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RUNNING HEAD: Master’s Portfolio: Parents, Families, Communities

Master’s Portfolio: Parents, Families, Communities


Violet R. Brooks
University of Alaska Southeast
Katy Spangler
11/15/2018
MASTERS PORTFOLIO: PARENTS, FAMILIES, AND COMMUNITIES 2

Framing Statement:

Attached are examples of work I have done within the school to improve family

involvement and interest within the school. As a title one school, Knik Elementary is always

seeking out ways to improve parent and student buy-in and create a sense of community among

its’ students (Sheldon, 2003). The school does spirit wear weekly contests for students and

teachers, as well as having spirit drives and classroom door decorating competitions. I have

found myself most useful with the parent involvement.

My first example is a collection of cupcakes completed for the Challenge Alaska Bake

Sale. One of our annual field trips, the Challenge Alaska field trip provides an opportunity for a

student who experiences disabilities to go to Alyeska and use modified equipment to let them ski

or snowboard. Many of these students enjoy the activity, so much so that their families help

them to participate in the local Special Olympics in similar categories. The school will often

send out Facebook messages, but since our school is rural, we get few non-shareholder visitors.

Except on Election days.

To capitalize on the heavy foot traffic of those days, we have decided to do the Challenge

Alaska Bake Sale on Election day every year. We only started last year, but already turnout has

been phenomenal. Last year, our greatest problem was that people weren’t carrying enough

money. This year, our sales were greatly increased. Myself, I made sure to make unicorn, owl

and llama cupcakes and spread the word all over the school that they would be available. I also,

as a school substitute, was able to commit to helping run the bake sale the year prior and provide

coffee and tea to our visitors. The cupcakes sold well, but the real goal of having them was to

have a conversation starter with parents and community members coming into the school. By

just having something small and silly to talk about, community members would relax their guard
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enough to hear about the field trip and be made aware of programs and opportunities within the

school that they may want to (financially) support.

I had a lot of people only donating money once they understood what the cause was.

After voting, people do tend to feel more patriotic and more generous. Even more, left and came

back with money for treats or to add to our donation bin. The outpouring of support was

wonderfully heartwarming. This also provided a chance for the principal to talk with both

students who brought treats to sell and their family members and cement himself as an

approachable, student centered member of the education community(Bryan, & Henry 2012).

My second set of artifacts are the progression of a “Parent’s Night Out” flyer produced

for the annual 5th-grade field trip to the Alaska Sealife Center. Earlier this year, the title one

budget was cut by $20,000 to our school, which is leading to some extreme belt-tightening

measures (Peck, & Reitzug, 2018). One of those measures is that student scholarship funds (for

those whose families can’t afford field trips) are being cut. It also means money for

transportation is much thinner. Due to these facts, instead of having two overnight trips, the

administration would like to send all 93 students on a single trip together. It was agreed by the

5th-grade team (and myself) that this was not in the best interest of the students (Bryan & Henry

2012), and so fundraising was in order.

The 5th-grade team has come up with several ideas. Parent’s Night Out has the potential

to be huge. Students will be dropped off at the school for two hours while their parents go off to

do other activities. This is scheduled in mid-December so parents might use this time to go

shopping or to have a quiet evening at home. The modest fee of $10-$15 per child is affordable

and much cheaper than the average childcare costs. This was a need we foresaw for our
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community that often has a single or double parent working household with a limited budget to

spend on childcare (Alameda-Lawson, & Lawson 2018).

I have highlighted the step by step process below (figures 2). The paper was forced

through many iterations as I had to coordinate between the Administration Secretary, the 5th

Grade Team Leader, District protocol and navigate which printers felt like they would produce

copies. Ultimately the final product is perfect for the needs of the grade, and I’m hoping they

will be able to make their goal so that two field trips can be completed.

Artifact 3 is a letter home to my 4th-grade Skills Block students. These students are on a

parallel curriculum and the structure for that class is different than the standard classroom. In the

letter, I explain that weekly spelling tests will not be likely, but that students can be sent home

with word lists to study if the parents choose.

When the host teacher, the instructional coach, and I initially sat down to teach this

parallel curriculum, we had spoken about the weekly spelling lists. If we were doing the

program to fidelity, we would not offer spelling lists to families to practice with. The program

asks that students see, spell, and practice the words often within the classroom, and insists that

students do not need to practice outside of the class. However, there is a parental expectation to

have spelling words to practice. We initially decided to give out lists, but students and parents

became upset when the same words were being used repeatedly because students had not

completed enough in-class lessons to take the test. To get ahead of parent frustration, I sent a

letter home asking parents if they would like the spelling words, trusting them to make the

correct decision for themselves and their households.


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References:
Alameda-Lawson, T., & Lawson, M. A. (2018). A Latent Class Analysis of Parent Involvement
Subpopulations. Social Work Research, 42(2), 118–130. https://doi-
org.ezproxy.uas.alaska.edu/10.1093/swr/svy008
Bryan, J., & Henry, L. (2012). A Model for Building School-Family-Community Partnerships:
Principles and Process. Journal of Counseling & Development, 90(4), 408–420.
https://doi-org.ezproxy.uas.alaska.edu/10.1002/j.1556-6676.2012.00052.x
Dick, J. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.challengealaska.org/index.php/programs
MacDonald, S. macdonald@rmu. ed., & Maurer, M. (2015). Families Learning
Together. Science & Children, 52(9), 44–49. Retrieved from
https://egan.ezproxy.uas.alaska.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?dir
ect=true&db=eft&AN=103335643&site=ehost-live
Peck, C. cpass:[_]peck@uncg. ed., & Reitzug, U. C. . (2018). Discount Stores, Discount(ed)
Community? Parent and Family Engagement, Community Outreach, and an Urban
Turnaround School. Education & Urban Society, 50(8), 675–696. https://doi-
org.ezproxy.uas.alaska.edu/10.1177/0013124517713819
Sheldon, S. B. (2003). Linking School—Family—Community Partnerships in Urban Elementary
Schools to Student Achievement on State Tests. Urban Review, 35(2), 149–165.
Retrieved from
https://egan.ezproxy.uas.alaska.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?dir
ect=true&db=eft&AN=507831828&site=ehost-live
MASTERS PORTFOLIO: PARENTS, FAMILIES, AND COMMUNITIES 6

Example 1:

Cupcakes from Bake Sale:


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MASTERS PORTFOLIO: PARENTS, FAMILIES, AND COMMUNITIES 8
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Artifact 2

Parent’s Night Out

Permission Slip
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Figure 1: Post-it with info and my initial attempt at a poster. The 5th-grade team leader then
asked that the flyer doubles as a permission slip.
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Figure 2: Originally a cross-country permission slip, revised by self for current use. Further revision by
Admin secretary.
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Figure 3: “We need to make sure each student has a permission slip.” “I think we only want 60 kids.”
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Figure 4a: Final Permission Slip


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Figure 4b: Final Flyer


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Artifact 3:
Parent Letter Home:
Spelling Mastery
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Dear Parents,
I was fortunate enough to meet with some of you during
conferences but wanted to get a letter out to those of you, not in my
homeroom. Our class is using the Signatures: Reading Mastery
curriculum and therefore uses the Spelling Mastery program. Spelling
Mastery is a little different than the programs that are traditionally
used within the classroom.
The program is highly structured with the spelling words practiced
daily in class over 4 lessons, then students have a paired practice day
before taking a test. Therefore students will be having a spelling test
every 6 meetings. This allows us to slow down to work on specific skills
that may be troubling students.
Part of this structured program is that students do not need to
have spelling words to practice at home since they have so many
opportunities to practice in class. However, if you would like your
student to have a spelling list to practice at home, I can send the words
weekly in the student’s planner. I encourage this, but it is not
mandatory.
Please check one of the two boxes below so that I can prepare
materials for those who would like them.

Thank you so much for your patience and cooperation,

Mrs. Rainbeaux
o I would like the spelling lists
o I would not like the spelling lists

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