shaneassignment8

__**Teacher Interview **__ 1. Do you have a classroom web site? (what is the link to the site?) Yes I do. The link is [|http://kd068.k12.sd.us] I visited the website to see which it had of the following areas: ü  Assignments – Schedules & lesson plans ü  Correct spelling - Yes ü  Pictures – Yes, site looks very nice. No photos of students though. ü  Information about the teacher – Yes, nice link to a meet the teacher page. Informative but short. ü  Contact information – E-mail info & link ü  Is it appealing and easy to navigate – Very much so. ü  Specifically what else is it used for? – She is a kindergarten teacher. The sight has links to snack info., supply list, class wish list & website links for kids to get extra help or play educational games. ü  Upcoming events – Yes, she has a link to her newsletter on her page. ü  Give this an overall rating of Excellent – **//__ Good __//** – Fair – Poor  2. Do you use email to communicate with parents of the students as a whole? I do not usually send out a generic email to all parents (for information, updates, etc). However, I do send emails to individual parents....to address concerns, etc. I use this resource daily! It's a communication tool that most parents have access to and feel comfortable using.
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3. Do you send home printed classroom communications? I send out a weekly newsletter as well as a monthly newsletter. The weekly newsletter is information about the subject areas and what we are going to be working on for the next week. I also include a "featured artist" section. Each week, the kids brainstorm something fun we did that week. Then I select someone to draw a picture of the idea and we add a quote about the picture. This gets attached to the newsletter and is a super cute and kid-friendly way to show parents what is happening in kindergarten.

4. Do you use a digital camera in your classroom as part of the communication or anything else? I use a digital camera in our classroom frequently. I like to put some pictures of our class in action on the webpage for parents to see. Sometimes I will put pictures in the newsletter. We also use pictures as story prompts, building classroom community, etc.

<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New';">5. Are parents or community members encouraged to volunteer in your school and your classroom? Our administration values parental and community involvement. I feel that our staff is always looking for new ways to get parents in the classroom and aware of what our kids are expected to know and do.

<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New';">6. Are parents or community members involved in daily activities in your classroom? i.e. correcting, supervising, field trips, general classroom help. Yes, I have parents come in for their child's birthday celebration every year. We sing a special rendition of Happy Birthday, read their special birthday book and their donated birthday book! I also have volunteers (if they inquire) who come in to the room and cut/paste/various jobs. Parents also help us on field trips :) It's great to develop a caring community. Parents like to come in and see what their kids do in a day in kindergarten. They appreciate getting to know you and seeing how things are run!

<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New';">7. Most challenging thing about working with parents? Working with parents is sometimes the most challenging part of the profession...period. It takes several years for a novice teacher to understand that you must be flexible and deal with parents as individuals, just like the children. I really think that this is the biggest challenge--that you must understand which parents will work with you and be consistent about things and which parents might just challenge you continuously. These are the situations where I strictly work with the student during day hours, on my own time.

<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New';">8. Most enjoyable thing in working with parents? If you refer to the question before, the parents that work with you and want to be a 'team', if you will, can make the job very rewarding for everyone involved. They are appreciative, friendly, supportive and caring. I keep in contact with them and am happy to have returning families to my room every year!

9. Is parent involvement increased or decreased since you began teaching? I think it is the same. It really depends on the class that you have. If there are stay at home parents, you will have more volunteers and you have more face-to-face interaction.

<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: blue; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New';">10. Demographics – grade level or subject taught, number of years taught, number of students taught each day. I teach kindergarten. This fall I will start my fourth year. I usually have an average of 21 students each year. (more boys on average as well.)