Kopra,+Kimberly,+Collaboration+with+Parents



Hi! My name is Kimberly Kopra (Martins) and I am 23 years old. I am married to a Brazilian named Fabio and we have a 11 month old baby boy named Josue. I speak English and Portuguese and am able to read and understand Spanish. Although I was born in Seaside, Oregon I moved to Hawaii when I was a month old and lived there till I was eighteen. I love the ocean and any kind of water sport. I enjoy traveling and hope to one day make a lap around the World. ** Educational & Career Goals ** My goal is to graduate from SOU next spring 2013 in the Licensure track program. I then hope to go in one of two directions. I would love to move back to Hawaii and teach in my home town or I would love to travel around the World teaching at international schools abroad. ** What brings you joy? ** The thing that brings me the most joy is watching my baby grow and develop. I love spending time playing with him and watching him make new discoveries of himself and the world around him. ** What is your greatest fear about being a teacher? ** My greatest fear I have about being a teacher is not being able to connect with my students or letting my students down. I fear that I will not be able to live up to the high standards I set for myself as a teacher. ** Did you ever experience a time when something was extremely difficult to learn? Explain that time and //how it made you feel//. ** There have been many times that I have experienced something being very difficult to learn. It wasn’t until my senior year of high school that I was diagnosed with a learning difference which explained many times I struggled in classes. When something is difficult to learn I find it extremely frustrating and at times made me just want to give up because it seemed like no matter how hard I tried to figure it out it still did not make sense. ** How might this piece of your history help you connect to students with learning differences? ** I think through these experiences I will be able to understand what students with learning differences are going through and will be able to be more sympathetic and patient in helping them work through it. ** What do you want to gain from this course? ** Confidence and Understanding. I want to learn about the different disabilities and how to create the ultimate safe learning environment where all students are comfortable and each student is given the opportunity to succeed. I also hope to build the confidence and ability to understand and help students with disabilities the best I can.

__**INTRODUCTION TO TOPIC **__ For my topic I chose Collaboration with Parents because I think it is very important for teachers to work with parents. I would like to learn more on specific strategies or ideas to involve parents in the classroom and I felt this was a perfect opportunity for me to research this topic. As educators we must get to know the parents of our students and I think we need to involve them to the greatest extent possible in the education of their children. By getting to know our students' parents I feel we will also be able to understand our students better. I hope this research is a great start to my development as an educator on the subject of collaboration with parents. By the end of this research I hope to have a solid list of resources where I will continue to add ideas and strategies that will be useful in my future classroom as well as the classrooms of my colleagues.

__**TOP 5 THINGS I LEARNED **__
 * 1) <span style="color: #550f55; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Research shows that a child's education can be greatly enhanced by parents' involvement in the classroom and at home.
 * 2) <span style="color: #550f55; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">There are many tips and tricks that can help get parents involved with their child's education.
 * 3) <span style="color: #550f55; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Communication with parents is an essential part of teaching.
 * 4) <span style="color: #550f55; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">"We, as teachers, need to encourage as much parental involvement in middle and high school as we do in elementary school."
 * 5) <span style="color: #550f55; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">There are many different ways teachers can collaborate with parents. One of the most valuable things teachers can do for parents with children who have an emotional or behavioral disorder is to help them learn to apply behavior management techniques at home. One of the rules teachers should give to parents is to select no more than two behaviors to work on at a time.

__**<span style="color: #550f55; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">BEST RESOURCE **__ [] 5 out of 5 "A child's education can be greatly enhanced by their parents' involvement in the classroom and at home." This website is a great resource for teachers to get ideas and strategies involving teacher/ parent collaboration. I chose this website as my number one resource because I thought it was professionally organized and was a resource of resources. From this website you can connect to many other links that are specific on a certain idea or issue you want to look into more. __**<span style="color: #550f55; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">ADDITIONAL RESOURCES **__ [] 3 out of 5 "Parents want what is best for their child, and teachers want what is best for their students. That's why parent/teacher collaboration is so important. By working together, parents and teachers can provide the best learning environment, both at home and at school, for students." This website contains a great article in regards to the importance of teacher/parent collaboration. It is a very short write up but has some great points and ideas. [] 4 out of 5 "Through collaboration, teachers and parents learn from each other and work toward improving student performance. When this is done with mutual respect and trust, it becomes easier for them to reach their goal." I thought this was a nice website that presents important information in a question/answer format. I feel it is a very nice way to share information and the layout is very organized and easy to understand. It would be a great resource for both parents and teachers. [] 4 out of 5 "The vision was to promote parent leadership.It was to build bridges between parents and the home, with the school, and with the community."

I felt this was a good video on promoting parent involvement. Although, this video was directed at the parents and not necessarily for the educators, I did find it interesting and inspirational.

[] 4 out of 5 "The earlier in a child's educational process parent involvement begins, the more powerful the effects will be." -Cotton and Wikelude 1989

I thought this was a great video covering the importance of collaboration between parents and the teachers, as well as parents and the school and the powerful impact parent involvement can have on the students. [] 3 out of 5 "As a result, I found out that my interpretation of special education rights wasn't always accurate. The whole experience gave me a new perspective about schools and professionals. In learning how to communicate with educators, I met some wonderful people who cared about kids and worked hard on their behalf." This is a great article on the experience of a mother whose son was diagnosed with a learning disability. Instead of leaving it all up to the school she chose to take an active role in the education of her son and talks about what she learned through this experience in her article. [] 5 out of 5 "To be effective, parent involvement has to be a partnership between the family and the school to assure that children are learning to the best of their ability, that they feel safe and supported, and that their parents feel well informed and involved in making decisions that affect their child’s school experience." I thought this was a great article covering strategies on how teachers and parents can work together to create the best possible learning experience for the child. [] 5 out of 5 "This partnership should involve more that just the routine parent-teacher conference; it should be a partnership that is ongoing, consistent and collaborative." Although this article is very short, I think it is filled with a lot of great information on teacher/parent collaboration. In the article it includes a few tips on some things educators can do to promote good relationships with parents. It also covers a few ideas on strategies for schools to forge and strengthen partnerships with parents. [] 4 out of 5 "Collaboration: The Key to Success!"

This is a short and simple article regarding the importance of collaboration and that for educators it can be the key to success. It talks about the point of collaboration, how to do it, and ways in which you can get parents involved.