Title I Parent and Family Engagement Resources

Welcome Back to the 2019-2020 School Year!

On behalf of the School-wide Title I Program Staff, below are some Family Resources that we hope you will find helpful as we kick off the new school year.

Linda Waite, Consolidated Federal Programs Team Leader: Title I, Title IIA, Title IV, Title VB-RLIS
Christine Keklak, Title I/ SWP Math Teacher CAES
Miriam MacDonald, Title I/ SWP Literacy Teacher CAES
Amanda Pagano, Title I/SWP Literacy Teacher LES
Elizabeth Salisbury, Title I/SWP Literacy Teacher CAES
Rebecca Tobey, Title I/SWP Literacy Teacher MHS

Title I Parent and Family Engagement Resources

The following websites offer free resources for parent and family engagement. Included are both online resources for parents and families. Many of these resources are available in English and Spanish and some are available in other languages.

Free Resources for Parents and Families:

WONDEROPOLIS

www.wonderopolis.org

Wonderopolis is a place where natural curiosity and imagination lead to exploration and discovery in learners of all ages. Each day, we pose an intriguing question—the Wonder of the Day®—and explore it in a variety of ways.

STORYLINE ONLINE – SCREEN ACTORS GUILD

www.storylineonline.net

Home

The SAG-AFTRA Foundation’s children’s literacy website, Storyline Online, streams imaginatively produced videos featuring celebrated actors.

READ.GOV – THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

http://www.read.gov/book s

The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress invites people of all ages to discover the fascinating people, places and events that await you whenever you read. Books online.

30 DAYS OF FAMILIES LEARNING TOGETHER

30days.familieslearning.org

National Center for Families Learning’s guide to 30 Days of Families Learning Together provides a month’s worth of family literacy activities and practices designed to inspire family memories rooted in imagining, playing, and learning together.

CULTIVATING READERS

www.familieslearning.org

The Cultivating Readers Family Guide provides tips and to grow reading skills from birth to age eight. The guide will help parents keep their shared learning activities with their children fun and part of their everyday routine. Available in both English and Spanish. This is a bookmark template which offers ideas for parents on how to make the most of the time they spend reading with their child. It also features a question-and-answer guide to help children develop oral language skills and build vocabulary.

SCHOLASTIC FAMILY PLAYGROUND

Interactive games, printables and videos. Ages 3 – 7

www.scholastic.com/parents/play

Interactive games, printables and videos. Ages 8 – 12

www.scholastic.com/kids

FAMILY TIME MACHINE

www.familytimemachine.com/about

The Family Time Machine™ is fueled by your family’s imagination! It recharges its batteries when your family turns moments of togetherness into family time by learning, imagining, and playing together!

CURIOSITY MACHINE

www.curiositymachine.org/challenges/?free=1#challenges

Build hands-on engineering design challenges, through building, you learn not only how something works, but why it works. Helping children to succeed by being curious, creative, and persistent. Free challenges.

DAY AT DOLLAR GENERAL

http://www.familieslearning.org/interactive_tools/day_at_dollar_general

NCFL and the Dollar General Literacy Foundation have teamed up to educate families about money management through an online interactive game makes it fun and educational for both children and parents to learn basic budgeting skills.

RENEGADE BUGGIES

renegadebuggies.familieslearning.org/index.html

Interactive game focused on financial literacy by exploring consumer strategies.

MYPLATE KIDS’ PLACE – USDA

www.choosemyplate.gov/kids%20

www.choosemyplate.gov/families

Resource for kids, parents, and teachers. Resources include games, activity sheets, kid-friendly recipes, and physical activity tips. Kids can also pledge to become MyPlate Champions.

Practical tips and tools that have worked for other families, videos, recipes and budgeting.

PARENTS AND TEACHERS AS PARTNERS – CRAYOLA

www.crayola.com/for-educators/resources-landing/parents-and-teachers-as-partners-landing.aspx

Addresses issues which affect teachers and parents in a format of questions and answers. Both parents and teachers have information to share with each other which benefits the children we care for and teach.

Trauma Informed Practices

The Two Rivers Supervisory Union will be collaborating with Susan Mordecai to provide individual eight week sessions within our schools. The focus of the sessions will be trauma informed. The theme of the sessions is The Mindful Self. This will provide additional follow up and enhancement to the current professional development that Two Rivers is currently participating in regarding Trauma Informed Schools.

Susan Mordecai is the Founder and Director of Mindful In Vermont, which provides educational training, consulting, and supervision, for both students and staff members. Susan has crafted the Mindful SELF program with a focus on Mindfulness, and Social Emotional Learning. Susan holds a Level II Teaching License from the VT Agency Of Education as well as several certifications for teaching mindfulness. Susan has a M.S. in Special Education and a M.A. in Educational Psychology.

Over the past six years Susan has developed and implemented the Mindful SELF program that imparts self- awareness, social-awareness, focused attention, kindness towards self and others, decision making and ways to cultivate resiliency in classrooms, homes and communities. Trauma informed practices are woven in to help support resiliency and healthy relationships. Currently Susan offers her services to TRSU, the Windsor County Wellness Initiative and other organizations within Windsor County.

New Teacher Orientation

This year’s New Teacher Orientation was another successful event. All of the teachers that will begin working in a couple of weeks within the Two Rivers Supervisory Union (TRSU) got together to learn all of the ins and outs of working within this district.

Some of the topics covered in this 2-day session were learning about our philosophy and practices as they relate to proficiency-based education, understanding our core instructional practices, finding how to access employee benefits, meeting the TRSU staff, and of course begin making connections.

The majority of the trainings were done with the group as a whole, but the teachers also had the opportunity to break out into smaller groups by each individual school where they met with the principals and other school faculty.

New this year, each of the teachers had the chance to do a quick video introducing themselves that will go up next week on the TRSU social media platforms as a way for students and parents to get to know them a little before school starts. A good time was had by all and they are excited to get started!

Leaders of their Own Learning

Last year I read Leaders of their Own Learning with the TRSU Administrative Leadership Team. I found the book to be closely aligned with our district initiatives toward proficiency-based education, personalized learning and core instructional practices. I purchased copies for each of the Chester-Andover Elementary School teachers so that we may study it together this year as part of our work to improve academic achievement for all learners.

The strategies and tools outlined in this book will help transform the way our students and teachers partner together. The videos provide real classroom examples of how instructional practices can be implemented across grade levels.

Through shared reading and reflection of classroom implementation, teachers will analyze achievement data, help students identify their own strengths and challenges, and give them the skills to become engaged in setting their personal learning goals. As we move toward the use of proficiency-based learning and reporting, students will gain voice and choice and have a much deeper understanding of who they are as learners.

Our students are fortunate to be experiencing a huge paradigm shift in education. Not only will they know themselves as learners early in their education, they will partner with teachers to determine the pace and direction of their learning and have multiple pathways to demonstrate mastery of content.

Leaders of their Own Learning is both timely and relevant to the work we have begun and will serve to guide and focus our continued school-wide efforts toward academic equity and excellence. I cannot wait to dive into this book with the CAES staff this year!

Katherine Fogg
Chester-Andover Elementary School Principal