Row 1: Chue Yang, Mayly Xiong, Thao Lor Lee (NNPS Key Contact), Catherine Rich (Principal), and Nancy Knutson. Row 2: Annie Gibson, Mary Sellers, Ray Schwabe, Shelly Torres, Jonathan Goss, Sharon Thieman, Jesse Engebretson, Carolyn Cone (NNPS Key Contact), Neftali Ramirez, Holly Johnston, Ann Rasmussen, and April Bellovich.
Meeting the challenge to involve more families
Phalen Lake Elementary, a two-time Partnership School Award winner, is working to involve more families and to raise their awareness of the school’s Core Knowledge Curriculum, standards for student work, and the value of homework. The Action Team for Partnerships organized the Learning Walk, conducted several times for groups of parents on National Parent Involvement Day. Translators were on hand to assist Hmong and Latino parents.
Teachers posted academic standards outside their classrooms with many examples of students’ work. The tour, led by the principal, helped parents see how students’ work – beginning in kindergarten – meets grade level standards and improves over time. One parent reported at the end of the day, “I thought these were just pictures on the wall. I didn’t know (students) were learning so much.” Along with lunch and other activities throughout the day, parents watched a 5th grade performance of a speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. entitled “What Is Your Life’s Blueprint?” – a project of the school’s Readers and Writers Workshop.
Reach results for student success in school
Testing Kick Off Event/Math Game Night helped parents of students in grades 3-6 understand the up-coming standardized tests and how to support their children’s test taking. The assistant principal and a special education teacher talked with parents and showed a video on useful test-taking strategies. Math games and activities helped parents and students enjoy the Everyday Math Curriculum together, strengthen key math skills, and clear up some parents’ confusion about the math program. Interpreters were present. A local organization provided gently-used books for the children to take for their home libraries. Dinner was appreciated by parents, students, and educators.
The multi-tasked evening was designed to meet a goal in the School Continuous Improvement Plan’s section on Parent and Community Involvement: “Teachers will provide opportunities for parents….to learn about school routines, expectations and academic content being taught.” The activity succeeded on all points.
See Phalen Lake’s prior Partnership School Award in 2006 and examples of activities in Promising Partnership Practices on the website at www.partnershipschools.org in the section Success Stories. Visit the school at http://phalen.spps.org/A_Core_Knowledge_School.html.