Parent Night at Petree Elementary Shows Parents How They Can Help Their Children at Home

“One of the most important aspects of education is communicating with parents,” said Amanda White, a Behavior Liaison from the school system's Behavior Support Team.

On Thursday, Dec. 11, White was the host for a Parent Night at Petree Elementary School – where Essie McKoy is the principal – to help parents of children in the school system’s Exceptional Children (EC) program work with their children at home.

“Petree tackles their efforts to include parents in student education creatively,” White said. “My goal was to collaborate with Dr. McKoy, teachers, and assistants to come up with a way to provide the same structure and educational resources from the classroom to the home in order to promote parent involvement in student learning.” 

After assistant principal Michelle Breen welcomed the parents, White introduced the speakers for the night: Cindy Hall, the school system’s EC assistive technology coordinator and Emma Hatfield-Sidden, the school system’s EC assistive technology teacher. 

  

Hall and Hatfield-Sidden demonstrated ways for parents to facilitate communication with their children at home. They created two communication boards for parents.

“With one board, Hall and Hatfield-Sidden demonstrated how parents can teach their children to make simple requests such as ‘I want something to drink,’” White said. “Cindy and Emma also demonstrated with the other communication board examples of how parents can read at home and teach students to request ‘turn the page’ and ‘finished.’”

  

Hall and Hatfield-Sidden provided online resources and a packet of tips to facilitate language and communication.

Emma Hatfield-Sidden and Cindy Hall

“The best part of the night…was to hear parents share with each other strategies and challenges,” White said. “One parent thanked all of the Petree teachers for what they do for students.  He shared a story noting that, at the beginning of the year, his son was nonverbal. With the diligence and hard work of teachers, he can read short phrases.”

A parent survey was distributed and the results speak to the success of the night.  Most all of the parents indicated they would like to engage in these sessions bi-monthly. White plans to send home monthly resources and hold another session at Petree soon.

For a story about another way in which Hall and Hatfield-Sidden are helping students, go to Literacy Kits