Challenges of involving parents in educational activities by Teacher Academy

Margherita

marghe_ian74 — 2017-10-09 12:10:33 UTC

I often tried to involve parents in my activities, but not in the classroom. For example in the afternoon or in the evening or at the end of the year. The most important difficult is the number of the parents who really want to be involved: they often say they are too busy or they are not interested in school's projects. In particular it's impossible to involve the parents who don't understand our language, even if you try to help them in every ways.

Selma Rego, Portugal

selma_rego — 2017-10-09 13:33:23 UTC

I have already had parents who had committed to participate in an activity with the students not attending. Well, what I did was contact other parents who could replace them. Sice then, whenever I program something with parents, I do it in a way that allways has a few substitutes planned.

Vasiliki Psaridou/Greece

psaridou — 2017-10-09 14:38:23 UTC

One mistake I madin my early career years was the fact that I didn't communicate a meeting correctly. Some years ago we had invited a psychiatrist in school to talk about borders in a child's behavior. Unfortunately very few parents came because a lot of them thought that the expert would have talked specificaly about their children. We had to

Maja Hadžić,

2017-10-09 15:20:30 UTC

Maja Hadžić, Serbia

2017-10-09 15:20:30 UTC

I teach English in a primary school. I have never had a parent in my lessons. There are only few parents who would know how to evaluate the lesson or contribute to it. I encourage students and parents to regularly take a look at school project activities I do with students. This year I plan to involve parents in school projects.

Maria Calà, Italy

ilacrisere — 2017-10-09 15:30:54 UTC

Involving parents in pre-school activities is very profitable, so they are a help and example for their children in learning in all its various forms. I do not agree with their direct involvement in the cents, as their criticisms are often not constructive and the controversy may harm the teaching work.

Laura Pagnozzi,Italy

2017-10-09 15:57:59 UTC

I think involving parents in class during activities might be constructive if the parent really can support your child, and do not embarrass it in front of your comrades. The presence of the parent is sometimes suffocating, they want high grades and often criticize the work of the teacher, even though they do not know what is going on in the classroom. The parents of children with difficulty are often more involved in the school life of their children.

Carol (Italy)

carol_f — 2017-10-09 16:02:32 UTC

I teach in a secondary school and our school rules and regulations don’t allow families to take part in activities in the classroom. We just collaborate for laboratory activities.

Christina, Greece

crest_lou — 2017-10-09 17:01:35 UTC

My colleagues and I have noticed that children behave in a bad manner when their parents are present in school excursions or celebrations. They don't listen to them and that's the problem! Parents should put their limits and increase their efficacy in parenting in order to be prepared for engagement in student learning.

Adriana T

adritoderic — 2017-10-09 18:06:05 UTC

The challenge I came up to-I invited some of our parents to present a lesson to the class. It was a great experience, and now the parents see the theaching process in a diffrent, positive way.

Adriana

adryanaanton — 2017-10-09 19:18:01 UTC

I try to keep my parents as close as possible to school

Patrick UK

patrick_carroll — 2017-10-09 19:23:01 UTC

As Eszter mentions above, we had parents who came into school to support the class but wanted to work mainly with their child and the friends of their child. They were also clear with who they felt they shouldn't work with. As a school we set out our expectations and explained that whilst the support was very welcome equality was more important. This frank discussion actually worked and the parent got to recognise that those who she had heard stories about were not the troublemakers she had assumed them to be. It also opened her eyes about some others.

Matilde, Portugal

matildecasaca — 2017-10-09 21:52:57 UTC

My parents are familiar with my invitation in the beginning of the school year to participate in my classes. They give support to their children in the classroom and pupils teach their parents. I started this type of engagement when I participated in a Comenius project. Parents worked with me a lot planning all the activities.
In the picture we can see some mothers at school preparing delicious sweets for one of our parties!

Joana Almeida, Portugal

2017-10-10 10:17:45 UTC

It is clear that parental involvement entails certain difficulties, such as those mentioned by Mrs Eszter, in particular in the organization of the Fair of Saint Martin, where some parents only cared about the activity to organize with their child and did not attend the fair on the day of the activity , showing that they are only focused on their child and not on the collective work of the class. However, the characterization of the provenance of the group group (activity proposed to the students and parents), carrying out the survey of special or iconic land places, for the etwinning project that I developed with my classes in the last school year, run well because it was clearly explained to students and parents the intended objectives.
I think that in any situation we can have good results or less good, although we try to minimize the chances of being unsuccessful (following some of the advice left), because it also depends on others and how the other faces the school, the teacher, learning and values our work as a teacher.

Despoina Amarantidou, Greece

damarant — 2017-10-10 12:38:25 UTC

When students are taught the unit of professions parents are invited to come and take part in interviews and discussions.

Vicky Archondi, Greece

vicky_archondi — 2017-10-10 16:33:50 UTC

To be honest, I have never actively involve parents in my projects' presentation simply because the majority of them tend to be pretty strong-minded and overwhelming and have received no official training as to what is expected from them in such cases

Adérito

2017-10-10 17:05:58 UTC

I don´t take parents to classroom to avoid problems

Dimita, Brussels

2017-10-10 17:34:53 UTC

I believe that when they decide to involve in school, parents need to feel at ease. So, the teachers have to create a family-friendly environment in the classroom, welcoming the parents who want to participate in activities in or out of class. They need to show them they value their time, giving clear explanations of what they expect from them, so that the parents can have a clear idea on the nature and their role in each activity. In this way we avoid having unexpected results and embarrassed teachers or parents wondering “what went wrong”.

Parents’ involvement in school activities must be accompanied by frequent and transparent communication between teachers and parents. Teachers have to be open to questions, concerns and they need to be eager to explain, give clear instructions and support. They should be able to guide and coordinate in a friendly and respectful way.

It is a good practice to invite parents to share their expertise. For example, if we're talking about teeth care, we can invite a parent dentist to make that science topic real to students. If we're talking about culture, we can invite parents who are from outside the country to share elements of their cultural background.

IULIANA LINEA, ROMANIA

iuliana_linea — 2017-10-10 19:05:03 UTC

I believe that it is very important to involve parents in school's life. Unfortunatelly, sometimes parents forget their role and overcome it, they life under the impression that they know everything and they have all the answers to the school's problems. Nowadays, the trend is to think that education can be done by every parents. I consider that teachers must involve parents in school's activities , but parents have to keep their parental role and not to become the teacher, to replace the teacher.

Giorgia, Romania

giorgiagroza — 2017-10-10 19:14:37 UTC

Of course, the role of the parent in school life is very important, but sometime they forget to call or to come at the school to see how their children is handle it. Unfortunately, the presence of the parents during the classes is forbiden

Adriana Miranda - Oiã, Aveiro, Portugal

2017-10-10 20:12:02 UTC

I think all of us, as teachers, anytime in our carer, have experience some of the issues outlined by Eszter. I will never forget a bad experience I have a few years ago at a school where I was having a parents’ meeting to solve some behaviour problems. While was speaking, one of the parents started to raise his voice saying that his kid was brilliant, had nothing to do with those kinds of problems,… and started to refer some of the other’s kids behaviour. Without any further notice everyone stated to shoot and it was a completed mess. They only stopped because one of the students, that was also in the meeting said to other colleges, “This is what we used to do in classes. At this point everyone keeps quiet. I didn’t need to do nothing, because parents realized what the problem was. After this, I never have a parents’ meeting to talk about students behave. I usually speak with them individually and only with the parents who have kids involved.

Helena Pires

hcpires — 2017-10-10 22:28:10 UTC

I have no experiences with parents that did not go well ... all the activities they came to do in my classes went well. However I went as a mother to give a class to the class where my 11 year old son was and it was strange because he raised his finger to answer my question and other students too, so I was a little "stumped" because I did not want to choose my son!

Vanesa

2017-10-11 05:27:08 UTC

Christos, GREECE

2017-10-11 07:42:19 UTC

In point of view I try to work with all parents. Once before some years I had a student whose father came to school and demanded to take special care for his son because he was the most valuable member of my class. I polite ask him not to involve so much in class affairs because he hadn't the view of the class i had. Eventually and after many meetings he was percuated that the class was in the right position for his son.

I've got lucky till now. All my parents are happy to partecipate in the activities that we activate at school.

2017-10-11 08:43:56 UTC

Maria Duarte

2017-10-11 08:52:30 UTC

Portugal
Generally I get an excelent experience of getting parents involved in the organization of namy activities. But I never had the experience of having regularly parents as a helping hand inside the classroom. I think i would face some of the problems Ester spoke about: overwhelming parents, permissive or strict parente, and so on. Her advices were great!

Jenny (Evgenia) Karoumpali, Greece.

jennykaroumpali — 2017-10-11 09:40:11 UTC

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)

Cristina, Romania

2017-10-11 13:23:21 UTC

I had some experiences when parents were coming to the school uninvited but instead helping they disturbed the class by argue with their own child or with other students with whom they had discussions/conflicts. Those parents were Roma/with low socioeconomic and cultural background.

Michela, Italy

2017-10-11 13:50:48 UTC

I had some problems with a demanding parent. His son was taking part in an drama workshop in the afternoon and some parents were invited to collaborate. A father asked me to place his son in the highest reading group. I explained him that his request was not in the boy’s best interest, and that he would benefit more from the group I recommended. Luckily I managed to persuade him.

Marco, Italy

2017-10-11 15:28:15 UTC

I don't make in my project the parent swap and i disagree about it. It very difficult to make because the teacher need a good pedagogic training

Cristina, Italy

cristina_floriddia — 2017-10-11 15:28:36 UTC

I engaged parents in a school trip , but it was not a good idea, because each parent was too interessed about his son and was unjust

Tiziana, Italy

Tizianateacher — 2017-10-11 15:38:35 UTC

We have been involved in some school projects but parents have not taken parte in all the activities. I wish we could have them more engaged but I think that it is also a cultural matter.

Roberto, Italy

2017-10-11 17:10:23 UTC

The challenge for me is to involve parents in educational activities.
You have never involved your parents in your didactic activities, but trusting in their collaboration and active participation, I think my project can be accomplished. Their collaboration will also help me to overcome all the possible unforeseen events.

Maria Carmela, Italy

2017-10-11 17:11:07 UTC

My aim is to involve parents in the various teaching activities by making them participate, informing them of the various activities that take place at school so that there is mutual collaboration and only in this way my project can be successful and accomplished.

Teresa Maia, Portugal

mariateresalcobia — 2017-10-11 18:16:54 UTC

I have some good and bad experiences when I have involved parents in educational activities. Sometimes parents didn’t want to be involved, I think because most of them are insecure about school and some are even hostile towards school.
I have tried also another situation, there was a parent that had some difficulty to understand what his role was and what was mine.
I think that these situations occurred because, perhaps, it wasn’t properly planned with the parents and it may be necessary, in some cases, to begin by empowering parents so that they value the school more.
We are starting a path of collaboration between parents and teachers that needs to be matured and truly pursued by all involved in the best interests of our children

Maria Stafilakou

stafilakou67 — 2017-10-11 19:26:14 UTC

I have already shared a positive parental engagement in an excursion .I also have quiet a few examples were parents were not willing to be of any help.I , for example had asked parents to help me organize a reading experience in class by provinding the means,teapot, cups e.tc. to offer the kids a hot chocolate ,or tea while reading and some cushions to sit on in order to create a relaxing atmoshpere.Unfortunately they did not accept the invitation .I partly did it but not as I had imagined it.

Jurate, Lithuania

jurateorloviene — 2017-10-11 20:35:32 UTC

I had some experience by asking parents to assist my and students in my lessons. The biggest challenge is to persuade them to take a part. However, if they agree, the second challenge is to help to parents to deal with the thrill and emotions. Discuss and some pedagogical advises for parents before lessons help to cope with this challenge.

Betty-Greece

bettyaggeletaki — 2017-10-11 21:45:55 UTC

In my country used to invite parents in order to talk about their profession .Is not allowed for the government parents to teach "lesson" without to be teacher

Vilija, Lithuania

2017-10-12 07:23:53 UTC

The main issue is that invited parents to the event are usually very busy and can't come. This is the saddest thing.

Paola, Italy

paola_l — 2017-10-12 10:19:19 UTC

I think it's very difficult and unrealistic...at least in my area. We need to have clear ideas of our roles and skills and maybe this would just confuse both students and parents...

Miryam, Italy

miriamscafatihpg23 — 2017-10-12 15:49:30 UTC

During my lessons parents always encourage children.

José Carvalho, Guarda, Portugal

joseantoniocarvalho — 2017-10-13 09:40:17 UTC

In contact with parents I always encourage them to be actively involved in the life of their children's schoolchildren and in their learning. The biggest difficulty I feel is a distancing of parents from their children's education. It is necessary to create strategies for effective and daily involvement of your children's activities.

Rosy,

rositone73 — 2017-10-13 14:17:39 UTC

There are many occasions in my school to involve parents. First day of school, Xamas and so on.

silvia

silvietta_68 — 2017-10-13 17:06:09 UTC

In my school there are many occasion: open day, concerts, fist day of school...

Céu, Portugal

2017-10-13 18:03:03 UTC

I never had evolved parents in classroom activities (educational activities). I realize now how much it´s important to bring them at school to pedagogical process. I want to do that. I learn with this greats idea, but I have some concerns: that the parents who most need to come, do not come, or students (teenagers) who will be ashamed to have parents in school because of socio-economic differences…

Laskarina, Greece

laspolemi — 2017-10-13 18:06:58 UTC

It is true that there is often a case of students not feeling at ease with parents being involved in their school life. I think that the advice Eszter has given, i.e. swap parents with another teacher could work in this case. Sometimes parents act as a know-it-all, and this can be hard. However, I think they often need just to be appreciated and once we have overcome this obstacle, the rest is rather easy.

Cecilia Italy

2017-10-13 18:24:27 UTC

Parents' involvement in high schools is desirable. They believe that their children are grown up and are now autonomous in the teaching activity.

Ligia, Portugal

ligiasantos_pt — 2017-10-13 18:41:57 UTC

Once I had a students’ visit programmed and one of the parents was coming with us, but by the time we were leaving he didn’t appear and when he answered the phone, explained that after all he had work to do, so he couldn’t come. It was a real challenge to find a substitute. From that occasion, I learnt it´s better to have more than just one extra hand, just in case...

Natavan,Azerbaijan

2017-10-13 18:43:10 UTC

Involving parents to their children's success or failure is too complicated cause the time , place or meeting not always suit them. Some parents dont want to see or aceept how weak points their children get others dont want to take part in the lessons. But we try to get in touch with parents whose childrn show high points and weak points separately,Besides showing high result students' paarents have rights to take part in annual meetings for briliant teachers

Natavan,Azerbaijan

2017-10-14 12:16:33 UTC

Parents presence in school activities or class occasions didn't happen frequently, but once I had bitter experience with parents irresponsibility.During project one parent was involved to make printings on students Tshirts,but she mixed the dates and missed the chance of helping to students. I decided to do the task on my own and got something not very good .

Patrizia, Italy

2017-10-14 14:56:49 UTC

In my experience of loud reading at school by parents, a parent forced her daughter to join her reading group, I proposed to the girl to change group and she accepted, but I saw that her mom did not he was happy.

Vlad Alexandra-Anamaria, Romania

vladalexandraanamaria — 2017-10-14 16:03:40 UTC

Once I invited parents at kindergarten to make mother-kid decorating activity on Mother's Day, but some mother's weren't able to come because of their jobs, and kids felt a little bit disappointed, so I helped them to make the decorating activities. The next time when we made something similar, I invited grandma's to replace the missing mothers. Like that kids felt happy and enjoyed the moment.

Stathis, Greece

slikidis — 2017-10-14 16:48:24 UTC

I have never involve parents in my classroom. Once, the mother of a girl wanted to be in class but all the students - including the girl - felt uncomfortable and explained her the reasons she couldn't be in the class. Besides, it's something too uncommon in Greek schools.

Pietro-Italy

idiotshater — 2017-10-14 17:00:38 UTC

Having parents in the classroom doesn't quite happen frequently, I once had a father, who is actually a chef in a restaurant, to explain some of the techniques used in the kitchen to prepare professional food and all the kids responded in a positive way, the expert was very humble and open-hearted which made his intervention successful and productive.

Natasa, Serbia

NatasaHerweg — 2017-10-14 17:03:55 UTC

I worked with a specific group of parents abroad, their activities were related to out-of-school activities, excursions, sports day, work with own child at home. I was not sure that the atmosphere would be pleasant for everyone, both students and their own child. That's why they were involved on their own initiative in creative workshops (New Year, Christmas, Easter).

Fulvia Italy

leardini — 2017-10-14 18:00:36 UTC

I teach in a secondary school and it is not possible for parents to participate to the lesson but it is possible to involve parents during some activity such as sports day or theatral events

Sofia Rosado Dias, Portugal

sofia_rosado_dias — 2017-10-14 22:41:59 UTC

I think that parents should be part of the educational process but I truly believe that educating them in their participation at school can be really challenging. One of the issues addressed in the video is when parents get very individual about their children, in a somewhat selfish way that disregards the class as a whole and the teacher who is leading the activity itself. That is probably the most difficult part...

Sofia Rosado Dias, Portugal

sofia_rosado_dias — 2017-10-14 22:46:09 UTC

I think that parents should be part of the educational processbut I truly believe that educating them to participate in the school activity is the most challenging part. When they get too individual about their own children - as it is said on the video - things may get too complicated, not only for the teacher who is leading the activity itself but also to those parents' children.

Maria, Volos, Greece

2017-10-14 23:37:00 UTC

Once I was doing a Health Education project with one of my classes on the importance of a healthy, nutritious breakfast! One of the activities/games I had designed was for me to bring to class yoghurt with lots of secret ingredients and have the kids try it and guess as many of them as possible!! On the actual day, I thought I'd give a call to the parents and see if any of the kids was allergic to anything (the school had a record of main allergies but I thought I'd double check!!) Guess what!! It turned out, almost half of the kids were allergic or intolerant to at least one of my ingredients!!! I spent hours preparing different bowls with different ingredients so that every kid would have the chance to try and even had one student guess only through smelling as he was allergic to at least eight things!!! However, the kids were thrilled and parents started preparing other healthy breakfast alternatives, too!! My piece of advice? Always be prepared that sth could go wrong (so have at least one plan B!!!)

Dora_Greece

ntanouth — 2017-10-15 08:17:31 UTC

Parents are involved in sports performances, special events. It is an interstinig idea to involve them in aducational activities.

Ispir Iuliana, Romania

ispiriuliana — 2017-10-15 08:18:45 UTC

When your parents are in the class, you're giving an exam. It's a little harder to control the behavior of the little ones, especially when they do not listen to you, under the parent's otority. But I've succeeded every time.

Patrizia, Italy

2017-10-15 10:21:56 UTC

When parents are in the classroom they inevitably control the teacher's behaviour... It's not easy to have parents in the school but it's useful to understand a lot of things about children!

LOREDANA

rubaloredana — 2017-10-15 12:45:17 UTC

Romania
I always take as a challenge the activities with both parents and children. This means i do a special meeting-usually on Christmas or at the end of the year-when parents have to do what students ask them to. And they have to support children by giving the right answers on their questions or singing along with them.
Few of them are mature enough to act as if all of them were important like their own child. This means i would rather avoid having just one of them around me and the class.

Andreas, Athens-Greece

2017-10-15 14:31:55 UTC

As I had said before two years ago my pupils presented a theatrical show. Parents were really helpful but one mother -who was an actress- didn't give us any space to improvise. She wanted everything to be done as she defined. So, I took the liberty and told her that I really appreciate her assistance but we should let the pupils to be the main characters to all of it. Right or wrong it doesn't matter. Even if they made mistakes, audience would understand and they would enjoy them.

Loredana Italy

loredana_mangano — 2017-10-15 15:11:55 UTC

Obviously, when trying to involve parents who are still not well acquainted, there is a great risk: that's what happened to me years ago. However, they agreed with two orders of different problems: I had a second class and went on a tour to a museum in the city center using public transport; that day, for pure purge, there was an unauthorized procession that disrupted our plans. The parents involved instead of helping me to calm the situation created many problems because the anxiety prevailed for their children, shaking the whole group. But I think the biggest problem I created was it, not trusting me. I did not stand in the position of the professional and I offered my chance, the opportunity for that parent to take the reins of the situation but he was not able. When I realized this and took the parent and clearly defined my roles I managed to rebuild a cohesive and collaborative group.

Maria Fernanda, Portugal

2017-10-15 15:16:00 UTC

I defend and promote parents´ engagement in students educational and development tasks. However, I´m quite apprehensive regarding their involvement in day to day classroom activities/subjects. Firstly, we couldn´t have all the parents in class at the same time; so, which one should we choose? The one with free time? The one with highest school grade? It seems to me that it may cause conflict between parents or class problems since we can´t predict parents´ behavior. Moreover, their actions and speech (their ideas, prejudices, …) can go against the educational methodology.

Then, we must think about students´ feedback to such “innovation” and their reactions towards it.

Finally, I think that everyone has its own role in children educational and learning process, always in a collaborative way, but in different approaches and in different contexts.

Vanessa Algarvio, Portugal

vanessalgarvio — 2017-10-15 16:57:49 UTC

I do not do many activities where parents interact in class, but when I plan or have some activity that involves third parties, I have some care. I usually do one or two previous meetings in which I clearly explain the objectives of the activity and some obstacles that may appear such as those mentioned in the video.It is very important to think of the children as students and know how to deal with doubts that may arise. Make parents understand that the classroom is a microenvironment, with its own rules and to let them know the same rules and rules. Note that these small steps are very important so that everything goes well.

Positive experiences

2017-10-15 18:54:56 UTC

Most of the experiences I've had with parents are positive. One of the things that is relevant in the short film is when Eszter says that we must assume our knowledge as teachers, especially regarding the parents "who know it all". My experience tells me that the most important is to set the frames under which the role of the parents must be developed. It's also important to comunicate cleary this to everyone participating in the interaction.

Angela Metallinou, Athens/Greece

gelametal — 2017-10-15 20:02:48 UTC

This negative behaviour of parents is something I like to avoid while involving them in school activities. As I am working at a private school, I can say that I confront similar strage behaviour. Most of the time we "train" them...

Rute Parente, Portugal

luis_parente — 2017-10-15 20:48:28 UTC

I've never invited a parent to join my lessons because I never thougth about it. I'm not afraid of their participation and I will do it sooner than I thought. But I will invite more than one, probably 3 or 4, to help monitorizing a task, during a practical lesson, and giving an helping hand.

Rasma, Lithuania

rasmastuokiene — 2017-10-16 09:16:57 UTC

Higher secondary education institutions face the same problem - lack of parental involvement or engagement, in particular in educational activities, due to parents considering their children adults. In our school, they usually enjoy their childrens' achievements without being involved actively in the process. We cooperate more with parents working in universities. They help us organise visits and lectures in the educational establishments they work. This helps students to make up their minds while choosing a university and future profession.

Teachers are not prepared to do it, i think this activities are very positive but is necessary to work with teachers first ...beacuse many are not openmind to this type of things.

2017-10-16 09:33:54 UTC

Edmundo, Portugal

edmundo_ramos — 2017-10-16 12:03:09 UTC

I have never invited any parent to get involved in my classes and I am not aware of any case. I have some doubts about this situation and how I could establish it. I think the participation of parents in some school activities is important, but as for their participation in the classes and the pedagogical parts, I am very much doubtful and apprehensive about the results.

João Eusébio

2017-10-16 14:08:53 UTC

I had a student whose father worked at the university in biology. In a science class he developed an experimental task. The practicality was very important and everything went well. It's the only experience I have and it turned out to be positive.

George Kyriakopoulos

2017-10-16 21:29:26 UTC

Guys, please!!!! i tryied to find a POSITIVE approach reading through here and i didn't but a few. Thank God parents are left outside of the classroom, they are toxic to their children and try to be pedantic when trying to apporoach other kids too. Extracurricular participation by parents should be nevertheless enhanced.

Inês, Portugal

2017-10-16 22:06:15 UTC

they didn´t bring thins enought to all the children to do the activity...

Lúcia, Portugal

lucia_paulino — 2017-10-16 22:27:28 UTC

I truly believe that it is beneficial for the academic success of their children to have parents involved in school activities. Nevertheless, having parents give a hand in the classroom is a bit farfetched as far as I’m concerned. My perspective is one of a teacher with a total of around 120 students (6 classes of 20 students, some with special needs), teaching a foreign language to students aged 12-16.

Maybe this is doable in kindergarten or primary school classes, where teachers can count on parents’ help for a more practical activity, or an outdoor activity that requires the surveillance of an adult.

Rita Rosado, Portugal

2017-10-17 11:02:54 UTC

I experienced some parents to come at my school by invitation and sometimes as they don´t have teaching experience I think what could help is to prepare with them the Open Class to see what is best and how it could work out more sucessfully.

Antonietta, Italy

miaaba — 2017-10-17 16:44:03 UTC

As a whole I have had positive experiences with parents. The only advice: clear communication and trust!

Paula, Portugal

2017-10-17 16:52:16 UTC

Whenever I plan activities with parents I have an alternative plan because sometimes they are not planned. Sometimes you also plan activities to think that they will run in a certain way and this does not always happen. I think the most important thing is that they show availability and want to collaborate.

Elsa, Portugal

2017-10-17 19:46:23 UTC

I have never involved a parent in educational activities, other than field trips and school events. I have no advice to give. No parent has ever volunteered to cooperate teaching a subject of his area. My main concern is that students behave in very different way and that all that I discuss in parents’ meetings will seem like a big lie.

Rosa Medeiros, Portugal

rosa_medeiros1 — 2017-10-17 21:59:09 UTC

My class is students with deep special educational needs. During the" health week I invited specialized technicians to talk to parents about how to deal with their children's sexual manifestations. Many were absent from the meeting, but those who came did love it and got the nurses' contact. I invite these parents to tell what they had learned in a meeting with all the class parents.

João Adelino Santos

joao_santos2 — 2017-10-17 22:21:27 UTC

It is difficult to involve parents in classroom activities, especially from the second cycle of basic education. Teachers are not open to this type of participation for several reasons: they must comply with the disciplinary program; disciplines are compartmentalized; classes are still very theorized; etc

Reneta Raicheva, Bulgaria

2017-10-18 15:49:38 UTC

Parents can be involved at school, they can be motivated to participate via project - based & project - challenge learning. Teachers, students & parents can make amazing things regarding to it. :)

Maria Susana Fernandes, Lisbon, Portugal

maria_susana_fernandes — 2017-10-18 18:08:42 UTC

I've never had parents attending classes and doing curricular activities with the pupils. However I've had a parent going on a school trip and her participation was OK, one more adult can be valuable. I've also had a parent contact me to ask permition to do a surprise party for her daughter using some class time, this went quite well. Some years ago a father and a grandfather who had fought in colonial war in Timor and Guiné came to school and spoke to a group of students who were studying that historical period. These participations of parents in school life were positive but I'm skeptical about envolvement in curricular classes. If you have a parent who has knowhow related with what you are teaching it can be positive but that parent must have a posture that won't embarance his own child and must be confortable and articulate in speaking out.

Maria Antonietta Italy I am very involved with my parents, unfortunately one or two of them often ruin my work, it is very difficult to go ahead, there is often lack of respect. How do I try to solve the problem? I keep talking and mediating

2017-10-19 10:51:32 UTC

Silvia Patrizia RUGGERI

silviap_ruggeri — 2017-10-20 11:02:13 UTC

Some years ago I participated to the ESA workshop in Leiden (NL) and there I learnt a nice hands-on activity which I realized in my classes: every student realized their own spectroscope. So my classes participated to a international initiative and I informed parents about it. It was a good experience and when I can relate the spectroscope to the content of physics in my classes, they realize the spectrope.
An other nice surprice happened when a mother give me congratulation because even if I'm a Maths and Physics teacher I could talk to my students about RENATA FONTE, a young woman, teacher and local polician, which was killed 33 years ago because she wanted defend her territory by buildings.

Daniele - Italy

danvir — 2017-10-20 14:58:17 UTC

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? Share some reflections about these questions in the Padlet below.
This aspect is definitely not easy. I think that involving parents could be dangerous some times, except we have already built a relationship based on mutual trust. If it is true the presence of an adult could be helpful in managing children and also valuable. The problem could be if we know that the presence of a parent could be damaging and we can't tell yes to some one and no to another one. Above all I don't know how Italian law could admit this. Probably it has to be approved by the Headmaster and the School and Class Council.

Paulo Dionísio, Portugal

paulo_dionisio — 2017-10-20 21:45:41 UTC

So far, I have not yet invited parents to lecture on a topic or attend a class taught by me. It is not a common practice in my school, but I have enough openness to receive parents in the classroom and if they want to teach, they will always be welcome. However, I have already involved the parents in organizing extracurricular activities during the week of the exchange, in fine school parties or in fundraising events.

Anisa, Albania

2017-10-21 17:45:13 UTC

Hi all,
We invite parents in our classroom and they are free to get involved in their children's education. Sometimes it is very difficult to deal with them because they want too much from us and they do not require anything to their child.

Orlando Serrano, Portugal

orlandoserranoue — 2017-10-21 23:40:46 UTC

I leave an example of involvement through a scientific article, available at https://goo.gl/AokQ1X

Iulia, Romania

2017-10-22 05:29:37 UTC

During the years I've invited parents to participate in my classes. The success of that activity depends on their personality and how well I've explained to them their role. For this reason I always announce loud and clear the objectives of the activity we are about to begin.

Paola.Italy

paola_tona — 2017-10-22 14:14:10 UTC

It's the first year I'm working on the subject and I have not yet begun the parents. I think that the greatest concern is due to being judged because in Italy everyone is believed to be a teacher and always judges the work of teachers

Edyta, Poland

2017-10-23 10:03:51 UTC

I leave a video of our Red Riding Hood we did with parents for our students.

Isaura Ventura, PortugalI have just invited one parent into the classroom because of behaviour issues. It was a really good experience and quite helpful because those parents couldn't understand how impossible it was to keep them silent or working in class. That was a very enlightening experience for the parent. Together, we managed to solve the problem to some degree. Of course the kids behaved better and were aware that parents were on the teachers' side, giving them full authority.

2017-10-23 16:40:47 UTC

However, in Portugal, parents tend, too much, to focus on results and even question the marks their children get questioning the teacher's fairness and professionalism. If they were more willing to help, instead of making demands when they are absent from their children's schooling, everybody would benefit much more.
I would like it very much if I could have parents in the classroom. At older ages, parents tend to regar their kids as more independent and it's difficult to bring them into the school. They normally show no availabilty or the time to come.

Vesna, Serbia

2017-10-23 20:18:22 UTC

I had parents sit in my classes four times so far but they weren't much involved. They were in a new situation of just being there so they weren't really ready to get fully involved but they tried their best. Each time there's more progress for those who come.

Isabel Quirino, Portugal

isabelquirino — 2017-10-24 07:59:53 UTC

Parents participation in class request that first we build good communication with them; also it is important to cleary define what we expect from that participation, and this mean that first we need to know each other.

Cinzia, Italy

attasonitabas — 2017-10-24 08:48:50 UTC

According to my experience, a negative one it was when we involved parents in taking part in trips. They were not partial and they tried to protect their kids. So those children didn't follow our directions . It was an embarrassing situation.

Carla - Oman

cfaulder92 — 2017-10-24 15:24:48 UTC

Parent training - parents often want to help but they are unsure of how to. As teachers we need to have an open dialogue with parents to aid them in helping in the classroom. Boundaries need to be put in place so the intervention is beneficial.

Konstantina, Greece

2017-10-24 20:03:39 UTC

Teachers should be flexible in order to face such problems. They should focus at the child, at the progress and at the development.

Fernanda Cunha, Portugal

fernanda_mcunha58 — 2017-10-25 14:31:16 UTC

I’m a 3rd cycle and secondary teacher. I’ve no experience working collaboratively with parents in the classroom. But, I confess, one of the issues that most concerns me in this matter is exactly the last situation the Eszter reported: and if parents want to "manage / control" class ... We have to know and trust in parents who put in classroom!

Azize Ozcan,Turkiye

shiningforthelife — 2017-10-26 20:51:21 UTC

As I am a high-school teacher,it is impossible to include parents in-class activities.Am I right?What do you think?Is there any way to do that?Please share your ideas

Paola, Italy

paola_oggi — 2017-10-30 16:59:19 UTC

I do not care about boys' age to involve their parents. It is true, however, that it is easier to involve parents when their children are small. As boys grow up, parents are less present at school.

Ulfet C, Turkey

2017-10-30 17:27:59 UTC

I do not care about children's age or gender to make them eager working with their parents.

Maria Michael Kollyfa

2017-10-31 04:07:50 UTC

Before 14 years (then I had only 3 years in the profession) I decided to as a mother to come and help me during a visit. I asked her help because the visiting was on food and I was anxious and afraid about students' security. The mother was overreacted for all students, she undertook the role of the teacher, talking for punishment. I politely explained to her what I exactly wanted from her, the kind of help, and pointed out that I was responsible for the students. It would be better if I did so from the very beginning, before the walk.

Nicoleta, Romania

mercur_mercur — 2017-11-01 11:54:37 UTC

Things didn`t quite well when roles weren`t defined very well, we were at the beginning of working together, parents were more inclined to be right, to be critics and to compaire themselves or children, even teachers. With a lot of comunnication, explanations, mistakes and lessons learnt, things are much better now and they have initiatives, they have become inventive and appreciative in our collaboration.

Teuta, Albania

2017-11-22 18:34:51 UTC

Not always parents are helpful in our school activities. They don't have time to join us and provide us with things that are necessary in the activities. We don't do anything about that, just as Teachers we try the best to work on in this cases.

İSHAK KURT -MANİSA

kurtishak16 — 2018-06-28 12:35:40 UTC

It is very difficult for parents to get excited about the community and struggle to express themselves. As mentioned in the video, focusing on one's own child is also a problem. I experienced them.

Hümeyra YENER

hs_yener — 2018-07-19 20:52:40 UTC

There are some parents who interfere in everything. They really like to be in the loop. In such a circumstance I have difficulty to make them know their limits. I don't want to hurt their feelings. When parents interfere in too much, their children sometimes feel they are better than other.

Ipermahia Christodoulou Greece

2018-08-28 00:02:07 UTC

As I told in the previous activity students do not like the presence of their parents in the classroom or in the school.However whenever we had homework activities (students' interviews about traditional topics, making crafts, ) and wanted their help, the activities were well done and the students were proud.Many times we had negative parental intervention about where they children sit in the classroom, whom they collaborate. My answer is that my classrooms are small social groups and my students should learn to collaborate with students they don't like .I also make them clear that I am against diversity.There are parents who do not like our school books, acitivities and teaching/learning material. They do not talk to me but to my headteacher. When I have such circumstances that my headteacher will say about parents' complaint I tell them kindly to go to the director of education in my prefecture or school advisors or minister of education. A good example of parental engagement is the Parents' Association of each school, who can stop such behaviours. There is also The State Teachers' Associations (Local and Federations who stop negative parental behaviours against teachers.).To sum up, I inform parents when I can see them at school and talk about their chlldren behaviour and learning skills.

nehas5_win — 2020-05-31 18:40:51 UTC

parents are very challenging than the students