. Feb. 24, 2005 5pm – 9pm / Sat. Feb. 25, 9am – 8pm / Sun. Feb. 26, 9am – 4pm
Fees: $450.00 ($400 for registrations received by January 27, 2006)
Friends' School - Boulder, CO
http://www.passageways.org/Announcement: The American Architectural Foundation [AAF] and the Chicago Architecture Foundation [CAF] have established the Architecture & Design K-12 Education Network. A new initiative introduced in October 2005, the Architecture & Design K-12 Education Network is dedicated to fostering the growth and development of architecture and design education on a national level. The Network further strives to raise youth awareness about the built environment and advance the integration of the design process across the K-12 curriculum. Learn more at http://www.architecture.org and http://www.archfoundation.org. For additional information, please email network@architecture.org.
HAVE YOU SEEN? Related Links
National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education
This organization provides resources designed to promote parent-school cooperation. http://www.ncpie.org/From North Central Regional Educational Laboratory: Critical Issue: Supporting Ways Parents and Families Can Become Involved in Schools http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/envrnmnt/famncomm/pa100.htm also Parent Involvement in Education by Kathleen Cotton and Karen Reed Wikelund http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/sirs/3/cu6.html
From KidsSource.com: Involving Parents in the Education of Their Children by Patricia Clark Brown http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content2/Involving_parents.html
Involving Parents in the IEP Process: From Eric Clearinghouse and the Council for Exceptional Children http://ericec.org/digests/e611.html
From Bilingual Research Journal: Involving Hispanic Parents in Educational Activities Through Collaborative Relationships by Alicia Salinas Sosa http://brj.asu.edu/archives/23v21/articles/art9.html
Washington Learns is Governor Gregoire's initiative to examine the state's education system—from early learning to K–12 to higher education—and find ways to improve it. Go to http://www.washingtonlearns.wa.gov/ for more information about the initiative and to view progress reports.
Student Operated Press http://www.thesop.org/
An internship with the Student Operated Press gives aspiring student writers the opportunity to have their work published.
You can view other archived editions of New Horizons for Learning's Quarterly Journal. Special Journal themes include: Literacies, Differentiation, Special Needs, Out of School Opportunities, Assessment, Positive Outcomes for All, Leadership in Education, Environmental Education, Multicultural Education, New Technologies, and the Arts.
Go to New Horizons Online Journal Archive
Copyright © January 2006 New Horizons for Learning, all rights reserved.
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