Parental Involvement in Schools

Parental involvement in schools consists of parents actively participating in their child's academics. There has been research to show that one of the best indicators of student success is their parent's involvement in it. The article "How Parent Involvement Leads to Student Success" discusses this research and many more aspects of why parents that are engaged in their student's learning make all the difference. They stated that it wasn't socioeconomic status or how prestigious the school was that the child went to that made them succeed ,but it was their parent's involvement that gave them the edge up. As mentioned in the article, when parents are engaged in their children's learning and school life the child will develop that support from both school and home. This gives the students the motivation to finish their assignments and sets them up for a lifelong love of learning in and out of the classroom. Therefore, it has proven to be crucial for parents to be involved in their children's learning. Not only will this give more of an ability to succeed, but it will also show the child that learning and academics are important and should be treated as such. Parents that are engaged in their child's academics more than likely have children who are engaged in their own academics as well. 

A father helping his son with homework

In my own experience, from a young age my parents had stressed the importance that academics had in my life. My parents helped instill this nature that school and learning were important and that I should treat them as so. From a young age, I remember taking school very seriously and treating it as a priority in my life. I think by my parents being involved in my learning, I was set up to be a successful student in grade school and in college. My love for learning has since grown exponentially and I have my partly my parents to thank for that love for school. Without their involvement in my academics, I would not be the driven and motivated student that I am today. 

Virtual Schooling

The pandemic really did flip everything upside down. In schools, there were drastic, sudden changes made that caused a shift in education, of which we continue to see in place in our schools today. One of those changes was where learning took place. Due to the pandemic, all learning was done in an online format which was then called virtual schooling. For the first time, all education was done through online structures such as zoom, google meet, or even just through pre-recorded videos. Virtual schooling was the only option for education in that time period. Today, some school systems are still meeting virtually and are not actively in the classroom yet. While there are many benefits to virtual schooling, there are many downsides as well. The New York Times published an article discussing virtual schooling and the ways it has played out through America. First, one of the benefits that virtual schooling has is its flexibility and how a student can go at their own desire pace. It stated, "The mantra of online learning is, ‘Your own time, your own pace, your own path." While this is a positive outlook that many middle school and high school students would greatly benefit from, elementary school students might rather suffer from it because of the structure that they are used to experiencing in school. Moreover, the article mentions a primary interview where the student stated he was falling behind because he had no structure and no one to keep him in line.Therefore, while flexibility in school is a huge perk of this way of learning, there are also many drawbacks. To no surprise, the article mentions academic performance and the way it has been affected because of virtual schooling. They stated that as a result of nearly 300 studies they found that, for the most part, students tend to learn less efficiently in virtual schooling, unless there is a facilitator or mentor at hand.

Student ,at a computer, attending an online lecture

    Since I too am in school during a pandemic, I have seen virtual schooling effect my academic performance in college. I have seen the benefit of the flexibility play out in my own schooling as I am able to work more at my job, which I love. Virtual schooling has been great in that aspect, as I have more free time to do with what I please. Although I have loved and seen myself flourish with asynchronous classes, I have seen the opposite effect in my classes that use online meeting software such as zoom. In zoom classes, I tend to zone out and become distracted even with that structure of formal meeting times. I can only imagine how an elementary school student can stare at a computer screen for a lengthy amount of time in one day, if even a college student like me fails pay attention more than half of the time on this software. Therefore, I believe all students should be in the classroom for at least 2 days a week. While, I do believe elementary school students more than high school students need that structured class time with the teacher in the room and would ideally get all 5 days of in-person instruction. With that, virtual schooling served a tremendous purpose during the first few months of the pandemic, as it helped education continue in a way that not many people had done before. However, I feel that the classroom purpose is even more so important, and as educators we should push for more in-person learning as it has proven to be so beneficial for both elementary and high school students alike.

Class Size

When thinking about an elementary school classroom, the issue of class size comes to mind for many individuals. One of the biggest issues in our schools today is class sizes as well as teacher to student ratios. How many kids is too much for one teacher? Does class size effect an individual student's learning? In an article discussing class size that was written by The National Council of Teachers of English, they discuss the importance that class size is for students and teachers alike. First, class size refers to the number of students in a classroom at a given time or day. For example, if there is an English teacher that teaches 5 periods a day with 20 students each- this teacher's "English" class size would be 100. In an elementary school classroom this is different ,because generally one teacher is with one group of students for an entire day. Therefore, in younger grades it is even more of a priority to keep class sizes small for the success of all students. Not only are students performing better academically in smaller classes ,but according to the article they are also more likely to engage and participate in a smaller class setting. The article also points out the long-term effect small class sizes can have on students. These include the benefits of academic success and confidence in higher grades. Also there is an increased probability of attending college when a small class size was present during a student's lower grade years.

10 students sitting on the carpet with their teacher

Moreover, class size has proven to be influential for a child's learning. This is something I have seen first-hand in my own experiences. Through determining that I wanted to become a teacher, I have had the opportunity to observe a few classrooms. One class I had the opportunity to observe had around 12 students. This was a kindergarten classroom in which also had 2 teachers in it. Therefore, these 12 students were noticeably getting one on one attention and instruction for most of the day. I could see each student's relationship with their teacher as well as their eagerness to participate in the classroom. This classroom felt like a family in which their connection was so strong. This experience definitely showed me the benefits of a small classroom size and the way it can transform a classroom. Although, this was in a private school that one must pay money for ,so I understand that public schools might not have this luxury. However, it showed me the importance and many benefits that small class sizes can have on tiny humans!