Asking the Right Questions to Engage Parents and Students
It’s been a great start to the year! My daughter came home the first day and said, “Mom, I think school should be longer every day.” Now, that’s either a sign that summer break was a terrible experience; or, that she is excited to kick off the year with her teacher. In either case, I’m just as excited to start the year.
One of the first assignments we received as parents was to complete “the questionnaire.” It is an excellent tool that teachers can use to get a sense for parent involvement, home life, and the student. When I presented this assignment to my partner, he was filled with memories of the last five years of questionnaires and responded with something like: “Why bother, I don’t think they use that data anyway…” (Not surprising coming from the statistician in the house!) But after reading this year’s questions, it seemed to me that this data would most definitely be used. The questions were intentional, thoughtful, and not just a copy paste from some “best of” site. So, together, my partner and I worked through each question in detail.
The two questions that were the most striking to me were…