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Family and community engagement are important. And connecting  learners with  their community is also important. I enjoyed reading the article 21 Tips for Connecting Learners to Their Community. I agreed on the pointer that explain Learning and Caring About Place. They mentioned some points but the one that I strongly agreed with is: Give teachers adequate support, resources, planning time, training and flexibility to develop their own teaching practices around Place. This  way teachers can be creative and really connect with students and  their community.
https://www.gettingsmart.com/2017/01/21-tips-connecting-learners-to-community/
As teachers we can start by providing students with learning opportunities that help them develop skills they will use during their whole life. We can begin by offering Project Base Learning Experiences and let the students decide what topic they feel more comfortable with  and create that lesson that students will enjoy working on and most important learn from it. And most important that creates an impact in the community.
I found this link to get started with PBL:
https://performingineducation.com/plan-project-based-learning/

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Being involved in Real School Gardens has been amazing for our school because it brought resources and community members together and gave our students a learning opportunity that many inner-city children do not get. The lessons, nature, and service projects have been so beneficial for our students.

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Professional Learning Program

Out Teach empowers teachers to get outside-beyond the classroom-to create unforgettable learning experiences and measurable academic results. Our Professional Learning Program is a multifaceted partnership within each school, proven to increase teacher effectiveness and job satisfaction and boost student achievement.

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Out Teach empowers teachers to get outside-beyond the classroom-to create unforgettable learning experiences and measurable academic results. Our Professional Learning Program is a multifaceted partnership within each school, proven to increase teacher effectiveness and job satisfaction and boost student achievement.

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This is a great resource for teachers to collect questions for students to use when interviewing their parents. This would be a fun activity for students and a way for the teacher to learn more about students' home life and culture.
https://rulethisroost.com/65-interview-questions-ask-parents/

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I read an article about schools meditation as a behavior modification for elementary students. It seemed particularly effective for African American students. Students learned self-management and were more focused in the classroom. With the focus on content, teachers have very little time to model SEL as well.

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by TeachThought Staff

Social and emotional learning (SEL) involves creating opportunities within the school day to support students in developing positive behaviors and mindsets such as goal-setting, showing empathy, cultivating relationships, making responsible choices, and managing their nervous systems.

While educators typically won't find these skills prioritized in state standards for their content areas, they are essential for success in school, work, relationships, and life.

See also What Is Social-Emotional Learning?

Over 25 states have developed their own SEL standards and found innovative ways to integrate SEL into the school day. For example, many high schools have redesigned their weekly advisory/homeroom sessions to incorporate SEL curriculum. When implemented systematically, SEL programs yield overwhelmingly positive benefits for students of diverse backgrounds, including:

Improved self-concept and perception of others

Increased connection to the school community

More positive social behavior

Stronger academic performance

Reduced behavioral problems and emotional conflict

Below, we've identified 30+ effective SEL resources that educators and schools can implement to help students grow in the affective domain.

Grateful is an app that provides prompts for students to document little 'events' or thoughts throughout the day that contribute to their physical and psychological well-being.

Growth Mindset Prompts For The Classroom are sentence stems to help students nurture a less-rigid, more flexible state of mind.

Common Sense Media SEL Resources is a collection of activities, videos, and lessons to promote SEL in your classroom.

Moodnotes is an app to allow students to document and reflect on the relationship between their thoughts and their feelings

Empatico connects students ages 6-11 with learners around the globe. Educators choose a partner class based on similar student ages, class schedules, and SEL goals; next, they schedule an exchange on universal, approachable topics. The tool includes a vast library of activities to help students build relationships, foster empathy, and curiosity of other cultures, identify similarities and differences, practice respectful discussion, consider new perspectives, and think critically.
Creating Community: Team-Building Games To Help Students Make Friends
SuperBetter engages the benefits of gameplay to help students become resilient. Students challenge themselves, collect and initiate power-ups, battle 'bad guys,' complete a variety of quests, and team up with allies to increase their emotional control, mental flexibility, interconnectedness, self-efficacy, and positive outlook.

Waking Up by Sam Harris is an app that acts as an introductory online course for mediation and mindfulness.

See also Meditation Apps For Children

Sown To Grow is a goal-setting platform that fosters metacognition and reflection. Students set learning goals, track their own progress, and write reflections on the strategies that work best. Teachers can gain insights into the emotional well-being of their students and identify ones they should check in with. In taking ownership of their learning, grades become less of "what a teacher gave me" and more of "what I earned."

KazuTime features a sweet Husky puppy and friends who support early elementary school students in managing tasks like getting ready for school and completing their homework. By using visual and auditory cues, students gain a better grasp of time. The social-emotional learning resource app gives students the chance to anticipate the end of an activity, which reduces their anxiety about completing challenging tasks in a specific timeframe.

Classcraft encourages student participation through a game-based approach. Teachers can set up separate classrooms where students can participate in three different roles: guardians, mages, and healers. Teachers can reward points to students for working hard, collaborating effectively, or demonstrating leadership skills. Students can use their points to characterize their avatars and earn privileges in the classroom.

With Ongoing Conversations, the teacher charges students to initiate conversations with a minimum number of students over a set time to encourage them to branch out from their typical cliques and perspectives. On their tracker, students record the names, dates, and one-line summaries of conversations. By setting a minimum number of unique conversation partners, the teacher makes it more acceptable to walk up to an unfamiliar peer and initiate a thoughtful discussion.

Courageous Conversations helps older students navigate controversial or emotionally charged topics, such as race, mental health, and privilege. The framework prompts students to remain engaged, sit with discomfort, speak their truth, and get comfortable with nonclosure. Students devise conversation norms as well as verbal or nonverbal cues to signal when they feel hurt by a comment. Through participating in courageous conversations, students hone skills like asking questions, thoughtfully disagreeing respectfully, justifying responses, and considering diverse perspectives.

The Social Express hosts over 80 webisodes where students interact with scenes to make choices and understand their consequences. Webisodes focus on SEL skills like active listening, conflict resolution, initiating conversations, collaborating in small groups, and managing nonverbal communication signals.

Minecraft: Education Edition is an open-world game that fosters exploration, tinkering, creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking. Students develop these skills through building their own world, which enhances their understanding of community and leadership. It includes a special component called Code Builder which allows students to learn how to code using JavaScript or blocks of code.

Peekapak's learning game myPeekaville uses interactive storytelling and a game-based approach to reinforce empathy, respect for others, and self-regulation. Students create avatars and interact with characters in the open world to solve problems using SEL and literacy skills. Teachers can track student progress and check in with students on an emotional level, which is particularly helpful when students are learning remotely.

In Apology, Applause, Awareness, the teacher gathers students in a circle near the close of the school day for an opportunity to foster group discussion. Each student shares an apology, applauds a peer, or offers an insightful comment. These comments can elicit strong reactions from other classmates and help students come to view the classroom as a community where their words and actions have consequences.

Roadtrip Nation gives students full access to a large library of interactive career stories and interviews that they can browse by interest or theme. Middle and high school students develop goal-setting skills by building a roadmap to their career(s) of interest and considering the logistics of reaching their goals. Roadtrip Nation programs have also been shown to significantly increase students' self-efficacy and grade point averages, making this is worthwhile social-emotional learning resource to consider.

Daily Dedications prompt students to share stories about people close to them in a daily 30- to 60-second presentation. Educators can encourage students to use visuals, music, and other interactives to tell brief vignettes of the special people in their lives. In sharing, students discover that they have more similarities than differences with their classmates. This activity is particularly helpful for building relational capacity in a hybrid or remote course.

FUNecole helps students develop critical thinking skills through prompting real-world challenges. In working together to achieve common goals, students learn how to communicate with diverse audiences, evaluate information from various sources, and make socially responsible decisions. The app includes ready-to-teach lesson plans that educators can customize to their specific content areas.

The Fast Friends activity helps students get to know each other quickly. Students sit in two rows facing each other. One row of students takes a turn describing themselves in under 30 seconds, and then the other row goes. Once students from both rows finish, they move one chair to the right and repeat the process with a new partner. This rapid-fire activity helps establish relational capacity particularly at the start of a new course.

The Wheel of Emotions helps students identify their feelings within the realm of eight primary emotions: joy, sadness, acceptance, disgust, fear, anger, surprise, and anticipation. There are three layers for each emotion that become more intense as you move from the outer layer to the innermost layer. For example, a student could feel apprehension, fear, or terror; distraction, surprise, or amazement; pensiveness, sadness, or grief. As a social-emotional learning resource, this wheel helps students develop an emotional vocabulary and more accurately pinpoint what they are feeling in any given context.

The Mood Meter is an app that helps students build their emotional vocabulary, identify the root of their feelings, and regulate their emotions. Students plot their current feeling on a grid using specific descriptors, type why they believe they're experiencing that feeling, choose a regulation strategy to alter their feelings, track their emotions over time, and even share their insights with friends. In distinguishing between different intensity levels of moods, students can determine appropriate responses to potentially triggering stimuli.

Class Catalyst aims to help every child feel seen and supported. The platform connects students with caring adults who are there to help them practice mindfulness strategies. Class Catalyst can help students build trust with adults, reach out when they need support, and de-escalate interpersonal conflicts or overwhelming situations.

These five resources are also great platforms and activities for engaging students in social-emotional Learning.

25. KidConnect
26. This I Believe personal essay 27. If-Then plans
28. SmilingMind
29. Middle School Confidential
More Social Emotional Resources For The Classroom

30. The Privilege Walk enables students to understand the complexities of privilege in American society. Students start in a straight line facing the teacher, who reads statements like, "I received a car for my 16th birthday" or "My parents are married and live in the same home with me." Students take a step forward for each statement that applies to them. As gaps naturally appear between students, the teacher creates opportunities to foster discussion about why those gaps exist and what they might signify.

31. Positive Penguins helps students develop resilience through understanding how their negative feelings stem from disempowered thoughts. Four positive penguins accompany students on a journey to distinguish between thoughts and facts, consider the larger picture, envision possible responses and consequences, and offer support.

Most of these tools and activities can be implemented at the classroom level. It is important to keep in mind that students stand to gain more skills and receive more benefits when SEL is integrated into the school-wide culture.

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30 Of The Best SEL Resources For The Classroom

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by TeachThought Staff Social and emotional learning (SEL) involves creating opportunities within the school day to support students in developing positive behaviors and mindsets such as goal-setting, showing empathy, cultivating relationships, making responsible choices, and managing their nervous systems. While educators typically won't find these skills prioritized in state standards for their content areas, they are essential for success in school, work, relationships, and life.

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I use Bloomz.net to communicate with my parents. This gives instant feedback to both parents and students. I like using this because I get to share things that happen daily or weekly. I am able to maintain some parent involvement by sharing pictures and tips from the classroom. I have uploaded videos that students have made as well as set up conferences. My parents use these to check up on their kids, but also to answer last minute questions.

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Cell phone use in the classroom is mostly issue for secondary teachers (though it has been reported that students as young as sixth grade use cell phones in the classroom); however, it is a problem that becomes a huge obstacle with regards real and authentic interaction between teachers and students. It is true that cell phones can provide a wonderful opportunity for technology use in the classroom (if and only if every student has equitable and consistent access to a cell phone—which raises another issue). Notwithstanding this point, cell phones also become an enormous distraction for students. The question remains: how do we as teachers eliminate the wrong kind of cell phone use in the classroom while retaining the correct kind of cell phone use? I believe the article I listed below provides a nice insight into this dilemma.

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"You'll get kids saying, 'I'll look something up for English, and while I'm here let me quickly check my Instagram or Twitter feed.' And then it's, 'Oh, I never realized this girl said that to me,' and now they're distracted and not really engaged with their lesson plan," said Joni Siani, a Braintree psychologist and author of "Celling Your Soul: No App for Life," about how digital media affect young people.

Educators don't agree on much when it comes to digital devices in classrooms except that they aren't going away. Some 88 percent of American teens ages 13 to 17 have or have access to a mobile phone, and a majority of teens (73 percent) have smartphones, according to a Pew Research Center study released in April. Ninety-two percent of teens report going online daily, with more than half saying they're online several times a day. Twenty-four percent say they do so "almost constantly."

It's a complex issue, especially since the debate over cellphones is part of a broader conversation about a cultural shift underway in classrooms - a move away from the traditional model of teachers imparting information to students, to one where students actively participate in their own learning, using mobile devices to access the Web, educational apps, and other tools.

At Melrose High School, for example, science students use a physics app to collect acceleration data and measure sound intensity, and English students discuss literature on their smartphones. In Burlington, high school Spanish students practice language skills on their iPads by recording their speech and playing it back.

The shift in classrooms is happening slowly and unevenly, depending on district policies, financial means, and teachers' comfort levels with technology. Some schools are leveraging students' own smartphones - the so-called BYOD (bring your own device) approach. Others with the means to do so, such as the Burlington school system, have taken the "one-to-one" approach and purchased iPads for all students in grades one through 12.

It comes as the era of a one-way lecture - from a teacher who is considered "sage on the stage'' - is fading.

"Undoubtedly there are great teachers with lots of experience who are spellbinding lecturers. I'm not in any hurry to push them out the door, but as they move on, the next generation of teachers will be much better served by the 'guide on the side' [model]," said Joe Blatt, faculty director of the Technology, Innovation, and Education Program at Harvard Graduate School of Education.

The lack of consensus about cellphone use in schools is reflected in a hodgepodge of policies around Massachusetts.

Boston Public Schools prohibit their use during school hours. Melrose allows them in class with teachers' permission, and the use of smartphones as teaching tools. Some schools permit phones only during lunchtime or in the hallways. Others decree that phones stay inside lockers; some forbid tweets or texts. At Burlington High School, students can carry silenced mobile devices, but using communication features during class is prohibited.

Still, the trend seems to be in favor of increased tolerance of cellphones.

"About a year and a half ago, I said, 'All right, we can't win this battle, how do we turn it so it wins for us, so we can make it a positive?' " said Cyndy Taymore, superintendent for Melrose Public Schools. "[Students] weren't paying attention, they were checking their e-mail, and God forbid the Patriots were in a playoff game."

But banning cellphones entirely can create unexpected problems. Many parents support phones in schools so they can coordinate pickups and after-school activities with their children. They also want to be able to reach them in case of emergency.

In March, the New York Department of Education lifted its decade-long ban on cellphones in the New York City schools. The ban was unpopular, not least because thousands of students in schools with metal detectors were paying daily fees to vendors to store their phones during school hours. Now administrators will decide for themselves where and how phones will be allowed on each campus.

Through it all, the efficacy of mobile devices in the learning environment remains unclear.

Blatt says: "There is a lot of substantial evidence to show the kind of learning that is possible for kids using these devices - when properly supported and managed by teachers who make the best use of them - can be powerful learning."

On the other hand, a study released in May by the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics looked at 91 schools in four cities in England, where more than 90 percent of teenagers own a mobile phone. The study found that test scores were 6.41 percent higher at schools where cellphone use is prohibited. The researchers concluded that mobile phones "can have a negative impact on productivity through distraction," particularly among low-achieving students, who benefitted most from the ban, with achievement gains of 14.23 percent.

"The results suggest that low-achieving students are more likely to be distracted by the presence of mobile phones while high achievers can focus in the classroom regardless of the mobile phone policy," according to the study.

Many in the pro-technology camp say that students are not distracted if their teachers are engaging, a statement that exasperates soon-to-be former teacher Miriam Morgenstern.

She recently brought a Holocaust survivor into class to talk about World War II, and noticed that one of her students was tweeting during the talk. "Should I have told the Holocaust survivor to be a little more engaging?" Morgenstern said.

Linda Matchan can be reached at linda.matchan@globe.com.

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Schools seek balance for cellphones in class - The Boston Globe

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"You'll get kids saying, 'I'll look something up for English, and while I'm here let me quickly check my Instagram or Twitter feed.' And then it's, 'Oh, I never realized this girl said that to me,' and now they're distracted and not really engaged with their lesson plan," said Joni Siani, a Braintree psychologist and author of "Celling Your Soul: No App for Life," about how digital media affect young people.

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This website has all of these fun ideas for school activities. Sometimes these types of events can seem like additional chores for parents and teachers. But these events are necessary for parental and community involvement. If parents and teachers can work together and help students develop positive images of their school, it can make all the difference. And a successful event can pull teachers and parents together as well. I believe that everyone has forgotten how to have fun in the classroom and at schools. With so much emphasis on testing, there is very little room for students, teachers, and parents to simply enjoy each other.

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Planning School Carnivals and Fairs - PTO Today

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The #1 resource for school parent groups. PTOtoday.com has expert advice, free programs, tools, tips, and tons of ideas to help make parent groups successful and schools great.

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1. Express interest in the ethnic background of your students.
-I come from a Greek family who is in touch with our Greek culture. I am very interested in learning about different cultures, but I also love telling people about mine! I will encourage my "students to research and share information about their own ethnic background as a means of fostering a trusting relationship with fellow classmates."
2. Redirect your role in the classroom from instructor to facilitator.
-It is important for teachers to enquire students about what they are interested in. The students will be more engaged with the information being relayed to them because they feel like they get a say in what they get to learn and it is in line with what their interests are.
3. Maintain a strict level of sensitivity to language concerns.
-Teachers should provide a culturally responsive classroom where "diversity of language is celebrated and the level of instructional materials provided to non-native speakers are tailored to their level of English fluency."
4. Maintain high expectations for student performance.
-All students have different learning goals. Therefore, the "expectations for achievement should be determined and assigned individually for each student."
5. Incorporate methods for self-testing.
-Teachers should have give "frequent non-graded tests that can be used to provide progress checks and ensure that students don’t fall behind on required material." Students will be able to see how well they have been learning the material and what they may need to study up on.
6. Maintain an “inclusive” curriculum that remains respectful of differences.
-This means that "all students are included within all aspects of the school and it acknowledges the unique differences students may possess." This is important to include in the curriculum, so everyone can embrace each other's cultures.

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A multicultural society is best served by a culturally responsive curriculum. Schools that acknowledge the diversity of their student population understand the importance of promoting cultural awareness. Teachers who are interested in fostering a cultural awareness in their classroom should actively demonstrate to their students that they genuinely care about their cultural, emotional, and intellectual needs. To this end, there are several strategies that you can use to build trusting relationships with diverse students. To incorporate cultural awareness into your classroom curriculum, you should:

1. Express interest in the ethnic background of your students. Encourage your students to research and share information about their ethnic background as a means of fostering a trusting relationship with fellow classmates. Analyze and celebrate differences in traditions, beliefs, and social behaviors. It is of note that this task helps European-American students realize that their beliefs and traditions constitute a culture as well, which is a necessary breakthrough in the development of a truly culturally responsive classroom. Also, take the time to learn the proper pronunciation of student names and express interest in the etymology of interesting and diverse names.

2. Redirect your role in the classroom from instructor to facilitator. Another important requirement for creating a nurturing environment for students is reducing the power differential between the instructor and students. Students in an authoritarian classroom may sometimes display negative behaviors as a result of a perceived sense of social injustice; in the culturally diverse classroom, the teacher thus acts more like a facilitator than an instructor. Providing students with questionnaires about what they find to be interesting or important provides them with a measure of power over what they get to learn and provides them with greater intrinsic motivation and connectedness to the material. Allowing students to bring in their own reading material and present it to the class provides them with an opportunity to both interact with and share stories, thoughts, and ideas that are important to their cultural and social perspective.

3. Maintain a strict level of sensitivity to language concerns. In traditional classrooms, students who are not native English speakers often feel marginalized, lost, and pressured into discarding their original language in favor of English. In a culturally responsive classroom, diversity of language is celebrated and the level of instructional materials provided to non-native speakers are tailored to their level of English fluency. Accompanying materials should be provided in the student's primary language and the student should be encouraged to master English.

4. Maintain high expectations for student performance. Given that culturally responsive instruction is a student-centered philosophy, it should come as no surprise that expectations for achievement are determined and assigned individually for each student. Students don't receive lavish praise for simple tasks but do receive praise in proportion to their accomplishments. If a student is not completing her work, then one should engage the student positively and help guide the student toward explaining how to complete the initial steps that need to be done to complete a given assignment or task.

5. Incorporate methods for self-testing. Another potent method for helping students become active participants in learning is to reframe the concept of testing. While testing is usually associated with grades (and therefore stress) in traditional classrooms, in a culturally responsive classroom frequent non-graded tests can be used to provide progress checks and ensure that students don't fall behind on required material. Teaching students to self-test while learning new information will help them better remember and use what they've learned in class and will help them realize on their own when they need to study a topic in greater depth.

6. Maintain an "inclusive" curriculum that remains respectful of differences. A culturally responsive curriculum is both inclusive in that it ensures that all students are included within all aspects of the school and it acknowledges the unique differences students may possess. A culturally responsive curriculum also encourages teachers' understanding and recognition of each student's non-school cultural life and background, and provides a means for them to incorporate this information into the curriculum, thus promoting inclusion.

Schools have the responsibility to teach all students how to synthesize cultural differences into their knowledge base, in order to facilitate students' personal and professional success in a diverse world. A culturally responsive curriculum helps students from a minority ethnic/racial background develop a sense of identity as individuals, as well as proudly identify with their particular culture group. Teachers can play a big role in helping these students succeed through the establishment of culturally responsive classrooms.

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6 Ways Teachers Can Foster Cultural Awareness in the Classroom

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A multicultural society is best served by a culturally responsive curriculum. Schools that acknowledge the diversity of their student population understand the importance of promoting cultural awareness. Teachers who are interested in fostering a cultural awareness in their classroom should actively demonstrate to their students that they genuinely care about their cultural, emotional, and intellectual needs.

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https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/welcoming-families-of-different-cultures/

I found this article while doing a bit of research about how to incorporate and welcome families of different cultures into a cohesive classroom. I think it's really worth the read, and a few of the points that I wanted to point out to the class include:
-Students learn through their peers and their peers' experiences and families. Learning about other cultures can bring in an entirely new lesson dimension to the classroom; one that most students will learn tremendously from.
-It is crucial for teachers to model that different cultures within the same community include differences, not deficits. Engaging families and a variety of family cultures teaches students tolerance and promotes a warm, welcoming environment to all students and families. This article was beneficial to me because it showcases the ways in which students can benefit from other cultures and family backgrounds.

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I agree with involving yourself in community activities as well as creating a parent invited community creates an excellent environment for teachers and students to enhance their classroom community.
I would want to explore more family projects as well as getting families to also incorporate what they do for a living and bring those skills into lesson within the classroom. I was fortunate enough to get parents involved in this way in my first year if teaching and I felt that parents felt the connection and were surprised at how important their skills helped students within the classroom.
I aspire to continue to build relationships with my children by getting to know who they are as well as how they see their lives within their own community by creating lessons that involve them being able to speak about themselves and express who they are and where they come from in a positive and creative manor.
The assumption is that this could only be used for ESL students, however, this can be used for all students. Listen to learn how Black American families are now homeschooling children because of daily biases given to them by schools. https://youtu.be/sgtinODaW78
The other assumption is that if is is not done then the school will fail. Some of these aspects are already done within schools and are not always labeled or recognized.

WOW! What if this was really implemented? I wonder.

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Family Engagement Activities | Appleseed

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Each day, each week, represents an opportunity to engage parents. School activities build strong relationships between schools, families.

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https://www.readinghorizons.com/blog/post/2010/08/16/9-tips-for-first-year-teachers

I found this little article on first year teaching tips. I thought this would be a good resource for those who are just starting out. I just started teaching AVID to juniors at Richland Collegiate High School and I feel like I'm constantly making mistakes, or even asking them for help because I'm so new to the program- which a teach shouldn't be doing. I've learned to take a step back, breathe and follow some of these tips. For example, I find that having constant routine works best for my students. If we don't follow that path, all hell breaks loose. Try and follow some of these tips!

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Parent involvement is the most important link to student learning. If the parents feel safe and assured about their child learning then the teacher will you have their support, which may lead to parent support with homework the behavior and support in the classroom.  Which helps create a positive classroom community.   I like to get to know how my students are doing before I start teaching, so we follow the Restorative Practice circle community twice a week. A circle group with rules and open communication about concerns/feelings and how to treat people. The students share with the parents what we discuss in class too. This video is an example of our Restorative Practice circle.

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Sample Morning Meetings: Group Activity - Toe-to-Toe

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In this excerpt from the DVD Sample Morning Meetings in a Responsive Classroom, Suzi Sluyter reviews expectations with her kindergarten class before doing a favorite group activity, the Toe-to-Toe Game.

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In this module I have learnt about the importance of having as much  information as we can about  students' community and their families. That is why I found  this activity interesting to work with students, in order to know more about their family's environment. Sometimes we know that it is not easy to meet some parents to talk about their children so I guess that this quick activity can help us to know more about our scholars community and parents implication in their children education.

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I chose this picture because it shows the framework for anti-bias teaching. I thought that was something that was very important that teachers need to be aware of and it could allow the student to feel safe and comfortable in the classroom. The photo has ways that teachers can consider planning in order to make sure they are teaching an anti-bias education. An anti-bias education is a way of teaching in order to support the child and their families and be proud of who they are. Teachers should be intentional about anti-bias teaching.

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This is a video based out of Australia, but it discusses what a positive school community looks like. The most challenging thing about building community is scheduling and not being forceful in making the parents actively participate. It is helpful at the beginning of the year to hold a parent education night or day with some type of volunteer child care. This gets more parents to come. I have experienced that positive admin. makes all of the difference. The positivity begins with them. I found this video helpful in showing how positive community among teachers and students can be very impactful in a child's academic success.

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I love some of the strategies outlined by this "92 Ways to Involve Families and the Community in Education" link.  3 strategies that stood out the most to me were:
1) Develop parent/student journals to involve parental feedback.
2) Develop a two-way plan for communicating student progress
3) Involved students in community service projects, under the guidance of parnets and community leaders (United Way, Habitat for Humaniy,  etc.)

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One of the suggested projects within the anti-bias education was a family engagement strategy called home visits. I have been part of a home visits in my school where I teach ( a Title I school) and I have seen first-hand how effective this can be. You would typically pair up with another teacher and visit the home of a student. On most instances, parents are very welcoming and you will end up having a very pleasant conversation where much of the talk is done by the parent ( not the teacher). We do not discuss test scores or any of the student's behavior issues but we have a chat about the family's backgrounds, what their hopes are for the child; the type of achievements that mom and dads are proud of, etc. I found this to be a very effective way to engage families.

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I recently read this article for another course and it really opened my eyes on how to engage in the classroom community. The acronym for civics has six values that affect anyone in a school environment from administrators, teachers, students, parents, and so on. By focusing on courage, inclusion, value, integrity, cooperation, and safety, teachers can bring people together.

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One of the enduring truths about teaching is that to teach children well, we have to know them: what they’re passionate about, what worries them, where they are in their development. So, if the most important adults in a child’s life were on the same page, working together toward the student’s success that would bridge the gap between home and school. Parent Teacher Home Visits build relationships, skills, and engagement for families, educators, and students from pre-K to 12th grade. Real relationships between home and school provides an all in support of our common goal, our scholars’ success.

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I would use this use by actually implementing it (with the whole school if possible). One of the easiest ways to show you care is to show up. How can we as teachers ask families and the community to be involved and present if we do not model or reciprocate the same thing? If we as a teacher or school go out into the very community that we are trying to be more present and active in our building, then we should first model and demonstrate that.

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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Parent and Community involvement consist of many components.  One component I am interested in is from the article on on the Getting Smart website titled 21 Tips for Connectiong Learners to Their  Community. I agree it is important to work with students in becoming responsible ctizens within their school and community.  As the article indicated learners can be encourage to develop links between charities and other community entities where students can have an impact.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TA1e2kz_adc

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Having parents come into the class to share about their cultural lineage, day to day practices, and overall funds of knowledge is a great way to create a better sense of cultural diversity and understanding in the classroom. This is something I did not think about prior to this module. Combining this practice with a "show and tell" could be a way to get the children involved and interested in learning about others' culture and family, as well as investigate their own family's culture and fund of knowledge. This project is an interesting approach to building a sense of cultural diversity that spans from the home into the school.

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Article pdf
The oral stories that are shared in families both reflect and build on a family's funds of knowledge, providing a potential connection for meaningful home/school partnerships. The Family Story Backpack research is part of a larger project to redesign early childhood teacher education called CREATE - Communities as Resources for Early Childhood Teacher Education ( www.createarizona.org). CREATE focuses on family, community and classrooms instead of only classrooms as often occurs in elementary education. These strands and key engagements are integrated across courses within a semester and across semesters so that courses share assignments with different aspects of the same assignment being completed in different courses. The family story backpacks are introduced in two courses, a children's literature course and a course on diversity. The following semester, early childhood preservice teachers bring this transportable curriculum into their student teaching settings to encourage the sharing of stories around themes significant to family storytelling. While most parent involvement programs focus on teaching parents to do school better, our work focuses on inviting the stories and knowledge that matter to families into the classroom.

The theoretical frame of our work is based in funds of knowledge and on story as a way of making meaning from our experiences (Moll, Gonzalez, & Amanti, 2005; Short, 2012). Stories are woven so tightly into the fabric of our everyday lives that it's easy to overlook their significance in framing how we think about ourselves and the world. They fill every part of our daily lives as we talk about events and people, read books and news reports, gossip, send text messages, listen to music, watch video clips, and catch up on a favorite television show. We live storied lives.

Stories are thus much more than a book or narrative--they are the way our minds make sense of our lives and world (Rosen, 1986). We work at understanding events and people by constructing stories to interpret what is occurring around us. In turn, these stories create our views of the world and the lens through which we construct meaning about ourselves and others. We also tell stories to make connections, form relationships, and create community with others. Story is a mode of knowing--one of the primary ways in which we think and construct meaning from our experiences. Story captures the richness and nuances of human life, accommodating the ambiguity and complexity of situations in the multiplicity of meanings inherent to any story (Carter, 1993).

Our views of the world are a web of interconnected stories; a distillation of all the stories we have shared. We connect to these interconnected past stories in order to understand new experiences. This web of stories becomes our interpretive lens for new experiences so that story is our means of constructing the world, making meaning of our lives, and creating funds of knowledge (Gottschall, 2012). The ways in which we create and tell stories are culturally-based.

Our human need to story our experiences may be universal but there is no one way to tell stories. Our stories are always intertextualized and interwoven with the stories that exist within our own cultures both in content and in the style and structure of the telling.
Research Methodology
We are examining a range of research questions within the broader CREATE project, examining funds of knowledge, family literacy, community, professional development, and collaboration across contexts within the broader frame of early childhood teacher education. The three of us are particularly interested in the role of story as a frame for coursework and experiences in early childhood classrooms and the ways in which a focus on story as funds of knowledge transforms how preservice teachers, classrooms teachers, and families think about their role in the lives of young children.

This study is one small piece of a much larger research study. In particular, the data focuses on 25 preservice teachers and their interactions with teachers, children and families in their student teaching classrooms around the family story backpacks. The family story backpacks area transportable curriculum designed to facilitate the sharing of stories within families. Grant funds were used to develop 9 different backpacks around themes significant to families+ such as bedtime rituals, the origin of names, birthday traditions, etc. and to purchase enough backpacks so that each student teacher could select 6 of the 9 backpacks to take to their student teaching classroom. Each student teacher set up a schedule so that 4-6 backpacks rotated among the families on a weekly basis. The backpacks each contained 3 books (1 informational concept book and 2 picture book stories), a related artifact, and a family story journal. The purpose of the artifact is to encourage families to share oral stories around the theme. They are also encouraged to share their stories and their experiences with the backpack in the family journal. The journals stay with the backpacks so that each family can read the previous family's journal entries.

Fall 2011 was the first time that we integrated the backpacks into the student teaching experience so our questions focused on the logistics and what was and was not effective as well as how the student teachers and teachers responded to the backpacks. We are interested in how families responded as well but our primary focus was initially on the engagement itself and understanding what was and was not effective.

Our research question was

♦ What are the perspectives of teachers and preservice teachers on implementing family story backpacks during K-2 student teaching?

We conducted focus group interviews with all of the student teachers that were transcribed and analyzed. Student teachers also completed individual written reflections and we interviewed four classroom teachers in their schools about the backpacks. This data was analyzed using constant comparative analysis to create categories that reflected their perspectives on these experiences. This data is from Fall 2011 but we are currently analyzing the data from Fall 2012 and some interesting patterns are emerging.
Research Findings
The first set of categories and examples indicate the teacher and student teacher perspectives on the value of the backpacks. The second set of categories reflects the types of understandings and negotiations needed by student teachers to effectively implement the backpacks in their student teaching classrooms. The final set of categories focus on the commitment and collaboration needed across participants and contexts.
Value of the backpacks
~ Provide knowledge and understanding for teachers about families and children

Learn about the stories that families share

Get to know the families and children in a different way

Creates a connection between home and school

Celebrate children and their families by reading through the journals

Learn how families interact at home

Useful for the family visit as a way to invite interaction with the family

Involves the family in the children's education and literacy

~ Gets books and stories into the homes and provides opportunities for interactions around literacy (deficit view of some families, confusion over purpose of backpacks)

Families feel valued by the school

Facilitates interaction among family members with child

Learned Spanish through reading the bilingual books

~ Provides connections for families

Told stories that the child did not know

Stories allowed them to share about people they miss

Some families find certain themes difficult due to family situations, beliefs.

~ Provides children with a feeling of being special and valued

Excited to be selected to take home the backpack

Want to share their family experiences/stories when they return the backpack

Understandings and Strategies of Student Teachers

~ Developing understandings of the purpose and role of the backpacks

Not able to respond to teachers; confusion over focus on reading skills

~ Developing an understanding of the student teaching context

Lacked knowledge of the students and the families in order to anticipate possible problems or the best ways to organize the experience for a particular community

~ Developing strategies for organizing, implementing, and interacting

Student teachers felt overwhelmed and unable to cope during full time teaching.

Not sure how to encourage children to talk about their experiences

~ Developing strategies for negotiation with university and with cooperating teacher

Student teachers were most successful explored alternatives to accomplish goals (e.g. different ways to brief-interview, special chair, show and tell, parent drop off)

Student teachers were not sure how to negotiate with teachers. Most don't ask questions or make suggestions to initiate negotiation. They were not aware that they could negotiate or were afraid they would offend if they did.

Students assumed the engagement could not be modified with instructors.

Requires commitment and collaboration at many different levels

~ Viewed as an assignment that student teachers do on their own by classroom teachers rather than a cooperative project between the teacher and student teacher

Teacher left decisions up to the student teacher and student teacher lacked knowledge of school and classroom and families to make decisions

~ Needed support by the university supervisors but they did not understand the project

~ Student teachers did not see the project as integrated into the university coursework and so felt it was not valued. Also needed time to reflect on the journals to understand them.

The analysis of our data led us to identify a range of obstacles that we needed to address in revising this experience to make it more effective for student teachers, teachers, and families. These obstacles included:

~ Teachers and Classroom

Teachers did not understand the project and did not provide support. Many thought the project was to teach reading rather than to encourage story.

Required the teacher to handle some of the logistics because student teachers were not in school in the afternoons

Teachers did not provide time for debriefing and scheduling if did not value engagement

Was not integrated into the university course so did not see the value, seemed like an extra assignment, felt that they were doing it to gather research data or as busywork, no time to reflect and see what was happening.

Need to see how this engagement is relevant to their teacher education program

Overwhelmed by the number of backpacks and the paperwork. Lack of time and ability to support it fully in the classroom

Not able to explain the purpose to teachers and families

Did not know kids and families well enough to decide who should get a backpack

Difficult during fall takeover because so much is new and out of control, very busy

Didn't know how to encourage the kids to tell more about their experiences when said "I don't know" or "It was fun" but nothing more.

Some classrooms had problems getting the backpacks back. Felt there were hassling the parents and creating negative relationships

Families not sure what to do with the backpacks and what to put in the journals

Not always someone to help the children at home

Several artifacts and themes were problematic for families

May not have pens, pencils, crayons, markers in home to write in journal

A stress for a few families due to time issues in that family

Conclusion
We believe that as teachers learn more about the knowledge that children bring to school, they are able to understand that children and their families are resources for the classroom and to challenge deficit views of children and families. However, this study also taught us that they need to value and attend to this knowledge and that the pressures of "doing school" and teaching children to read can so overwhelm their attention that they do not pay attention to the rich sources of funds of knowledge available in families. The data from this first experience with the family story backpacks led to major changes in the engagement this year, particularly in asking each student teacher to design a way for children to share individually or with the class when they brought back the backpacks. These changes did not resolve all of the issues but did make the experience more effective and successful. One constant tension is the realization of how difficult it is for teachers to shift their view from teaching families to valuing their stories and funds of knowledge. These teachers genuinely care about their students and families but have been socialized into a deficit view of families and literacy due to the pressure to attend to standards and raise test scores.

This experience has also shifted our views about the ways in which student teaching can become more of a co-learning experience for teachers and student teachers. The family story backpacks challenge some of the prevailing views of parent involvement and the role of families in classrooms and schools and have provided a point of dialogue and discussion that has been generative across school, university and home contexts.

Carter, K. (1993). The place of story in the study of teaching and teacher education. Educational Researcher, 22(1), 5-12.

Gottschall, J. (2012). The storytelling animal: How stories make us human. Boston: Houghton

Mifflin.

González, N., Moll, L., and Amanti, C. (2005). Funds of knowledge: Theorizing practices in

households, communities, and classroom s. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Rosen, H. (1986). Stories and meanings. London: NATE.

Short, K. (2012). Story as world-making. Language Arts, 90(1), 9-17.

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﻿﻿Connecting to Funds of Knowledge through Story: Family Story Backpacks

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Article pdf The oral stories that are shared in families both reflect and build on a family's funds of knowledge, providing a potential connection for meaningful home/school partnerships. The Family Story Backpack research is part of a larger project to redesign early childhood teacher education called CREATE - Communities as Resources for Early Childhood Teacher Education ( www.createarizona.org).

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I think parent involvement is critical to the success of our students and plays a large role in our students’ and schools’ academic achievements. Unfortunately, parents and family members are either too afraid to become involved or do not become involved due to cultural misunderstanding, language barriers, and the feeling that their involvement is unwelcome or unnecessary. For this reason, I find it important for teachers to meet with families of diverse backgrounds. By communicating with parents, teachers gain greater insight on the social experiences of the parents and learn about their students’ culture and background. During this time, teachers can also ask parents how their child learns best and ask how they can help to provide a positive learning and school experience for both the student and family. The link below provides additional approaches for promoting the relationship of teachers and families of diverse backgrounds.

https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/welcoming-families-of-different-cultures/

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Since we covered quite a few ways to have community and parent involvement, I decided to share the link below with the class since a good amount of us haven't started teaching yet. The link is for first year teachers and gives you 3 simple ways to encourage community involvement in the school. Though they were covered in the module, I believe this article makes it more realistic for those who haven't been teaching yet. The thought of making sure that there is enough community involvement can be intimidating, but this article makes it feasible for us first year teachers. Civic support, parent volunteers, and local business are great ways to start first.

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3 Easy Ways First-Year Teachers Can Encourage Community Involvement in Their School

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Teachers are often the first line of defense when it comes to their students overall well-being. Academics aside, teachers have a big responsibility to students, both legally and ethically. So how can teachers involve other people outside their profession to enrich the lives and academic success of their students?

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Inviting guest speakers is a great way to bring the real world into your classroom. If you have previous knowledge of what your student's parents do for a living, you can ask them to come in to speak to the class when the topic relates to their job. This would be exciting for the students and also allow them to learn about things outside the classroom. It also allows the students to realize that what they are learning inside the classroom is relevant in every day life.

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Younger children love the "make believe" of pretending to be grown up. Teens who are less interested in school may respond to a dose of "real life" reality.

No matter how old your students are, here are a few ways to bring the real world into to your classroom this school year:
Invite Guest Speakers
Bring in a guest speaker who works in a field connected to what you're studying. An English teacher may get new levels of effort if her students realize that writing essays can prepare them to be a journalist that reviews videos games or interviews famous people. And math teachers who constantly get asked, "Why do I need to know this?" may benefit from introducing an architect, computer programmer, or scientist who uses math on a regular basis.
Practice "Real World Research"
Adults do research all the time, though we may not call it that. We want to take a vacation, throw a party, or make a major purchase, and we research our options before making a decision. Use that same pattern of behavior with your students. If you're teaching geography, have students plan a trip to the country you're studying. They'll want to know about the weather and the best historical sites to visit before they go - and they'll learn about the country in a fun way. In math class, have students plan a fund raising event for a cause they believe in. They'll have to make sure their expenses don't surpass their income, and their math skills will play an important role.

This term is familiar to social studies teachers; it means a document, photograph, etc, that was created at the time being studied. For example, the Declaration of Independence is a primary source document. Some primary source materials will be too difficult for younger children, but keep in mind that the Diary of Anne Frank and the Little House on the Prairie books are primary source materials, too. These documents can make history come alive!
Observe the World Around You
Teach your students how to conduct a scientific observation by taking them out to the playground to observe the plants, birds overhead, or ants on the ground. Better yet, bring in a well-trained dog or cat and have students observe its behavior. The students will be thrilled to have an animal in the classroom and will be more attentive because of the novelty. If you teach English, use the same process but have students write a descriptive passage about what they observed - a great way to reinforce adjectives and adverbs.
Ask Older Students to "Be the Expert"
Have students evaluate something they read as if they were an expert in the field. For example, if they were psychiatrists, what would they say about Oedipus or Macbeth? Are they sane? If not, what kind of disorder or mental illness do they have? Provide students with real scientific information to help them "diagnose" the characters, and if possible, bring in a psychiatrist to talk about it. This exposes students to different career fields and areas of study and puts a unique spin on the old book report.

Skip the "if Train A leaves at 9 a.m. ..." problems and make your own. Bring in advertisements from the newspaper and tell students: "Joey gets $10 week for his allowance and he really wants one of the newest video games. Pick out a game from the ads and figure out how many weeks Joey will have to save his allowance in order to pay for the game." The same thing can be done with clothes, electronics, or anything else your students really want.
Use the News
Find ways to use news stories to make connections between your curriculum and the real world. For example, some news outlets have recently done follow-up stories on Hurricane Katrina, which hit four years ago. Reading about the storm can make a great connection for younger students studying hurricanes or for older students who might be reading books that discuss issues of poverty, racism, etc. These stories can help students recognize that the concepts they learn about in the classroom really do affect the outside world.

You can also dip into the latest news and pop culture with TeachHUB's Pop Culture Student Activities. Check them out!

Instead of having students write the same type of essay or report every week, find some assignments that can use the formats and structures they might use in the adult world: a want ad, a memo, a business letter, etc. Even younger students can manage this if you give them a pre-formatted document and just have them fill in the blanks. Of course students still need to write essays, but it doesn't hurt to vary it up once in a while, and it teaches students useful skills for later in life.

Of course, TVs should be used sparingly in the classroom. But sometimes the most effective way to bring in the real world is to show it, especially if you can show students something they couldn't possibly see in your local community. Nature documentaries or historical footage are two perfect examples.

Every week, we post a new Video Writing Prompt based on the latest news or hit video that may help.

Simulations require planning and preparation, but they can be extremely effective. After your students read Lord of the Flies, put the boys on trial for the death of Piggy. Ask them to serve as lawyers, jury, etc; have them dress appropriately, provide evidence, give opening and closing arguments.

If they're reading a mystery, have them recreate (within reason) the scene of the crime and conduct a physical investigation. Or have them start their own country in your social studies class. What laws would they create? How would they govern their country? Once they've made their decisions, compare their process to what actually happened when the U.S. was founded.
Bring in "Celebrity Judges" or "Celebrity Coaches"
Reality TV offers one useful idea for the classroom: celebrity judges. Bring in professionals to help students evaluate or revise their work on a major assignment or project. This will take some effort on your part to recruit enough "judges," but it can have a tremendous pay-off, especially with older students. When a student realizes his grammar mistakes might cost him a job or a math student understands her miscalculation could make a building collapse, they see their homework in a new light.

With the Internet and today's computers, sharing your work with the world has never been easier. Choose a topic that will interest your community: for example, a collection of stories about local history or a research assignment on the prevalence of litter, graffiti, or another problem in your community. Have students do the research and write up their findings, then determine how to "publish" the information.

You might create a class blog, which you control, for the community to read. You might have students work together to create a handout or flyer that can be distributed in the community. If you have sufficient room in your budget, you could even self-publish a book of your students' work. Students should then have the opportunity to receive feedback from the community on their findings, whether informally as they pass out the flyers or through a formal feedback process that you control. If students know their work will be shared beyond the school's borders, they have a new reason to work harder.

Whichever approach you try, incorporating the larger world into your classroom is guaranteed to be a memorable experience for you and your students.
How do you bring the real world into your classroom? Share in the comments section!

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12 ways to bring the real world into your classroom

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Top 12 Ways to Bring the Real World into Your Classroom

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Younger children love the "make believe" of pretending to be grown up. Teens who are less interested in school may respond to a dose of â€œreal lifeâ€ reality. No matter how old your students are, here are a few ways to bring the real world to your class

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This is one of the examples of how I connect families and Chinese learning together. I'll first teach students how to say the dishes that they would like to have for their birthday party in Chinese, then they will finish this paper and share with each other (in Chinese if possible), at last they are going to bring this paper home and share with their families (in Chinese if possible).

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I would describe this picture as a depiction of the funds of knowledge idea. I believe this is a time when teachers become the learners. They make efforts to know their students and the families of their students in new ways. By doing so, teachers can learn family experiences, social practices, and social history. They do so by visiting households or gathering information to understand the knowledge base of students in the household context. It is important to understand student life experiences, and daily practices and routines of families so these teachers can provide culturally responsive and meaningful lessons that can help students ignite their prior knowledge.