[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1706201534778{padding-right: 10% !important;padding-left: 10% !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text single_style=””]RICHMOND, Ky. \u2014 In a course about teaching elementary social studies, a room of mostly juniors at Eastern Kentucky University discusses how to make sure children understand basics like civics, rights, laws, and personal responsibilities.<\/p>\n
Throughout their teacher education program, students cover academic content, classroom management, education systems, teaching methods, cognitive development, assessment systems, and more. Even so, many education students leave college concerned about areas where they still feel unprepared and inexperienced.<\/p>\n
They expect to stand a good chance against social studies. Winning over parents and families, however, often feels like a treacherous unknown.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s what I\u2019m most nervous about,\u201d<\/em> said Emily Dennis, a junior from Estill County. \u201cIf I hadn\u2019t worked at a child care center, I\u2019d be even more nervous. Thinking about being new going into this career, not knowing how to deal with adults and how they are going to react to you is probably the scariest part.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Brooke Hall, a junior from Union in northern Kentucky, agreed. \u201cWhen people ask what I\u2019m nervous about, that is my No. 1 thing. Our classes cover content and classroom management, but not so much about how you take initiative or have difficult conversations with parents when some may be very nonchalant and others are always bringing up things.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Teacher education professors and administrators at Eastern Kentucky and Morehead State universities last year jumped at a more active approach to equipping new teachers to productively connect with families.<\/p>\n Through a grant from the National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement, the Prichard Committee\u2019s Kentucky Collaborative for Families and Schools began working with college programs to bolster family partnership coursework and field experiences. EKU and Morehead State were the first to join the effort.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1706201534778{padding-right: 10% !important;padding-left: 10% !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text single_style=””]<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a major weakness in our programs across Kentucky and probably across the country. We realized we have to do something different,\u201d said Rebecca Roach, an assistant professor of education at Morehead State. \u201cThe importance of family involvement comes up over and over, but what you often hear is that it is awkward and uncomfortable, and largely informed by horror stories.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The NAFSCE grant and Kentucky program emphasize ways that new educators can<\/p>\n The national group, based outside Washington, D.C., published a report citing research and case studies to inform teacher education program changes. In Kentucky, the program works with colleges to build family engagement within the current teacher-prep curriculum rather than becoming an add-on. Prichard also worked with school districts near the two colleges last year to create family and teacher panel discussions, surveys, interviews, and monthly learning circles to shape effective strategies.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_single_image image=”23020″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1706201534778{padding-right: 10% !important;padding-left: 10% !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text single_style=””]\u201cIt\u2019s made me cognizant of weaving families into everything I\u2019m teaching, and showing students how this can happen with brief, informal conversations and collegial language with positive messages,\u201d<\/em> Roach said. The new strategies should give young teachers confidence in reaching out as a natural extension of their classroom work, she added.<\/p>\n The Prichard effort was the focus of a panel discussion about family engagement at the summer conference of the Kentucky Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. The audience saw short videos made last year by EKU student teachers providing parents questions or topics to discuss at home to reinforce classroom learning.<\/p>\n Emily McCreary of Boyd County, a student at Morehead State, explained how family engagement was included in a reading methods course last year. She said the experience built her confidence in partnering with parents and even experienced teaching colleagues.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw that parent engagement doesn\u2019t have to be scary, and that you don\u2019t have to be a parent to engage them or to be inspiring,\u201d<\/em> McCreary said. She is eager to put the learning to the test in her student teaching assignment this fall.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1706201534778{padding-right: 10% !important;padding-left: 10% !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_single_image image=”23023″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text single_style=””]<\/p>\n \u201cWe tell our students that this is an opportunity for them to be young teacher leaders,\u201d noted Sonja Yow, an associate professor of education at EKU who teaches the social studies education class. \u201cThese collaborative interactions can start at the very beginning of a career, and it\u2019s very positive,\u201d she added.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Proponents of the family engagement training expect that it will give their students an edge in the job market and, most important, support academic gains.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are totally into it now,\u201d<\/em> Connie Hodge, an associate professor at EKU said at the teacher education conference in Louisville this summer. \u201cYou see the students\u2019 presentations and know that it motivates them and gives them confidence.\u201d<\/em>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1706201534778{padding-right: 10% !important;padding-left: 10% !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text single_style=””]<\/p>\n \u201cIt just meets a need,\u201d noted Elizabeth Dinkins, dean of the School of Education at Bellarmine University in Louisville and president of KACTE. \u201cEveryone knows we need to prepare future teachers to work with families in today\u2019s world and be intentional.<\/p>\n Amiya Griffin-Taylor of Lexington, a junior at EKU, said she is eager for all the strategies and advice available to know how to reach students once she becomes a teacher.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one really prepares you for the real thing, and a big part of that is building relationships with students and parents,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m going to be an elementary teacher because I want to make an impact on someone else\u2019s life. I had teachers who didn\u2019t care that much and others who really supported me \u2014 sending e-mails, making phone calls, even coming to my graduation. I saw what that means, and I\u2019m all about connections.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n [\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_single_image image=”23028″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1706201534778{padding-right: 10% !important;padding-left: 10% !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text single_style=””]RICHMOND, Ky. \u2014 In a course about teaching elementary social studies, a room of mostly juniors at Eastern Kentucky University discusses how to make sure children understand basics like civics, rights, laws, and personal responsibilities. Throughout their teacher education program, students cover academic content, classroom management, education systems, teaching<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23019,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"passster_activate_protection":false,"passster_protect_child_pages":"","passster_protection_type":"password","passster_password":"","passster_activate_overwrite_defaults":"","passster_headline":"","passster_instruction":"","passster_placeholder":"","passster_button":"","passster_id":"","passster_activate_misc_settings":"","passster_redirect_url":"","passster_hide":"no","passster_area_shortcode":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bright-spots"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23013"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23397,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23013\/revisions\/23397"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prichard-backup.com\/July\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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