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It is my strength because of who I am in the school, what I teach (ELD), where I live, and who I teach. Working with students who are learning a second language gives me the opportunity to work with families closely. I interact with families often in person via phone or messages. Also, because the community is small they know who I am and I know who they are. Competency 1 is my strength because I am relational, understand their families because we share the same culture and language. We also have empathy and respect for each other. I value who my students are and their families are and what they do to support their children. I feel very lucky to be able to have reciprocal relationships with the families of support. The families I work with are welcome, friendly, and they are there for their students.

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My school and I need to grow on Competency 5:

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This school year I have been intentional in creating learning opportunities that extend outside of the classroom, but even with my school and I have a long way to go. I do use their funds of knowledge to teach them new content, and this year I am facilitating lessons where students write to parents. Still, the connections feel shallow and not genuine, which might be because I work at the regular high school and alternative high school or maybe because I feel like I could do more, but I am not. Any home-school connections can create more engaging lessons and this could lead to better grades, and motivation from the students.

As a parent I want to be involved with my son and his education. Currently, he is in 9th grade and any home connection could benefit our relationship, and his view of school now and in the future. At times when the curriculum do not align what they are doing with home connections then it becomes challenging for the teachers to plan such activities/connections. Home-school connections need to be reinforced and encouraged by administration, and provide resources for the teachers to make it happen. Even though home-school connections could be as easy as inviting families to come in to the classroom to teach students something this vision of what it can look like and its benefits needs to be passed down to the teachers.

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Competency 8: Advocate for Systems of Change

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Most Powerful Competency I want my School to Embrace

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Most Powerful Competency I want my School to Embrace

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I would love for my school to have circles/meetings where parents and their students come along with teachers and administrators to speak about what is going well and what needs to be worked on, improved on, and called out. I would love it if educators, parents, and students create proposals to improve little or big things that impact them and do more, or less of the things that hinder or improve their learning. It really feels that just a handful of people are making decisions that benefit them, and the people that need to speak up and be there are not present, therefore their voices are not heard.
We need to support families and students, hear them, and understand what is what they want for their student and support them in the path.

In my school if you know of the resources and what they school has to offer then you are part of the "in group." This means you immediate have more advantage than the "out group." Information and support is not shared with equity, nor resources. We can do more. Our leaderships can be more inclusive, involved, and supportive in order to champion equity.

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I have seen how some of the events or programs that schools offer became a check on the box, because just a thing that they offer, when it could be something more strategically plan to reach the community it serves better.

If school are providing family engagement after looking at the core competencies, then how they ensure that what they are providing is what families want or need, not just a check on the box?

One question that arises is about administrators leading, if they do not know of this resource (Family Engagement Core Competencies) or is not a priority for them or the particular school, then how would they fund for this to happen well? I think most people know about the benefits of family engagement, but like the article stated, "Without an underlying set of guiding competencies, preparing for and teaching family engagement becomes haphazard and siloed" (p.3). I think this is what is happening in my school. Family engagement is low or non-existent in school (unless you are in the in-group). So, what is the vision of administrators to make family engagement a non-negotiable practice and how do they evaluate it?

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After doing the self-assessment I realized that there are things my school does well, and others that they don't. Is there a model school that scored high in the reflection? The reason is because they are neither school nor district priorities. As an aspiring administrator myself, I will save this tool to talk about it with my mentor and have a dialogue about what we can do now to improve family engagement so when it is my turn lead I will have strategies, tools, and resources to make family engagement part of the norm at the high school.

One more thought that I have is that what I think as a strength, growth area, and something I want my school to embrace is according to my perspective, experiences, and biases. If someone else from my school would have done this reflection, they might of pick other choices.