8. Collaborative Relationships

The parental partnership paper was created Fall of 2021 for my Diverse and Learner Ready Teaching class. The purpose of writing this parental partnership statement was to solidify my plan of communicating with and partnering with the parents of my students. I was able to consider the strategies that I will use when communicating with parents. It involves my philosophy of walking alongside my students’ parents in order to serve them to the best of my ability.

The artifact meets knowledge indicator 8D which states that “the competent teacher understands the benefits, barriers, and techniques involved in parent and family collaborations.” In this artifact, I am able to describe why I believe it is extremely important to be in constant communication with parents. Performance indicator 8Q states that “the competent teacher establishes respectful and productive relationships with parents or guardians and seeks to develop cooperative partnerships to promote student learning and wellbeing.” Executing the ideas that are given in my parental partnership statements will be the first steps in developing healthy relationships with the parents of my students so that I can have the best possible collaborative relationship for the good of my students.

Writing this paper helped me to consider what really matters to me when communicating with parents. Having the students as my focus as well as the parents' focus, helps us to come together for the common good of helping the child succeed. I know that I will handle all relationships with parents professionally and proactively by implementing what is written in my plan.

This artifact involves notes made to the classroom aide that I worked with while student teaching at Downers Grove Christian School. The aide, who I will call Mrs. R, came to help out my classroom daily from 1:00-2:30. During that time, she would work one-on-one with a struggling student, she would grade papers, and she would make copies. This artifact involves some notes that I gave to her on a specific day. I kept the notes and any papers for her in a purple folder that was labeled with her name. That way, I was able to stay organized, and everything was clearly laid out for her so that we could efficiently work together to be productive for the class.

By working with Mrs. R, it shows I have met Illinois Professional Teaching Standard 8J which states that the competent teacher, “works with all school personnel (e.g., support staff, teachers, paraprofessionals) to develop learning climates for the school that encourage unity, support a sense of shared purpose, show trust in one another, and value individuals.” As she was a member of the support staff, we worked together to create a learning climate that would benefit all students. While she was able to give more targeted support for a student in the classroom, I could then teach the large group. By staying organized and keeping notes for each other, we kept a shared purpose and trusted one another that we would work together to help the class run smoothly.

I learned a lot while working with Mrs. R. I learned that it is a blessing to have more people in the classroom that are there for support. Having collaborative relationships are important. It helps the teacher out, but more importantly, it helps the students out. There is more targeted support that can be had for a struggling student. I also learned how to keep track of what would be great things for her to be able to take care of throughout her time in my classroom and how to ask her in a professional way to do those things.