Parent Panel

    I thought that the parents did a great job of explaining their interaction with the school and teachers.   They were honest about their involvement with their children's education.  I appreciated Steve Belay's approach of not getting overly involved with every little thing that goes on at school.   Most parents want their children to figure out relationships some what on their own.   Truthfully, parents are so busy working and running that they don't bother with daily student- teacher interactions. 

    Mary Kay is a parent of a special needs son.  Of course she had more involvement with his teachers because of the IEP meetings.   I liked her approach of working as a team to help her son achieve appropriate goals.   Parents shouldn't be affair to offer advice to teachers because parents know their children better than anyone else.  Hopefully, teachers will welcome this advice and use it to assist students in learning.

    Rebecca seemed like a parent who advocated for her children when it was obvious that one of them needed more help or to be better understood because of a learning disability.   I have experience with a son that struggled in the lower grades.   As a parent I wanted his teachers to know that he was an auditory learner and would need some accommodations even though he didn't qualify for an IEP.   Most teachers were willing to listen and cooperate, unfortunately some were not.   The best teachers were the ones that saw the strengths in our son and encouraged him to keep trying.   These teachers also knew that we the parents were working with him at home to help facilitate his learning. 

    The parent panel reassured the prospective teachers in the audience not to be affair of parents but to work with them for the good of the students.    As we discussed in class, the parents were not impressed with NCLB.  This surprised many of us.   I have mixed opinions about NCLB since I am a parent that doesn't think standardized test scores are an accurate reflection of my child's abilities or knowledge.   On the other hand as an educator it was and will be my job to accept and understand the law that promotes NCLB for the success of all students.   We will see what changes education will see with the new administration under Obama  in the next few years.