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One strategy I would like to explore to connect my future ELLs and their families would be a weekly newsletter. I find this option to be such an easy and great way to communicate what is happening in the classroom and school itself. We know it is not always possible to attend events or meetings with parents, so I find this to be a great alternative. Another thing I would like to add would be a questionnaire for parents to fill out and send back with their students to further get to know their family and their values. One challenge I can see for me would be making sure I can accommodate to my ELLs needs in the classroom.

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A strategy I would use to connect with ELs and the communities they belong to is to ensure that students and parents alike will feel welcome within the school. In order to prevent students and parents from feeling like outsiders, it's important for teachers to consistently reach out to parents to ask them what they or their children need to feel supported. If students' parents are in the process of learning English themselves, the language barrier between them and their children's teachers shouldn't ever discourage them from reaching out. During practicum this semester, my mentor teacher told me that she relies on an app called ClassDojo to communicate with her students' parents, because it translates their messages and their students' parents' messages to their native languages. She also told me a lot about the very diverse linguistic and cultural demographics within her classroom, and in the school, as a whole. As a future teacher, being conscious of the wide variety of backgrounds my students come from and finding ways to best accommodate them is incredibly important for me when trying to forge a bond between my students, their parents, and I.

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One strategy I would like to try inside of my future classroom is sending home a weekly newsletter that discusses what we completed in class that weeks, what achievements were made, and what the upcoming week holds. We know that connecting families with the school is linked to student success and positive outcomes so I want to make sure those connections are made regardless of a language/cultural barrier. An issue I could see myself running into is ensuring that the letter is readable to foreign language speakers. I can use an online translator or try to speak the language in a video so parents who may not be able to read could still be aware of what is going on inside our classroom and can have the option of being involved in class activities like field trips and excursions.

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If I were trying to connect with my ELS with their families/communities....I would maybe grab from the mapping idea that we did in class by asking students to draw things that are familiar to them or remind them of home. Opening up google maps could provide them with a starting visual and could work in a learning lesson about neighborhoods and surrounding areas as well. Something we often do in art classes are "gallery walks" where you walk around and look at the classes work which could evoke a strong sense of community as well.
I think a big challenge with this could be if students dont have great memories of "home"....this could possibly trigger unwanted emotions. So as a teacher I would need to be mindful of this.

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Something that I've been thinking about for a long time now is how I might be able to combine my passion for baking with my passion for teaching. Since 9th grade I've been working in various bakeries and even now there's still something magical about the act of making bread. Working with dough is a highly-physical activity, and kids seem to love playing with it. I think that it would be really cool to have a bake sale or just a baking unit, and because baked goods are delicious, I think that this will also be a great way to meet and get to know the people in my students' lives. I think that my biggest challenge is going to be finding a space and time where this can be done, and there may be some legal issues surrounding children being in a kitchen or handling raw dough.

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A strategy I would like to use from the Knight and Gilpatrick article is preparing a long-term plan for ELL parental involvement. I really liked this strategy that encourages using community organizations and service's to connect with and support ELL student's and their families. When we looked at our school's community maps, I noticed my school had many local community center's that were located close to my school with services for student's and families. One challenge I could possibly see is planning schedules to meet with ELL families to discuss long-term plans due to outside factors such as work conflicts, and making sure times to meet works for every student's family.

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Building a good relationship with parents can be done in many ways such as conferences, letters home, and general weekly communication. However, the small moments also add to those relationships. Something as simple as standing outside at pick up to talk to the parents who drive their kids. Also trying to learn about the students' siblings creates an even better bond and understanding of the family dynamic. Being available and approachable is the best strategy to build good communication with parents and families. Something i might struggle with is creating a solid relationship (of some extent) with all of the families.

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I really like the Knight and Gilpatrick strategy of preparing a long-term plan for ELL parental involvement. Keeping parents in the education system should be a long-term goal to best benefit the students involved. I think the biggest challenge might be resources. Depending on where I am, the area might not have any sort of community center/program for the families to relate to. In this case, families might feel "othered" and not want to engage with the school community.

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I think one of the best way to connect with students' community is to go out into the community and for students to learn about the history of their neighborhood. Teaching history in Philadelphia offers so many chances for students to connect to their community, because every neighborhood has its own historical impact on the city. My biggest challenge would be maintaining relationships while also trying to balance work and life.

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I think getting to know students one on one is a very good way to connect with ELs, their communities and families. This can be done through involving families, forming personal relationships through after school activities, and simply reaching out. The hardest aspect of this would probably be maintaining these relationships.

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I loved the class activity where we pulled up a map of the surrounding area around the schools we were placed at. There were a number of places that could offer an engaging learning oppourtunity like a Muslim Center, cemetery, and animal shelter. I think field trips like these are important for students to use language outside of the classroom and also learn new language as well. A challenge may be connecting it to an art project as this is my area of study.

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One strategy to connect with ELs and their communities that I would like to explore is getting involved with extracurricular activities. Whether it's showing up to an important basketball game, forming a debate club, or just asking them how an activity went/is going. I think taking interest in students' interests is a good way to show that you care, and potentially a time to interact with or meet parents. A potential challenge would be students asking you to show up to EVERY extracurricular activity, which is impossible. As with any facet of teacher-student relationships, striking the balance between cold and warm is all about establishing boundaries.

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Something that I think is a good first step, especially in schools like the ones I've been in for practicum this year, is learning a bit about the population of the school/area you're teaching in. For example, at the school I am at now for fieldwork, a lot of students speak Portuguese and come from Brazil. In an attempt to make a better connection, it would make sense to try and focus on educating yourself a little about this place/culture/ and some key phrases in this language!

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I think it is really important to make sure that the students parents feel like they are included in their kids learning from the beginning. Making sure that there are different opportunities and multiple different ways for parents to get involved since everyone has a different schedule. I think that while this is a great way to do it it also can come with its problems. You need to make sure that you also have the time to implement this. Depending on class size and the amount of parents it could be difficult.

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I would like to explore connecting with ELLs’ families. I think that it is a really important way in understanding your students and getting your students to be more engaged with the class/material. The biggest challenge I think will be class size/the amount of student I see. Since I am an art teacher it will be hard to connect individually with all families since I will be working with all students across grades.

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I really liked a lot of the strategies in the Knight and Gilpatrick reading for this week. I think the two that are most important are connecting immediately and I would try to read out to all parents at the beginning of the school year. The second part that I think is really important is giving parents an opportunity to come into the school after school hours. I think that working with parents on their schedules and allowing them to come in and see where their students are learning is very helpful with keeping parents involved in their child's learning. It also allows parents to come in and bring their student to translate for them if need be.

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I think it is important for parents to feel welcomed into the classroom in order to support their children's learning. Module 14's video is a great way to engage the parents of English- Language Learners. This method improves communication and helps the parents understand what/ how their kids are learning, which makes it easier to help them.

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Personally, I would like to explore the idea of incorporating family involvement into classroom lessons as it was shown in the "Engaging Parents of English Language Learners" video. I like how there was a sense of community in the classroom with all the parents and how the parents were able to see what students were learning first-hand. The biggest challenge this could face is actually getting the parents to be involved in their childrens' classroom education. Parents may be too busy working to spend time in the classroom or as an educator, it may be difficult to reach out to each student's parents depending on everyone's hectic work schedule.