Guest Post by Joe Mazza

Upcoming #PTchat: Parents & Teachers Discuss Ways to Combat Summer Learning Loss

Wed., 5/30 9PM EDT

Guest Post by Joe Mazza

Upcoming #PTchat: J.Michael Hall Joins #PTchat to Share Ideas on How to Engage Dads in Education

Wed., 5/23 9PM EDT

Fathers can initiate or participate in activities that help their children succeed academically. Helping children learn can increase success in school. The nature and frequency with which parents interact in positive ways with their children reflect the parents’ investment in their children’s education (NCES, 2000). Some steps that fathers can take at home, at school and in the community that make a positive difference for their children’s education have been compiled on the Department of Education’s Fathers in Education Resource Page.

It’s important to remember up front that both sensitivity and self-confidence are greater than any specific skills in paternal behavior and influence. Sensitivity is critical to both involvement and closeness. The closeness of the father-child relationship is the crucial determinant of the dad’s impact on a child’s development and adjustment. Developing sensitivity enables a dad to evaluate his child’s signals or needs, and respond to them appropriately. (Abramovitch in Lamb, 1997).

 J. Michael Hall will join us as our chat’s expert this week. Mr. Hall is the father of two sons and the husband to a middle school teacher. Mr. Hall has been a special education teacher, a teacher of the gifted and talented, and an intermediate and middle school principal. After realizing that he was spending more time raising other people children than his own he left the principalship and soon became an advocate for stronger parent and father involvement in public education. As an educator, speaker and founder of Strong Fathers-Strong Families, he has worked with more than 110,000 fathers and parents at local schools, Head Starts, and regional and national conferences.

 

Join us on Wednesday, May 23^rd at 9PM EDT as parents and educators share their best ideas on how to best engage Dads in schools. Before you finalize your calendars, make sure you’ve purposefully differentiated for all members of your students’ families.

Past #PTchats have been archived on Joe Mazza’s eFACE Today blog.

Guest Post by Joe Mazza

This Week’s #PTchat Preview

It’s getting closer to June, which means summer vacation for many students will be here before we know it. Some schools require summer reading lists to be completed and others do not. Elementary schools and secondary schools oftentimes look very different in terms of the expectations for summer reading.

Does your school provide a summer list for students? Is it differentiated based upon reading level or grade? As parents, do you encourage your children to read over the summer? What are the pros and cons of such a program? What is best for kids?

To discuss these questions and more, join us this Wednesday, May 16th at 9PM EST / 6PM PST as we cover school summer reading programs. Join us parents & educators!

Guest Post by Joe Mazza

#PTchat 5-9-12 – “Parents Ask Mock Interview Questions of New & Experienced Teachers”

Exciting news! This Wednesday, May 9th at *8PM EST, #PTchat will team up with #NTchat (New Teacher Chat) during the one hour chat. Some of our parent participants have already submitted questions they’d like to pose to new and experienced teachers – some having to do with family engagement and some designed to share the perspective from home on what they look for in teachers for their children.

If you are a parent and are interested in submitting a questions to be asked on the chat, please email Joe here. If you are an educator, we invite you to take part in articulating your answers to these questions Wednesday night. Join us for this lively weekly discussion!

**Special Time 8PM EST/5PM PST

Past #PTchats have been archived on Joe Mazza’s eFACE Today blog.Past #NTchats are archived here.

Guest Post by Joe Mazza

Middle & High School Family Engagement Strategies

#PTchat, Wed., 5/2/12 – 9PM EST/6PM PST

According to the Family Engagement for High School Success Toolkit provided by the Harvard Family Research Project and the United Way,family engagement tends to drop off as teens enter high school because families are intimidated by the high school environment and feel less confident about supporting their teen’s academic progress at that level.

However, it is imperative that parents become and/or remain involved in their child’s education as he or she transitions into high school.

As parents and teachers, we must create a more seamless family engagement path, a way into and out of high school so families remain engaged throughout their teen’s high school grades.

Join us this Wednesday night (9PM EST / 6PM PST) as parents and educators discuss family engagement strategies geared toward secondary schools. The diverse and global perspectives present during the chat will make for a lively, informative and collaborative discussion. Bring your best ideas and successes as we begin planning for the 2012-2013 school year.

Past #PTchats have been archived on Joe Mazza’s eFACE Today blog.

Guest Post by Joe Mazza

What is this “flipped classroom” people are talking about?

What are the implications for parents, teachers and students?

#PTchat, Wed., 4/25 9PM EST/6PM PST

The “flipped classroom” is defined by Knewton in this cool infographic, as “inverted teaching methods, delivering instruction online outside of class and moving “homework” into the classroom.”

For schools interested in venturing down the “flipped” road must look at the implications of this model for students, staff and families. Every educational and home setting has a different level of readiness for outside the box ideas like this one.

During Parent-Teacher Chat (#PTchat) this Wednesday, 4/25 at 9PM Eastern / 6PM Pacific, we’ll spend an hour discussing the flipped classroom model. We’ve invited parents, teachers and leaders who are currently harnessing the “flipped classroom,” as well as some high school students in flipped classrooms to join our discussion and help us see it through their lens as well. The diverse perspectives present during the chat will make for a lively, informative and collaborative discussion.

Please visit Joe Mazza’s eFACE Today blog to learn more! Past #PTchats have been archived here.

Guest Post by Joe Mazza:

This Week’s #PTchat – Taking You Through Each Awesome Educational Chat & Hashtag

*Special Time* Wednesday, 4/18 – 8PM EST / 5PM PST

Join #PTchat this Wednesday night from 8-9PM EST (Special Time) as we discuss many of the educational and parenting hashtags, what they stand for and when you can tune in to participate or lurk in on the conversations. If you take part in a weekly chat, host or co-moderate, be sure your hashtag and/or chat is represented. Share out when it occurs, what topics you’ve discussed, links to your archives and how parents and teachers can add their perspectives and contribute.

Building a Personal Learning Network (PLN) relies heavily upon finding others who are doing the same work as you are around the world. This chat is a great opportunity for PLN building and finding a new hashtag to support your work.

Please join us this Wednesday, 4/18 at 8PM EST / 5PM PST. For more information, please visit Joe Mazza’s eFACE Today Blog. #PTchat is a weekly chat where parents and teachers around the world come together using the hashtag #PTchat. The goal behind #PTchat is to encourage a transparent and collaborative dialogue between parents and educators. All #PTchats are archived here.

Guest Post by Joe Mazza:

This week’s #PTchat Topic: What is the role of district leadership to promote best practice family engagement in schools? 

According to the Harvard Family Research Project (July 2009), school districts must do the following.

-Create infrastructure for district-wide leadership for family engagement

-Build capacity for family engagement through training and technical assistance

-Ensure reporting, learning, and accountability for family engagement

-Help all understand, design, and implement strong evaluation strategies

Dr. Steve Constantino will be on this week’s #PTchat to discuss ideas and proven research on how school districts can plan for a sound family engagement plan for all stakeholders. He currently serves as superintendent of Williamsburg-James City Country School District in Williamsburg, Virginia. He has traveled extensively as a speaker, capacity-builder and leader in the arena of family engagement and has worked in hundreds of schools in hundreds of districts on four different continents. He is the author of several books focusing on family engagement and is working on a new one called “Engaging Every Family: The New Standards for Global Family Engagement.”

I hope you can join us Wednesday night, April 13th at 9PM EST / 6 PM PST for a lively parent-teacher conversation!

For more information, please visit Joe Mazza’s eFACE Today Blog. #PTchat is a weekly chat where parents and teachers around the world come together using the hashtag #PTchat. The goal behind #PTchat is to encourage a transparent and collaborative dialogue between parents and educators. All #PTchats are archived here.

Guest Post by Joe Mazza:

You just got back from an amazing professional development or conference. Now what? How do you share all that new learning with your parent population? Won’t you need their support in moving the school forward?

In the best interests of transparency and keeping our school parents up on the latest research-based practices happening around the world, committing to sharing our new knowledge with them becomes a no-brainer.

This Wednesday, 3/28 at 9PM EST / 6 PST, we’ll discuss ideas on who to go about this from the parents’ and teachers’ lens. For more information, please visit Joe Mazza’s eFACE Today Blog. #PTchat is a weekly chat where parents and teachers around the world come together using the hashtag #PTchat. The goal behind #PTchat is to encourage a transparent and collaborative dialogue between parents and educators. All #PTchats are archived here.

Guest Post by Joe Mazza:

Next #PTchat – 3/21/12 9PM EST / 6 PST

Extreme School Lobby Makeover – Welcome, Honor & Connect Edition

What does your school do to create a trusting and respectful relationships with parents?

Karen Mapp, a leading researcher on family engagement and consultant to the U.S. Department of Education has found that we should be welcoming, honoring and connecting our families. Mapp has found that high-performing, low-income schools welcome, honor, and connect families with what’s happening in class. She calls this “The Joining Process” and found that it creates a school where “everyone feels like members of a family.”

This Wednesday, 3/21/12 #PTchat continues as we take a look at the “welcoming and supportive environments” we have set up in our schools for families. We will share and gather ideas on how to take your school lobby to the next level in terms of welcoming, honoring and connecting. 

For more information, please visit Joe Mazza’s eFACE Today Blog. #PTchat is a weekly chat where parents and teachers around the world come together using the hashtag #PTchat. The goal behind #PTchat is to encourage a transparent and collaborative dialogue between parents and educators. All #PTchats are archived here.

Guest Post by Joe Mazza:

Upcoming #PTchat on Twitter – 3/7/12 at 9PM EST/6PST

Recently, England’s Education Secretary Michael Gove gave schools the go ahead to reduce the amount of homework they set for pupils after complaints from parents that studies are cutting in to family time.

Alfie Kohn has been one of the leading researchers on the topic of homework. During our hour long chat, we’ll share his findings as well as dig into the most meaningful homework assignments parents and students have experienced. We’ll hear from teachers who are working to balance the research on homework with the policies written by their school districts that mandate those assignments. How are they engaging families in the homework they assign?

Bring your ideas, experiences and insights to support the work of both parents and teachers.

For more information on this week’s #PTchat and archives of past chats, please visit Joe Mazza’s eFACE Today blog.

Guest Post by Joe Mazza:

This Wednesday, February 29th at 9PM EST/6PM PST, #PTchat discusses Parent-Teacher Conferences and how parents AND teachers can maximize these oftentimes short sessions of face to face communication.

In prioritizing the needs of the child, how do parents and teachers plan for, facilitate, reflect and respond following these important conferences? Join parents and educators all over the world as we hone in on how to best utilize the time together.

Bring your ideas, experiences and insights to support the work of both parents and teachers. For more information on this week’s #PTchat, please visit Joe Mazza’s eFACE Today blog.

I was the guest at #PTchat on Twitter to discuss the topic “Partnering With ESL/ELL Families.” The chat has been archived at Storify here, and contains a fair amount of useful information.

I’m adding it to The Best Sources Of Parent Engagement Advice For Teachers.

In January , Joe Mazza wrote a guest post about Parent Teacher Chat on Twitter. Joe has accepted my invitation to write a short post on this blog regularly to announce future topics for these chats:

Last month, Joe Mazza wrote a guest post about Parent Teacher Chat on Twitter. Joe has accepted my invitation to write a short post on this blog regularly to announce future topics for these chats:

Last month, Joe Mazza wrote a guest post about Parent Teacher Chat on Twitter. Joe has accepted my invitation to write a short post on this blog regularly to announce future topics for these chats:

As a school principal, I receive more bullying referrals from the school bus than anywhere else. Unfortunately, the school bus and bus stop are the two location where I cannot add adult supervision to prevent bullying from happening. However, by making bus drivers more a part of the school and bringing them in to meet with teachers and bus riders as “bus teams” several times per year, we can ensure that the same rules and expectations are instilled in students from the time they leave their house to the time they get back.