Prompt 5

Teaching is not always easy, as a teacher you will face some challenges with your students' parents and or guardians. These challenges may be tough, but there is always a solution to a problem. Over the past month and a half, I have been working in a very diverse environment. What could be challenging about the diversity is the teachers' understanding of the cultural differences of students. In Johnson's article "Our House is on Fire" he states that white schoolchildren are assumed to be competent until the show otherwise, while students of color are assumed to be incompetent until they prove themselves. As a teacher, I believe it is best to always start the year out positive. A good way to kick off the school year would be to personally invite the parents' to open house in the fall. In order to prevent biased views like this, as a teacher I must be open-minded to the students' backgrounds. The home life of a white student can be just as bad or worse than a home life of an African American student. The home life of an African American student could be just as stable or more stable than a white students. We all carry on different lives, where a parent could work all day and never see their child, or a mother could stay at home and live off welfare and unemployment. You never know the issues until they are directly told to you by a parent.

To avoid conflict, I do not believe as a teacher I should assume, nor ask anything too personal. A solution to a problem such as a parent being unemployed and they cannot afford clothes, food, coats, and it's quite noticeable, perhaps ask if they'd like to be entered in a raffle. As a teacher it would be in my best interest to get a feeling of each individual students' home life. In order to due so, I will call each parent before the school year begins and tell them about my excitement of working with their child. Again, starting off on a positive note, discriminating against no race. Johnson in his article said that 'race is not the same as ethnicity, in fact race is characterized by the degree of intelligence, creativity, goodness, honesty, trustworthiness, and courage.' Another issue dealing with poverty that could cause conflict could be lack of transportation. If a parent cannot make it to a meeting, I will be more than willing as a teacher to set up the meeting somewhere conveniently close, or even meet at their house if they feel comfortable enough. Another challenge with diversity is language. I am not bilingual, nor are a lot of teachers. In order to fix this conflict there are translators in a lot of the inner city schools. In the school I am tutoring at there is a parent engagement office that includes flyers' that are in English and Spanish. Spanish in that school is one of the dominant languages spoken besides English.



An example of a parent conflict in the classroom I am tutoring in now is ....

Mrs . K like a normal teacher, assigns homework to the students. Mrs. K sends them home with an assignment book that the assistant teacher writes in. Each day she takes the time to write the students' homework down in their book. Each day the student takes the book home and should give it to their parents. Their parents then have the job to instruct them on how to go about doing their homework. There are certain students in the classroom that have never done their homework in the class. Mrs. K always makes a phone call to their parents, hoping they will understand in order to succeed they must complete their homework. Each time Mrs. K calls they say that they understand the consequences of not completing their homework, lie to Mrs. K and tell her that they will do their best to make sure that their son or daughter will complete their homework. A few weeks goes by where Mrs. K has to make the phone call again because the student is still not attempting to do their homework. If I were in this situation, in order to help the student I would sit down with them and try to make them understand that homework is their responsibility. I would then appoint the parent and ask them to schedule an in person meeting. The reason it must be in person is because communication is more affective when you are actually seeing the concern coming from the teacher. I would use the same approach with a students mother who continues to do their homework for the student in Mrs. K's class. I will try my best after to follow up with daily communication such as, writing notes in their agenda. I will "think like a mother" and think in a parents perspective.

To show my students parents and parents of the community my concern and respect for their child's education, as a teacher I will join the PTO (Parent Teacher Organization) board. At the school I am observing at the ration of teachers vs parents is split right down the middle at 50%. During the school year at Ginger Elementary, the teachers invite all the parents' to a pasta night, where the teachers' cook for the parents'. I believe this is a good opportunity for the parents and teachers to get to know each other and start a good and positive relationship with each other and the school.