I think the most successful outcome for my Change Project was the number of teachers who not only participated in the Power Team this school year, but were also actively involved in brainstorming ways to make the Power Team even better. I had 19 teachers and 6 other staff members who were involved. My principal was very supportive in allowing me the opportunity to hold the Power Team meetings and she was instrumental in providing necessary funding for the materials for the parents. The team members were enthusiastic about the parent meetings and came up with some great ideas to increase parent attendance in the future. Several other teachers hope to participate next school year.
My biggest disappointment was the parent involvement. We had 28% of the parents attend the first Power Team meeting and only 11 % for the second meeting. Six of the teachers decided to cancel their meetings because only one or two parents responded to attend. The third meeting will be held in May.
What would you use differently and what would you use again?
Use Again: I will continue to use the PowerPoints for training and for the Power Team parent meetings, as well as the new parent invitation letter created by the Power Team members.
Use differently: I will create a new PowerPoint to be used by the participating teachers during Open House. I believe if we can entice the parents to attend the meetings early on, more will attend.
Additional thoughts: I am grateful to the CAPE committee for allowing us the opportunity to fulfill our Change Project ideas and for their continued support throughout the process. The technology presented and the regular meetings really gave us an advantage in helping us to be successful.
Thank you!
I'm so glad your project was a success! I'm sure more parents will attend once you continue the process and provide more information or a bonus for attending! :)
ReplyDeleteTess,
ReplyDeleteI know how hard you have worked on this project. It is such a worthy project and I am glad you are not giving up on it! It is sad to see the lack of parent involvement. I attended the first Power Team conference as a parent. It was great! I loved seeing how my child performed compared to his peers. Unfortunately, his teacher was one of the ones who cancelled due to poor response. I can't blame her....while you make it as easy as you can for them, it's still takes time for the teachers to prep for these Power Team conferences and then their time to meet at night after school hours. I know they don't mind doing it and want to be there so hopefully finding a way to get parents to come will work! I've loved being on each other's Powerful Team for our projects and getting to know you better. You have great work ethic and do what it takes to get the job done. Fortunately for us, we'll get to see each other's projects all the way through in our school!