Family Engagement Cohort NEWS
October 14, 2019
A Note from Kimberly
As I drove back to San Antonio, my mind kept thinking about the Family Engagement Core Beliefs. I've done that activity many times and I always enjoy the discussion around the core beliefs. I appreciated all of you being open and honest in your reflections and wonderings. Thank you for creating a safe environment for those conversations to occur.
It's challenging to dig deep in our souls and really reflect on what we believe. It's even more challenging to try to change our beliefs. I have found that when I'm told, "Well, we've tried this and tried that, and they just don't come. We have families that don't seem to want to come to the school and participate in their child's learning, etc." that It makes me wonder if that educator believes that families want what's best for their child, has the capacity to support their child's learning and can be an equal partner with the school?
It all starts with our beliefs which is why we devoted the time to learn about them and reflect. While we may not ALL ever get to STRONGLY AGREE on the Core Beliefs, the idea is that we are open to listen and reflect and move closer to strongly agreeing. If one continually disagrees with the Family Engagement Core Beliefs, they've immediately put a barrier around fully and effectively engaging families!
You might find the first barrier you encounter with your staff centers around one's core beliefs about Family Engagement. I'd encourage you to do this activity with all of your staff. You can download the activities below. If you'd like me to support you in this, please let me know!
In this newsletter I will be sharing the documents and information from our training session and some tips/tools for you to continue to deepen your understanding of Family Engagement.
Remember, I am your coach and ongoing support! I'll be doing periodic check-ins with you but please don't hesitate to contact me!
~Kimberly
Information Needed
2. Please email me the names and email addresses of any team members that were not in attendance last week. I want to add them to the email group so they will receive all future communications.
It's not too late to complete your ten member team! I encourage you to follow up with those you intended to be at the training that ended up not making it. Let them know they were missed and invite them to be a part of your team's debrief and homework assignment before session #2.
We've had our first training session....Now What?
I hope you recognized after our first training session that engaging families is not the role of just one person but actually everyone involved in the school. How are you going to help your campus reframe their understanding of Family Engagement?
Here are some things to think through so that you can keep the momentum going:
1. Share your vision poster with your campus! Place it in a visible location where even your families can see it! Take the time to explain it. Maybe you need to add a summary statement to it so those that look at it understand what it is communicating.
2. Allow the campus team to share a testimonial during an upcoming faculty meeting. Can Family Engagement be a topic of discussion at every faculty meeting? How can your campus team support this? How can ESC-20 help encourage and support this?
3. How can you share your new learnings with district level staff so they can know how to support you in this cohort?
4. Debrief with your campus team. Share your "ahas". Share something that you learned that you didn't know. Share something that challenged you. What are new ideas/thoughts that you can immediately put into practice or make changes to?
5. How will you communicate this cohort to your families and the WHY behind it?
Believe me I know how hard it is to be away from the office for a day and then I return with so much to catch up on! I also know how easy it is to put something on the back burner and think, "Oh, I'll get to that tomorrow and then that item gets pushed farther and farther down on my to do list!"
Keep that momentum going!
Family Engagement VISIONS
Hondo ISD
Devine ISD
Jubilee Academies
Group Pictures
Photo Gallery: October 10, 2019
Documents
- PPT slides
- Core Beliefs Activity (English and Spanish)
- Research Articles
- Participant Guide (English and Spanish)
Research Articles
Take Home Assignments
Prior to Workshop 2, you will need to continue to meet periodically as a team. In addition, you will need to meet at least once to complete the Scavenger Hunt Exercise and prepare your presentation.
Assess Your Current Practice
Conduct a scavenger hunt through your building using the tools on pages 9 to 12 in the Workshop 1 Participant Guide.
Collect evidence that you will bring to the next workshop to illustrate how you decided if each statement describes your school or not. Use the reflection questions at the end of the document to summarize what you discover during your scavenger hunt.
Bring Your Team Along
Repurpose an activity from this training and conduct an informational session with your school staff to inform them about where you are heading. Core Beliefs would be a great start!
Preparing for Workshop 2
At the beginning of Workshop 2, your team will have ten minutes to share some “glows and grows” about family engagement in your school. After you complete the scavenger hunt, decide what you are doing well (glows) and where you need to improve (grows).
Be prepared to present to the larger group at the beginning of Workshop 2. Use your creativity for this presentation. You can present your evidence as posters, in a PowerPoint, in a video, or in some other interesting way. Make sure your presentation doesn’t take more than ten minutes!
Questions? Email Kimberly!
2nd Campus Team Training
Date: Thursday, November 14th
Time: 8:30 a.m.--3:30 p.m.
Location: Woolls Intermediate School, Hondo ISD
Training #2 Redesigning Family Engagement Events
The 2nd training introduces you to the Essential Elements through a series of expert-guided interactive exercises.
You will deepen your understanding of the elements that are essential to the success of any family engagement activity. Using these elements, you will assess and evaluate how well your current family engagement strategies incorporate these practices.
The training concludes with a plan to redesign and repurpose an upcoming family event that incorporates all five elements for effective practice.
You will hold your newly redesigned event prior to the 3rd training and be prepared to share the results of your activity.
Taking It To the Next Level: Strengthening and Sustaining Family Engagement through Integrated, Systemic Practice
This publication is designed to:
- Provide clarity on what systemic engagement is and what it looks like in practice;
- Provide an analysis of how systemic practices are being implemented in the family and community engagement field through exemplars of systemic engagement (district engagement briefs);
- Share promising practices that promote systemic engagement while leveraging engagement to advance equity (regional capacity-building models); and
- Provide insights and recommendations to practitioners, funders, policymakers, and other key constituencies regarding family engagement practices and potential areas for additional research.
Click HERE to download the publication!
Kimberly Baumgardner, Consultant, Family Engagement--Education Service Center, Region 20
Kimberly has become quite passionate about empowering families to be more involved in their child's education and future as well as challenging and supporting schools to increase their efforts to involve families in their child's educational journey and focus on Family Engagement as an instructional tool that improves student's academic outcomes.
Kimberly enjoys living out in the country with her husband, Tyson and two daughters, Lynette & Lucy Sue.
Email: kimberly.baumgardner@esc20.net
Website: www.esc20.net/parentresources
Location: 1314 Hines, San Antonio, TX, United States
Phone: 210-370-5431
Facebook: facebook.com/escregion20
Twitter: @ESCRegion20