Children, Families, and Communities Guidebook- Parent Message

Children, Families, and Communities Guidebook- Parent Message

Introduction

My name is Olivia Jeffery, and I’m currently pursuing my master’s degree in Early Childhood Education Leadership. Once I obtain this degree, I plan to either open my own daycare or become the assistant director at the daycare where I work at. I am currently the lead teacher of a two-year-old classroom, which is the desired age level I want to work with. I intend to work in a learning environment where my students are always excited to learn new things; this is what makes learning fun for children.

Effective Partnership

Effective ongoing home and community partnerships play a vital role in early childhood curriculum, learners’ development, and the learning environment. Partnerships between teachers and parents promote collaboration to improve the child’s learning process. Parents’ involvement in supporting curriculum development enables them to monitor their children’s performance and expand learning at home by assigning children tasks that require applying the knowledge they learn in school. According to Turner et al. (2017), parents support early childhood learners’ development through parenting by creating a household environment that supports the child to learn based on their grade level or age. For instance, parents can encourage a child’s siblings to help the child with basic concepts such as the alphabet and numbers. Parenting also supports the childhood curriculum and learning environment by helping the teachers and the school understand the child’s background and culture and any special learning needs that the child may have (Hossain & Eisberg, 2020). Community partnerships play a vital role in coordinating learning services and resources for the school and the children. According to Wilson (2013), community partnerships may include institutions and organizations in the learning environment that develop the curricula implemented by teachers to facilitate a child’s development. Therefore, effective community partnerships support the childhood curriculum by structuring the curriculum based on children’s needs to create a conducive learning environment for the learner’s development.

Communication and Collaboration Strategies

Communication plays a vital role in maintaining collaboration between partnering parties. Collaboration involves parents, teachers, and the community in a child’s learning environment. These individuals have various communication needs that need to be addressed when selecting a commutation strategy. According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children (2011), schools have an ethical responsibility to allow parents to participate in their children’s education. Newsletters will be used to communicate with parents, teachers, and the community. The newsletters will inform parents and the community about upcoming and current programs and the measures being taken to improve child learning and development. Advisory corners will be the main collaboration strategy in the learning environment. It will include a small hall within the school environment where teachers, parents, and community leaders will hold regular meetings to exchange ideas on how to improve the learning environment. Parents may also interact with one another to exchange ideas on parenting styles that promote a child’s learning and development. Sheridan et al. (2017) argue that interactions among parents also encourage sharing ideas for the most appropriate home conditions for better child development. Open days will also be used as a collaborating strategy between parents and teachers. The open days will include informing parents about their children’s interests and needs and familiarizing them with their children’s learning environment. Sheridan et al. (2017) argue that parents provide more support in a child’s learning process when they understand the child’s learning environment. Therefore, parents will be given a tour of the learning facility during open days and be introduced to teachers who constantly interact with the children.

Family and Community Involvement

According to Sheridan et al. (2017), a parent’s involvement in child learning facilitates proper emotional and social development. The parent’s involvement in early childhood learning involves creating a home environment that promotes cognitive development. For instance, a parent may allow the child to play with other children to create a social environment where a child can learn new positive behaviors. Pancoast (2013) argues that children who play at home have independent and prosocial behavior in the classroom. Therefore, we will collaborate with the community to form playgroups for children within the same age group and encourage parents to enroll their children in the playgroups by informing them about the benefits of play in a child’s development. Community involvement will also include leveraging community relations to create awareness of our child development programs. We will rely on word of mouth to inform parents about child development programs and then issue newsletters providing more information about the programs.

Specifically, explain how families can be involved in school, at home, and in the community. Include a minimum of four examples.

We will focus on establishing and maintaining contact between the parents and the teachers because they play a vital role in a child’s cognitive development and academic performance. Parents can be involved in school by maintaining direct contact with their child’s educational environment. For instance, they can regularly visit the school to talk to their child’s teacher about the child’s performance. They may also discuss the child’s behavior with the teacher to identify any issues affecting a child’s performance. Families can also be involved in school by encouraging their children to participate in school activities and supporting them. For instance, families may attend a school football match their child is playing and cheer them to encourage them to give their best and get a sense of belonging in the team. Families may be involved at home by creating preschool-based activities that their children can complete. For instance, they may give the child short assignments such as writing down or reciting the alphabet and reward them to encourage them to learn more things to get rewards. They may also be involved in the community by volunteering in child development programs. For instance, they may collaborate with other parents to allow their children to play together so that they can learn from one another.

Future Plans for Partnerships

We intend to involve parents and the community in creating exciting child development programs. We will collaborate with amusement parks to offer supervised child interactions during peak seasons and create camping events that will include various activities that involve collaboration between parents and their children. We also intend to build a playground with various games that encourage teamwork among children and critical thinking for better social, emotional, and cognitive development. We will also create child competitions, such as spell challenge competitions art competitions, and award winners. The awards will be divided into two. The first award will be for the winning child, and the second one will be for their parents. The competitions will be aired on popular television channels to attract more participants and motivate parents to support their children to ensure that they pass. Awards will include scholarships, family trips, and study material. We will also introduce inter-school competitions to allow children in different learning environments to interact and learn from one another. Inter-school competitions will also enable teachers to exchange ideas on improving the learning environment. We will also partner with teachers from different schools to create tests to prevent biased assessments of a child’s learning development.

References

Hossain, Z., & Eisberg, G. (2020). Parenting and academic socialization of young children: Sociocultural context for early childhood development in South Asian families. Parents and Caregivers Across Cultures, 89-103. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35590-6_7

National Association for the Education of Young Children. (2011). NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct and Statement of Commitment.

Pancoast, C. K. (2013). Why play?: The role of play in early childhood development. Createspace Independent Pub.

Sheridan, S. M., Moen, A. L., & Knoche, L. L. (2017). Family-school partnerships in early childhood. The Wiley Handbook of Early Childhood Development Programs, Practices, and Policies, 287-309. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118937334.ch13

Turner, K. M., Dittman, C. K., Rusby, J. C., & Lee, S. (2017). Parenting support in an early childhood learning context. The Power of Positive Parenting, 242-251. https://doi.org/10.1093/med-psych/9780190629069.003.0021

Wilson, L. (2013). Partnerships: Families and communities in early childhood.

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The Summative Assessment for this course includes creating a family message in which you will describe how you will apply the contents of your previously developed Children, Families, and Communities Guidebook to promote collaborative learning with the parents or guardians and families with whom you work. The purpose of your Guidebook is to demonstrate your applied and collaborative knowledge regarding family and community partnerships. You will share this knowledge in a family/parent message, which will include your professional philosophy, beliefs, and practices that will guide your future work. This project supports the MAECEL core Program Learning Outcomes and is an opportunity to demonstrate your specialized knowledge, intellectual skills, and professional philosophy.

Assignment Overview and Context:
Early childhood education settings are comprised of diverse children and families. As you have learned in the past six weeks, family and community partnerships have a lasting impact on children’s success and thus, it is crucial that partnerships are developed early and maintained throughout the year.

For this project, you will develop an audio, video, or multimedia presentation and a written transcript that you could share at the beginning of the year with the families in your early childhood environment. The following must be included in your audio, video, or multimedia presentation and written transcript:

Content Expectations:

Introduction
Clearly introduce yourself and describe what your future goals, position, and learning environment you intend to work in, including your desired age level.
(My name is Olivia Jeffery, and I’m currently pursuing my master’s degree in Early Childhood Education Leadership. Once I obtain this degree, I plan to either open my own daycare or become the assistant director at the daycare where I work at. I’m currently the lead teacher of a two-year-old classroom, which is the desired age level I want to work with. I intend to work in a learning environment where my students are always excited to learn new things; this is what makes learning fun for children.)
Effective Partnership
Discuss how effective, on-going home and community partnerships can support early childhood curriculum, learners’ development and the learning environment. In your explanation, be sure to include research-based evidence from at least two scholarly resources such as theories, practices, strategies, and frameworks to substantiate your position.
Communication and Collaboration Strategies
Articulate what communication and collaboration strategies you will use in your setting. Provide a rationale, detailing why your suggested strategies are best for developing and maintaining partnerships. Support your position with at least two scholarly resources.
Family and Community Involvement
Specifically explain how families can be involved in school, at home, and in the community. Include a minimum of four examples.
Future Plans for Partnerships
Share your plans and visions for on-going partnerships that encourage and inspire families. Describe how you will get them excited about supporting their child throughout the year!
You must include a written text script of your presentation, including a title and reference page.
Research and Resource Expectations:

Support your position, with at least four scholarly peer-reviewed sources.
Include the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct as a source in this assignment.
Writing and Formatting Expectations:

Title Page: Must include a separate title page with the following:
Title of paper
Student’s name
Course name and number
Instructor’s name
Date submitted
Link to audio/video or multimedia presentation
Academic Voice: Academic voice is used (avoids casual language, limited use of “I”, it is declarative).
Organization: Demonstrates logical progression of ideas.
Syntax and Mechanics: Writing displays meticulous comprehension and organization of syntax and mechanics, such as spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
APA Formatting: Papers are formatted properly and all sources are cited and referenced in APA style, as outlined in the Writing Center.
Presentation Expectations:

Presentation is completed using one of the options below and is professional, effectively communicated, and informative. Choose one of the following technology tools to develop your presentation:
Audio: Vocaroo (Links to an external site.)–http://vocaroo.com/
Video: YouTube (Links to an external site.)–https://www.youtube.com/
Multimedia: Jing/Screencast (Links to an external site.)–https://www.techsmith.com/jing.html
Other: If you have an alternative tool that you would like to use or need an accessibility accommodation for this assignment, please contact your instructor to ensure it is appropriate for this assignment.
Presentation includes an APA-formatted transcript and includes the link to the audio, video, or multimedia presentation.
Suggested Assignment Length:

This should be a four to five minute presentation, with a script that is four to five double-spaced pages in length (not including title and reference pages).