By Subhojit Roy, Co-Founder Connections PR & Media Consultant

 

 

Often we blame on the system but we forget that each one of us playing a critical role to build an ecosystem; especially with kids overall development and building progressive environment for them.

 

Have you ever heard that communication is a two-way street? What does communication have to do with the success of your child’s reading? How often would you like feedback about your child? What kind of feedback do you wish you would get from your child’s teacher? school? Whose job is it to see that information is given? Are you, as the parent, waiting for your child’s teacher to initiate communication? Are you, as the teacher, waiting for the parent to initiate communication? Why wait? You be the one to make the first step. Aren’t you both trying to achieve the same thing? Have you heard that actions speak louder than words? In the case of your child’s education, some actions are perceived by teachers as “involved.” For example, if parents attend students’ performances, school and class activities, parent-teacher conferences, and PTA meetings and volunteers their time in the classroom, those parents are seen as involved. When a child comes to school and they are well groomed and well rested and their homework is completed, a teacher presumes that the parent/caregiver was involved in the process of helping that child be successful and prepared. So, if parents don’t do all of those things, are they not involved in their child’s learning? Do they not care about their child’s education? It may appear so. Here’s where communication plays a huge role. Are you unable to attend meetings because of conflicting work schedules, illness, or other family struggles? Are you unable to volunteer because of language barriers, lack of transportation, childcare needs, or other issues? Do you understand the school culture? Does the teacher understand your culture and your feelings about how you can give support? If you haven’t communicated these concerns or challenges to your child’s teacher, how would she know? If you are the teacher, how would you know if you hadn’t asked the questions? Communication is a two-way street. Have you crossed that street? It’s something parents hear all the time, but it bears repeating. One of the keys to parents and teachers working together is to have good communication. What may not be clear is that communication works both ways.

 

Certainly, there are a number of things you should tell your child’s teacher about her to help start out the year right, but the responsibility for maintaining good parent-teacher communication doesn’t lie solely on the parent.

 

Parent-teacher relationships only work well if a teacher not only puts in the effort to respond to your concerns and questions but also reaches out to share concerns and compliments with you. But what can you do when you think the teacher isn’t living up to her part?

 

Building partnerships between parents and teachers relies on teachers listening to parents and parents taking the time to understand where teachers are coming from. Sometimes parents and teachers both are guilty of dismissing the other’s viewpoint.
As a parent, the more dismissed you feel, the less likely you are to participate in your child’s education. As a teacher, the less you feel like you’re being heard, the more likely you are to stop communicating with a parent.

Things that may seem confrontational, like an outline of what kind of homework help a teacher wants from a parent or a parent outlining what the school needs to do to accommodate a child’s peanut allergy, aren’t always as demanding as they appear. The end goal is the same for both parent and school: helping kids be responsible, safe and successful.

 

“Seek first to understand, then to be understood ” – Parent-Child-Teacher relationship

 

First, when it comes to expectations, both parents and teachers have them for each other. They expect certain things to happen. Parents expect teachers to instruct their students and to guide their learning so they can have success. Teachers expect parents to support the instruction and learning that happens in school, at home. They also each have expectations for the child/student they share in common. They have expectations for their student’s academic performance, attendance, and behavior both in school and out of school. If these expectations are the same and they are communicated, a synergy will happen, and their relationship can have a powerful effect on the student’s learning outcomes. The operative word in all this is communicated. When expectations are clearly communicated, both parents and teachers will have a better understanding of their roles in the parent-teacher relationship. They will then know how best to be a supportive part of that relationship.

 

Parents and Teachers play a crucial role by working with the kids on their long term goal and continuously helping them to find the comfort zone.

Competence-building is one of the biggest challenges facing education providers today. The need of the hour is to equip school-goers with the skills that will enable them to deal with the challenges of tomorrow, some of which may not even exist today

 

Professional development for teachers should be analogous to professional development for other professionals. Becoming an effective science teacher is a continuous process that stretches from preservice experiences in undergraduate years to the end of a professional career.

 

They need to know how to learn because we don’t know what it is they’re going to need to learn” says  Professor Glenys Thompson, Deputy Principal, the Australian Science and Mathematics School.

 

Digital transformation is is an indisputable force revolutionizing our industries, reinventing our products, redefining our services and reshaping the way we work. The impact is so dramatic that Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum, has dubbed it the fourth industrial revolution. Our students will enter this very different world. So how do we prepare them for it? New ways of working mean new opportunities for teaching Today’s students need real-world skills to thrive in the not-too-distant future. Qualities like critical thinking, collaboration, creative problem solving, self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision-making, and the ability to construct complex solutions. This is true regardless of subject area. Complex skills are as important for artistic, service and human-oriented professions as they are for more scientific, technological or industrial employment. Digital skills are now vital for all On top of critical thinking and problem solving, the digital skills that were once the province of computer science students are now crucial across the entire spectrum of education. It’s increasingly difficult to imagine how your students will succeed without digital facility, be they looking to pursue careers in healthcare or banking, academia or the performing arts. For education systems, this requires a deliberate effort to create conditions where learners can demonstrate and develop these capabilities.

 

The Education Transformation Framework

 

Ensure success with global best practice Microsoft worked with 130 leading policy makers and academics to evaluate studies of schools, school districts and countries where learning transformation initiatives have made dramatic improvements. By recording and analyzing their evidence and research data and working in consultation with academics, experts and policy makers, we’ve identified what works and what doesn’t. The most successful transformation projects globally share the same approach—one that’s holistic, methodical and systematic. We also distilled the key findings and made them available to school leaders everywhere. The result is an Education Transformation Framework grounded in the latest research into effective policy, leadership and pedagogy transformation. You can quickly see what global leaders are recommending and tap into their best practice and experiences, with links to go deeper if required. Examples of what has worked and what hasn’t can help you avoid repeating the same mistakes. Recognizing that school contexts vary, and that change can be ‘whole school’ or ‘incremental,’ the framework is open and non-prescriptive, providing a flexible starting point. It is underpinned by a suite of executive summaries, white papers and provoking questions, all designed to stimulate conversations, and provide guidance for managing the critical aspects of change.

 

 

Here are some of the visionary outcomes you can aim for when developing your transformation roadmap.

 

School leaders

 

• Accelerate continuous improvement in student and teacher performance, health, wellbeing and achievement— across a class, a school or the entire system—thanks to real-time information and analytics.
• Connect and collaborate with the wider school community using convenient new social communications.
• Improve rankings and graduation rates, and reduce drop-out rates.

 

Teachers

 

• Understand more about their students, and the support or guidance they need.
• Can augment their lessons with experts from anywhere in the world.
• Provide powerful feedback and guidance, freed from the traditional, repetitive methods usually required to do this.
• Open up new pedagogical opportunities, with tools to understand and refine impact.
• Support their own ongoing professional development with access to training and peer networking.

 

Students

 

• Are more engaged, included, empowered and supported.
• Receive powerful digital tools and learning resources for personalized learning.
• Can learn, study and interact with a keyboard, pen, touch, voice and other natural interfaces.
• Are able to co-create, co-author, communicate and collaborate with classmates, mentors and teachers.
• Can explore ideas and concepts more deeply, with “anywhere, anytime” access to coursework, apps and feedback.
• Can decide their own learning pathways, work at their own pace and pursue topics that engage them within the core curriculum.
• Engage in virtual excursions, conversations or collaborations with experts from anywhere on Earth. Develop essential skills for employability.