1.
1. Demographics –
grade level or subject taught – number of years taught – number of students
taught each day,
etc
Mrs. Valerie Nelson is Kindergarten Teacher at Chamberlain Elementary. She
also teaches many students that are bused from the Fort Thompson Reservation.
She has taught for 1 ˝ years. This past year she had 12 students, but next year
is going to have 20.
2. Do you
have a classroom website?
Yes, but it is
currently under construction. On my website I have the parent handbook,
everything we do throughout the year, my weekly newsletter, what I expect of the
kids, my discipline policy, and worksheets for the parents. I do not give out
homework, but instead give out optional handouts for the parents to do with
their kids.
Although nothing works, this is where you would go to find Mrs. Nelson's
website:
http://chamberlain.k12.sd.us/ces/Grades/kindergarten.htm
3.
Do you use email to
communicate with parents of the students as a whole?
No, I do not use
email very often, if ever, to communicate with parents. With the district I work
in, many parents do not have computers or access to them. (About 50% do not.)
4. Do you
send home printed classroom communications (obtain a copy if possible)?
Yes, every Friday I send home a newsletter. I
include a lot of various information in my newsletter and also have a link on my
website.
5. Do you use a digital camera in your classroom as part of the communication or
anything else?
Yes, I use a digital camera to take pictures of
my students and different projects I am working on, but I do not use it as a
form of communication.
6. Are parents or community members encouraged to volunteer in your school and
your
classroom?
Yes, I encourage all the parents and other community members to stop in my
classroom and volunteer.
7. Are parents or community members involved in daily activities in your
classroom, i.e.
correcting, supervising, field trips,
general classroom help
No, once in awhile a parent or other community member will stop in, but not
daily.
8. What is the most challenging thing about working with parents
9.
Most enjoyable thing in working with parents?
The most enjoyable
thing working with parents is how grateful they are for me working with their
children. They praise me for how much their children learn by the end of the
year. It makes my job seem that much more worthwhile knowing I pleased the
students’ parents. At the end of the year, some parents gave me a gift because
their daughter’s reading level improved increasingly over the year. Simple
gestures like that make me feel like I did a fine job teaching this group of
students.
10.
Is parent involvement increased or decreased since you
began teaching?
It has probably
increased, because the school is pushing it. Recently the school has been
pushing us teachers to invite parents to come into the classroom and to increase
the involvement with parents.