Jefferson Parent Workshops
Offers Ideas
Valerie Capitulo-Saide is on a mission in her first year as Jefferson Primary School's principal. She's a proponent of holding informative parent workshops and wants to get as many teachers and parents as possible involved in the initiative, which is supported by the school's Shared Decision-Making Committee and PTA.
Last Wednesday Ms. Capitulo-Saide hosted the first such evening workshop. "Supporting Your Child at Home" was designed to share reading and math fluency teaching strategies with parents.
The new Jefferson principal was pleased to see the level of support from Jefferson teachers for the workshop as 13 faculty members made presentations. "One of the goals of the workshop was to engage parents and communicate the district and school-wide goals," Ms. Capitulo-Saide said.
Jefferson's Shared Decision-Making Committee developed the idea for the parent workshops to increase communication between the administration and faculty and parents. As a result of these regular SDM meetings, Ms. Capitulo-Saide and teachers designed English only and Spanish only workshops hoping to attract a large number of parents.
Ms. Capitulo-Saide was excited to welcome parents into the school on a recent Wednesday night. She was also pleased with the turnout as nearly 100 parents signed up for the workshop. The third grade parent workshop was the best attended.
As a token of the school's appreciation for those who participated in the evening session, each parent received a "goodie" bag filled with reading and math games they can play with their child at home.
"Most of the materials distributed were generously donated by the Jefferson PTA," Ms. Capitulo-Said said. "Parents filled out surveys at the end of the workshop where a few parents asked to see more parent workshops in the future."
Ms. Capitulo-Saide and Jefferson's teachers are continuing to explore various curriculum workshop ideas to further engage parents in the coming months.