Community Snapshot Reflection

Parent and Community involvement does not occur overnight. I feel that schools must make parent and community involvement a priority, valuing and accepting each other’s differences. Schools, families and communities must work together to support all students in a learning environment to ensure every student is a successful learner. Positive family and school involvement fosters a partnership among my school encouraging students to reach their highest potential academically and in life. Parent and community involvement does not mean stay-at-home mothers coming to school to help as needed, or a businessman stopping by to see events occurring on campus. The role of school, family and community involvement is a partnership incorporating goal-oriented activities for all grade levels linked to academic success and student growth.

Probably one of the most important issues when it comes to Family/Community Partnership is trying to get the families/community involved in what we are doing. By engaging parents, it will help us to see what we are lacking and what we need to do in order to have our families fully engaged. I feel that if our families/communities are not engaged in our program then we need to reevaluate in order to encourage their participation. By reevaluating our program we can further access what we need to work on. If parents/communities feel that they are not valued as part of our team, they won’t engage in our program. Both the parents and the community play a big role in the education of our children. Parents are their first teachers and the communities have valuable resources for the children.

For the past 17 years, Elk Mound has been my home. When most people drive through the village on highway 12, they glance ahead, not noticing the community around them. The people living, working, or attending school here are not only my friends, but in a way, my family. I have grown up with people who have more in common with my rather than just where we live. There are 66 young adults in my class today, and I have known everyone’s name since first grade. Attending a small high school has given me multiple opportunities to join a variety of clubs. If I am playing a basketball game, running in a meet, or participating at the State Academic Decathlon meet, I see familiar faces from my community. The support of a small community is personal. Since

This event helped inspire schools and communities all over the world to make a special

We will house kids who are products of all facets of society. For example, children of immigrants, children who have affluence, children who are loved and cared for greatly and children who may be in a situation of neglect. Teaching is about reaching out to each student, helping them to overcome challenges and be the best that they can be. It seems that an increasing number of these challenges may not be academic in nature. I believe that conquering these challenges actually beings with the little community forming within our classrooms. As teachers we have the obligation to teach our students how to have respect and compassion for one another. How to be on the same team and work together, no matter each person’s background.

I think that community building is important to gain respect and understand one another. America being a melting pot, there can be many tensions and complications. But it is important that we need to learn and understand each other. This incident also made me question our community at UCSC. It made me realize how we don’t have a close-knit community as a whole school but there are only activities within the colleges. I think that we need overarching activities that bring everyone together as a whole school. I really enjoyed Holi, it exposed Indian culture and how they celebrate, light, and happiness. I think another reason why we don’t have much of a team spirit compared to other UC’s is that we don’t have sports. Sports unite us because it doesn't see color, sports bring everyone together. But even though sports seem important to unite us as a school, UCSC is known to not have sports. The reason why people come to UCSC is that we are not focused on sports but instead we should have activities such as concerts. Music can be a way to transgress language barriers and cultures. It can be a fun and engaging activity that celebrate the multicultural community in

Busch Middle School of Character had a wonderful sense of community, each student, instructor, and family, made sure they were doing their part. I believe it’s important for educators to understand the needs of the families and community of their students because the more resources the better. When schools actively involve parents

“Our main goal is to create a space that brings together all kinds of students to help them raise awareness and celebrate differences in our inclusive school climate.”

A Community is like a family outside of home, and I always aim to do the best for it. I spent most of my time in the community at church and at school. At Church I assist in bringing planned events to fruition. I help create an environment in and out of school that is warm and welcoming, I accomplish this through music or actions. Tulare Western High School is a better place thanks to the joint efforts of everyone enrolled. At school rallies and football games wouldn't be same without people like me who love their school, and give it spirit. Without us they'd be nearly soulless, and erring. Not only do people such as I make school experiences more memorable, we contribute and thank others through our actions, for example in December our entire

“Students articulate the complex characteristics of children’s families and communities and use this understanding to create respectful, reciprocal relationships that support and empower families, and to engage all families in their children’s development and learning.”

***If you happen to be a varsity or club or student council mentor, please spend time to take a pictures of your students, may be in groups while doing a task, and send it to the HT. HT will be the one to place in the folder entitled OUTSIDE

An example of “doing something for” members of the community was when the Chapter in a joint effort with BSU and Southside Community Center provided a little holiday cheer for the children in the Ithaca community. The holiday festival was hosted at Ujamaa where gifts, festive treats, and memories were made with the kids. The goals of this event was to build more bridges between the Cornell and greater Ithaca community and to provide young children an opportunity to interact with college students who looked like them as minority representation in higher education is

Because of the imperfections evident in my high school and deeply rooted in the city’s and state’s allocation of education funding it has become clear to me why I love my high school community so much. It is not the material possessions that we have (because compared to nearby cities and town like Newport, Mansfield, or even North Attleboro we are definitely lacking), or the quality of education that we receive (because I was forced into taking more electives this year than I have over the past three years combined due to scheduling issues and overcrowded classes), but our ability to come together in times of need, put aside our differences, and facilitate positive change. Though we have our differences and fights break out or names are called, when serious issues

Due to a diverse population of students, the school/family relationship can become difficulty to handle due to language barriers. Trying to communicate with a family member is challenging; not knowing if they have understood what they have been told. The quality of the relationship between school and community is positive. Support of the community is valued by the school for the success of the students. the connectedness to the school from the students is strong. The school exhibited connectedness among the students by awarding them for going through a week with positive attitudes. That being that the week passed without student conflicts and less

I enjoyed seeing my classmates and friends in this class and felt that within this classroom we could really make a change for the better. One thing that I felt could be altered to make the class more beneficial is to reduce the amount of films we watch in class so we have more time to discuss the reading. The interview and project are definitely good parts to keep for the next time this class runs. I think more experiential learning opportunities, such as the field trip to Old Church, would be beneficial. I suggest that the class take a trip to the cemetery or to the Rosenwald school as well and get a tour of those sites. I think the cemetery would be especially interesting if given tours from both black and white members of the community, because throughout this class we have talked about different perspectives and the narratives told with a focus on the marginalized individual. It has helped me to see that community does focus on the personal and social connections we harbor and the narratives we bring to the table. Building on these connections, these strategies, and meaningful conversation, community can grow and