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Introduction
Introduction
In an educational setting, the term access refers to giving students opportunities to explore the world around them. Access refers to how schools and laws try to ensure "that all students have an equal and equitable chance to be successful in their education" (The Glossary of Education Reform, 2014). Access is critical because students from specific backgrounds have barriers to equitable participation in certain courses and academic programs. Some of this can be prevented at a systemic level by districts creating access through technology or programs offered.
Ways in which teachers can encourage and provide access to their students through programs and activities, especially ones that are underrepresented by a specific group of students. Examples of this are guest speakers, field trips, and pairing students up with pen pals. Field trips provide students with first-hand experiences and motivation to learn about the things they are studying (Behrendt & Franklin, 2014). As an educator, I must do what I can to ensure all students have equitable access to opportunities that my district has in place and to help bridge gaps.
Non-examples of providing access are by assuming that students know about programs that are available to them. Teachers might tell students to go to college without giving them the resources or knowledge on how that process works. They might also encourage them to visit resources like a library without thinking about the barriers that inhibit students from accessing them (i.e. transportation). I am very intentional about showing my students that they can be authors, scientists, or anything they put their minds to. I have helped students publish books, taken them to a science lab, hosted a career fair, and many other things in the last few years. My goal is to continue to create endless opportunities for my students that give them access to the world around them.
Sources
Behrendt, M., & Franklin, T. (2014). A review of research on school field trips and their value in education. International Journal of Environmental &
Science Education, 9, 235–245. doi:10.12973/ijese.2014.213a
The Glossary of Education Reform. (2014). Access. Retrieved from https://www.edglossary.org/access/
Long-Term Family Engagement Plan
Long-Term Family Engagement Plan
My family engagement plan emphasizes the first four months of the school year and how I plan to create an environment where parents feel empowered in their child's learning journey. My goal with this plan is to continue to grow engagement as the year progresses.
Long Term Family Engagement Plan Perez.docxTo the left, I have included my long-term family engagement plan that was created for the 2022-2023 school year. This plan includes all things I have done this year to keep parents consistently engaged in their child's education. This plan supports my continual positive family engagement with my students and their families.
Long-Term Family Engagement Plan- Activities
Long-Term Family Engagement Plan- Activities
At the beginning of the year, parents came to the third-grade orientation and were able to sign contracts for student planners. In doing this, I established a strong foundation for parent communication and was able to be proactive in answering many parents' questions. The planners have been a way for teachers, parents, and scholars to reflect on the day. For example, there were times when consistent classroom behaviors could have stemmed from things happening outside of school, and I was made aware of them through the student planners, which in turn gave me a deeper understanding. Educators and parents used the planners to communicate and see what time of day impacted the student the most. Parents were also using the planner to communicate with their child and me, leaving notes of affirmation in the planner when their child had a tough week, which they can refer to when needed. This was an outcome I did not expect, which positively impacted my relationship with my parents because they could see that we all were there to support their child.
Parent orientation is different from events like Meet the Teacher and Parent University. Orientation is where we invited all parents to come and learn about who we are as educators, our high expectations for the school year, and our goals for their child. Parents had questions about state testing since this is the first year their child will take this test. They also had questions about school rules, as this is the year where things are going back to "normal" post-COVID-19, such as uniforms, schedule, and attendance. It was impactful to talk to parents about how we want to support growth in their whole child, not just academics. It made parents feel more comfortable as they were showing stress when just thinking about behavior and expectations. They were able to see we would be there to, most importantly, support them.
A slide like this was printed or presented to parents, along with more in-depth test scores. It also explained work habits with their progress with social-emotional learning and participation in restorative conversations. Parents could sign up for a conference like the confirmation on the right and be able to pick if they preferred in-person or virtual.
Teachers were expected to typically have a quick conference and talk about the student's overall grades. I chose to go above and beyond the typical conference expectations because I wanted to show parents a more comprehensive look into what I saw from their child in the classroom, socially, behaviorally, and academically. This made my meetings more intimate and helped when parents saw eye to eye on similar things.
The confirmation page parents and I received when they signed up for a conference.
Examples of parent communication are sent weekly on what students are working on in the classroom as well as non-academic achievements. Parents are excited when they see their child and their child's friends accomplish something or on my class stories.
An example of the monthly homework calendar sent home at the beginning of the month. I only wanted to do this for the first month or two to have parents understand how homework is done in third grade. I received a lot of positive feedback from parents at conferences and phone calls, so this calendar has become something consistent that gets sent home every month. Parents depend on this calendar to help them see how they should place their week after their child comes home from school. It also has helped families if their child is out of school for a few days because they know what they can work on with them so that they are still doing work from home.
Access Action Plan
Access Action Plan
AccessActionPlans_Jacqueline_Perez.pdfThis access action plan contains steps I would take to host a family literacy night. Please note that the skill planned out on this document differs from the one completed as I saw a higher need for supporting students and parents with gisting rather than character feelings, traits, and STORY elements. My goals for literacy nights are also in the document.
I also included my plans for a field trip. Since we are no longer virtual, I changed my plan from a virtual trip to an in-person one below this document.
Access/Family Engagement Opportunity #1: Funtastik Lab
Access/Family Engagement Opportunity #1: Funtastik Lab
Funtastik Labs is an interactive experience that shows students how fun science, arts, and engineering can be. This opportunity is something that I wanted for my students as they are given few opportunities in which they can explore the STEM field. With the exposure students will have from this trip, their interest in the field of science is expected to grow.
After learning about this opportunity through research, I reached out to Funtastik Labs and my school to see how I, as the Grade Level Chair for the third-grade team, could make it so all students in the grade level could experience this trip. Through the help of my school, we were able to make it so all 100 students in the grade level could experience this trip.
Before the Trip
Before the Trip
Funtastik Labs is about 40 minutes from my school. I was able to have ten parents come for free on the trip as well to support and enjoy the time to learn and work with their children. After taking the bus, students were greeted and given lab coats and goggles. Students were ecstatic immediately. We broke the students into four groups. I stayed with the group that was in the science lab first.
During the Trip
During the Trip
In the science lab, students were able to complete three experiments. The first experiment was making worms, which students could do with calcium chloride, sodium alginate, food coloring, distilled water, plastic dropper, and measuring cups. Students were very excited to learn the interactions these items had with one another. In the second experiment, students could make an eruption and learn about chemical reactions. Lastly, students could make snow; this snow was something they could take home and show their parents what and how they made it.
Students mix the calcium chloride solution in the clear cup. They are then mixing sodium alginate and food coloring in the other cup. They used the plastic dropper to grab the sodium alginate solution and put it in the calcium chloride solution.
This is a student completing the second experiment. They were able to learn about chemical reactions.
This is an example of the worms they could make once the solutions were together. Students loved seeing this and learned why this reaction is possible.
IMG_1904-1.movIn this video, you can see a group of students perform the second experiment after mixing everything together.
A student explains why they are building a rover. To watch the video click here or click the image above.
Students were put into groups of five and are using the tablet to build their rover.
We were then able to attend the robotics lab. Students were both challenged and excited about this as they had to build a rover and make it move, following the commands they made on the tablet. Students were overwhelmed with joy when they realized that they were the ones who made the rover move.
IMG_1919.MOVStudents were very excited to see that they could build something and then be able to make it move while teaching their rover commands on the tablet.
After the Trip
After the Trip
This experience was something many students were not typically able to experience. One student mentioned, "I watched videos of science experiments like this on youtube. I always wanted to do this." Students were able to take a lot with them on this trip and have started conversations about potential science clubs at our school as well. School leadership was incredibly impressed with the initiative to plan this trip.
The school was very supportive of my decision to make this trip a priority for our third graders. Students were able to learn a lot from this experience. I hope to continue to provide opportunities like this for my scholars.
A school leader appreciated me planning a trip like this, which students in our community might not typically experience..
The school gave us a shout-out in our school newsletter for an amazing trip.
Access/Family Engagement Opportunity #2: Parent Night
Access/Family Engagement Opportunity #2: Parent Night
As a third-grade teacher, I have learned that many parents feel a disconnect when it comes to third grade, as this is the year academics become more rigorous than what they are used to due to state testing. Parents want to help their children but need help figuring out how to. As I talked to my team, we decided to host a parent university for all parents in our grade level. This would be a great way to have parents come into our classroom and see how their students are learning daily. In my grade level meeting with my team, we all discussed the benefit of working with parents and students together to go through skills that we are using daily to best support the child and give parents the necessary tools they need to support their child at home. My team and I decided to break this event into three classrooms. One room was the math room with both math teachers, another was the writing room with both writing teachers, and the last was the reading room with both reading teachers. Our students have a daily schedule, and parents were given a schedule similar to their child's. We were very successful with having students there because they could get extra support on a skill outside school hours, but they were there with their parents. As parents did the work and students did as well, parents could see their child's misconceptions and understand how to help them at home. The outcomes from this event are an access opportunity for the students and a way to engage parents in their child's learning outside of the classroom.
In all rooms, we reviewed a skill we recognized students struggled with in class and homework. Using parents to help with this and understand the skill will help them be critical stakeholders in their child's education and help us close the academic gaps that we see, especially when we are thinking about state testing skills. I then ensured every room had a take-home activity that they could use to help their child at home. For example, I was the presenter for the reading home. All parents got worksheets to help them teach their child to gist, a fundamental skill in third grade. Parents received a sheet protector and expo marker with their sheets to practice these skills with their children continuously. For parents to understand, I taught a quick lesson for gisting and had them follow along with me in taking notes with their child's support. Parents realized how overwhelming this could be for their child as they learned how fast of a pace their child is expected to work. It was great to see students help their parents find a gist of a story and explain what they were doing. This allowed parents to know the importance of this skill.
Parents loved this experience, and we received a lot of praise for it. We plan to host three of these a school year as parents can help their child with different skills depending on what we are working on throughout the year. Our goal is to host a virtual one next so that more parents can attend, as many parents who couldn't come wanted to come but had time conflicts.
These are examples of work that was done with the parents. In the first slide, you can see what I used to teach parents how to find the gist of a story. The second slide shows examples of work I sent home for parents to practice with their children.
Many parents were grateful for this opportunity as they truly felt like it set them up for success when at home with their children.
In the photograph above, we are going over the worksheet on the image carousel to the left. This helped parents as they could practice and take home their practice with them. The students who did come were beneficial and supported their parents as they completed their work. Some parents saw how fast of a pace we move, which helped them see that pacing is something their child might need support on. We gave strategies like timers to use at home as we do in the classroom.
Access Section Conclusion & Reflection
Access Section Conclusion & Reflection
The opportunities I created for my students, not only in my classroom but in my grade level, will leave an everlasting impression on my students and their families. Through my long-term plan, I can ensure students and their families feel supported at home regarding my students' education. Relationships must be built so that parents use their voices to advocate for their children when they see fit. Funtastik Labs was an opportunity when I was in grade school. My students being exposed to the STEM field and learning what it means to be a scientist is crucial as it expands my students' minds to who and what they can be in the future. Parent University will continue to happen throughout the school year and helps parents feel well-equipped in something they were unsure how to help their students. As an exceptional educator, I was able to remove barriers and provide opportunities for my students. They would only be able to access these opportunities with someone who consistently ensures their students have the same opportunities as other students in different communities.
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