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Hello!
My name is Jenny (Evgenia) Karoumpali. I am
I teach music in public schools (both in primary & secondary education) since 1998.
This school term I tech music in the three primary schools of Aitoliko, Aitolia & Akarnania, Greece. This is the first time I teach in these particular primary schools, therefore I get to know now with the school context (in Greece the lessons started on Septempber, 11th).
I hope that this course will help me to expand my knowledge with regard to the parents' engagement in schools, so that parental engagement would be more effective than it is now.
I think that more work should be done on parental engagement in schools. There are parents (especially in primary education) who become manipulative when it comes to their engagement in school, which is not effective at all. On the other hand there are parents whose attitude toward their children's learning at school is indifferent (especially in secondary education), which is not effective either. It is common practice that the parental engagement of pupils with problems (either with their learning process or with their behaviour) is poor (especially in secondary education, whereas this should not happen.

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1.1. What is your reason for joining this course and learning about effective parental engagement? Or what triggered your interest in the topic and the course? Reflect on your own motivation to participate in the course and based on this, identify some concrete goals for yourself. What is it that you want to achieve through the course? What do you hope to change? 

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1.1. What is your reason for joining this course and learning about effective parental engagement? Or what triggered your interest in the topic and the course? Reflect on your own motivation to participate in the course and based on this, identify some concrete goals for yourself. What is it that you want to achieve through the course? What do you hope to change? 

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I joined this course, because I find thqt parental engagement in schools is not always effective. A substantial amount of colleagues and I have tries in the past to collaborate with parents but this sometimes has not worked (especially with parents of migrant and Rom pupils). On the other hand it is not easy at all to manage manipulative parents (such parents are found more often in primary education): these parents suggest teachers that they sould teach / act / work / treat their child/children in a particular way.
There are also parents, who seem indifferent to their children's school life. The majority of these parents have children who have difficulties either in their learning process or in their behaviour.
In 2007 I attended a course with the same topic in Patras, Greece (in the local Regional Training Center, the official in-service course provider in Greece). I have expanded my knowledge with regard to this issue, but I think that I have to expand even more my knowledge.I hope that this course will help me to manage manipulative and indifferent parents in a more effective way than I used to.

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2.1 What are your favourite ways of communicating online (generally, not necessary with parents

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2.1 What are your favourite ways of communicating online (generally, not necessary with parents

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My favourite way of online communication is  social media (especially facebook). Sometimes I use skype as well.

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2.3Have you experienced situations where the communication and relationship with parents was difficult due to different socio-economic/cultural/language backgrounds? How did you deal with it?

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2.3Have you experienced situations where the communication and relationship with parents was difficult due to different socio-economic/cultural/language backgrounds? How did you deal with it?

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During the school terms 1998-1999 I had migrant pupils, whose parents did not speak Greek (the schools' language) at all. The pupils played the role of the translators when the teachers (included myself) contacted with parents.
During the school terms 2001-2002 I was at a school, where a local dialect was spoken both by pupils and parents. Both pupils and parents undrestood perfectly what I said but I had difficulties in undrestanding them, despite the fact that all fo us spoke the same language (Greek). Now I undrestand this local dialect much better than I used to.
The past 3-4 school terms I have Roma pupils. I have difficulties in the communication with some parents (not all of them). These parents showed up in the school very rarely. I do not know whether is the language or their different background the reason for their absence from school life. I had no difficulties in the communication with Roma parents who are musicians, as I teach music,

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Optional Action Plan Peer Review Activity

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Optional Action Plan Peer Review Activity

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Parental Engagement Action Plan Template  Jenny Karoumpali

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Module 3. Briefly share a positive experience working with parents.

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Module 3. Briefly share a positive experience working with parents.

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I talk often to my pupils about artists (singers, song composers etc) who have been active 10-30 years ago. In this case I suggest my pupils that they should ask more information about those artists to their parents, as parents possibly have listened to that music when they were adoloscents. Parents are happy to share such an experience with their children.

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3.1. What kind of opportunities exist at your school or as part of your classes? Do you have a register of parents with information about their interests, skills, time for joining your work in the classroom? Do you organize regular parent fairs where parents act as the audience for students’ work? What opportunities have you created or could you create to let parents become a pedagogical value to your work with students? 

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3.1. What kind of opportunities exist at your school or as part of your classes? Do you have a register of parents with information about their interests, skills, time for joining your work in the classroom? Do you organize regular parent fairs where parents act as the audience for students’ work? What opportunities have you created or could you create to let parents become a pedagogical value to your work with students? 

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In Greece there is information about parents’ job alone. There is no official information about their interests, skills etc registered at school. A teacher can be informed inofficially about parents’ interests, skills etc by another colleague who lives in the same neighbourhood with the parents.

Three or four weeks after the beginning of lesson at schools parents meetings are organized by most of the teachers. At these meetings parents are informed about the learning procedure and school rules. They do not sign any contract between them and the school.

Parents can see the (artistic) work of their children during the school celebrations (which are organized during the national anniversaries, Christmas and summer). Parents attend these school celebrations more often in primary education than in secondary education. I have never experienced fair, where parents act as an audience of their children’s work in maths, language or other subjects. I have experienced charity fairs organized in December (before Christmas holidays) where the artistic work of the pupils, the teachers or even the parents is sold for charity reasons. These charity fairs take place more often in primary education than in secondary education.

I sent a letter to the parents in order to inform them about the pedagogical value of my work, when I work in primary education, as during the parents meetings I am not available usually (I teach in another classroom, in another school etc.).

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3.3. Do your experiences echo some of the issues outlined by Eszter? Share some stories of involving parents in your activities where things didn’t quite work out as planned, and how did you deal with it? What advice would you give to colleagues now to avoid such situations? If you have never involved parents in your educational activities, what is your main concern and how do you plan to address this?

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3.3. Do your experiences echo some of the issues outlined by Eszter? Share some stories of involving parents in your activities where things didn’t quite work out as planned, and how did you deal with it? What advice would you give to colleagues now to avoid such situations? If you have never involved parents in your educational activities, what is your main concern and how do you plan to address this?

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I have never involved parents in my activities in he classroom neither in primary education nor in secondary education. My main concern is that some parents could be overwhelming  and manipulative (in primary education) and that pupils are not willing to such an action on accounts of the adolescence (in secondary education).

Nevertheless, I take advantage of parents’ experience in projects. I suggest pupils  that they should ask their parents about a variety of issues (eg. What music parents listen to, in order to discern the differences of music preferences between parents and children etc)

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Optional Lesson Plan Peer Review Activity

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Optional Lesson Plan Peer Review Activity

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Listening to music is a favourite pastime activity of the teenagers. Therefore the exploration of the musical preferences is interesting for teenagers. Not only the adolesences but also their parents listen to music, parents could be useful for the exploration of the musical preferences.

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Module 4. Please share any negative experiences you have had of working with parents. Of course please refrain from personal references such as names of parents and students.

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Module 4. Please share any negative experiences you have had of working with parents. Of course please refrain from personal references such as names of parents and students.

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Most of my negative experiences I have had from working with parents come from primary education.

In primary education I have experienced few parents who complained in a very rude way about my work in class (why I taught the x,y or z song whereas I should have taught another song instead. I asked them to put arguments on their opinion based on the current curriculum and the science of music education. They answered nothing and then I explained them (in a very strict way) the aims etc of my teaching according to the current curriculum and the science of music education.

I have also experienced parents who complain about their children’s grade in music both in primary (more often)  and in secondary education (more rarely).

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4.1 Bringing learning into the familiesDo you agree with the ideas and examples shared by Eszter and Maria? What other strategies, actions, can we take as teachers to bring the joy of learning into families? How can we as teachers facilitate family and student learning by helping our students “teach” at home? 

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4.1 Bringing learning into the familiesDo you agree with the ideas and examples shared by Eszter and Maria? What other strategies, actions, can we take as teachers to bring the joy of learning into families? How can we as teachers facilitate family and student learning by helping our students “teach” at home? 

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I like very much the example shared by Eszter. The parents’ encouragement at home is very helpful to the learning of their children, especially when it comes to low-educated parents. Those parents might have had negative experiences from their own schooling, and these negative experiences do not help them to encourage their own children’s learning.

The organization of a meeting with parents (guided by a psychologist / social worker), where parents should realize the worth of their children’s encouragement despite their own (possible) negative experiences of their own schooling, is a excellent idea.

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4.2 Home visitsHave you conducted home visits yourself? What advice would you have to make them a success? Some good practices are outlined in the first video above but what other things should we be aware of or do when conducting such visits? If you have never done such visits, what would be your greatest concern? What type of support would you be looking for? 

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4.2 Home visitsHave you conducted home visits yourself? What advice would you have to make them a success? Some good practices are outlined in the first video above but what other things should we be aware of or do when conducting such visits? If you have never done such visits, what would be your greatest concern? What type of support would you be looking for? 

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I have never conducted home visits myself as the current legislation in Greece does not suggest it as a means of communication between school and parents. If I had to conduct a home visit, I would rather do it with a social worker. My teacher training has not to do with how to conduct home visits, whereas a social worker’s training includes this issue. Therefore I believe that a home visit of mine with a social worker would be more effective.

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Altough I have been working in state education in Greece (both in primary education and in secondary education) since 1998 I have never heard of teachers' home visits in a formal context. In rural places (more often) it is not impossible that a teacher might visit a pupil's house but this visit is informal (this visit is not organised by the school at all) and the context of the visit is rather social (the teacher might be a friend or relative with pupil's parents) than educative.

There is no legislation in Greece which encourages teachers to pupils' home visits.