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Communication and Collaboration Plan

1) Parent/Guardian Communication
I firmly believe that there should be constant communication
between school and home. Parents should have as much involvement in
their childs education as the teacher and they should be fully aware of
what is going on within the classroom. As a grade level, we send
newsletters home each week to inform the parents on what we are doing
and any important information that the parents should be aware of. I also
communicate through e-mail with some parents concerning their child. At
the beginning of my time in this classroom, I sent a letter to the parents
introducing myself and giving them a little bit of information about who I
am and how excited I was to have the opportunity to work with their child.
Every other week, I send a folder with the students grades home. We call
them signed papers. The parents are supposed to sign/initial each of the
papers with number/letter grades on them and the student is to return
them to school. This allows the parents to keep track of the grades that
the students are making, so interims/report cards are not a surprise.
Another way that I communicate with the parents is by sending various
letters home. I have sent home a kid-friendly writing rubric for the parent
to see and talk through with their child. I have also sent AVID applications,
letters about the upcoming field trip and money owed, and a letter about
the March of Dimes fundraiser that the school is doing. Lastly, I set up
Remind to be able to keep the parents informed on a daily basis. This
allows me to send reminders to the parents and information about
homework.
Parental involvement is imperative to be sure that the student is
successful inside the classroom and outside of the classroom. When
parents are involved and act as if their childs education is important, and
when teachers follow that same path, the students will soon realize that if
it werent important, we (teachers AND parents) would not care. They will
believe that their education is important, as well.
Along with constant communication with parents, I attended and
helped with a parent meeting for Camp Sewee. This is a field trip that the
fifth graders are taking in the middle of April to Charleston. It is a three
day, two night trip and there was a lot of information that parents needed
to know for this. The fifth grade teachers decided to hold a parent meeting
to go over all of this information and give forms to the parents. This
allowed me to meet many of the parents in person for the first time.
2) Communication/Collaboration with Colleagues
Being able to effectively communicate with all colleagues is also very
essential in being able to shape and model students education. At
Merrywood, we use grade level planning. Each teacher plans a different
subject. This takes the stress and pressure off each individual teacher

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creating individual lesson plans for every subject. It also keeps the grade
level on track and ensures that all students are receiving all content that
they need to in order to succeed.
We share lesson plans on OnCourse. We also have grade level PLC
meetings every Thursday during planning. This allows the grade level
teachers to talk about and discuss the lesson plans and upcoming events.
It also helps us to decide what is going well and what is not going well.
There are faculty meetings once a month (usually the first Tuesday of
the month). I attend each of these meetings, as they are filled with very
important information. I have also attended a Reading/ Writing Workshop
for professional development. This included district-wide colleagues. It
was all of the fifth grade teachers in the district.
As a teacher, we want what is best for our students. Being able to
communicate with grade-level colleagues is very important. But, so is
being able to communicate with all of the staff at the school. There is
constant communication about students between myself and the
instructional technologist, guidance counsellor, and principal. I have also
learned that it is essential to befriend the janitor, as he/she is too a
colleague and there will be several times when you may need him/her.
3) Community Involvement
Allowing the students to experience community involvement also
broadens their horizons. Community involvement can be very drastic or
even very simple. As part of my student teaching, I want to involve the
community by having the students do a survey with different people
asking about womens rights. In Social Studies, Writing, and Reading we
have been discussing womens rights, and before the end of the topic, I
would like the students to ask other people about their ideas and opinions
and present them to the class/reading group.
As a school, we are doing a fundraiser for March of Dimes. This, in
my opinion, is a very charitable form of community involvement.
Fine Arts Night was a night that the community (as well as parents)
were invited to attend to see what was going on within the schools.
Attending Fine Arts Night allowed me to collaborate with community
members and discuss with some of them what is happening in district 50.
4) Extra-curricular Involvement
Being as involved in extra-curricular activities as the students also
affect the students. At first, I did not understand this concept. I did not
think that my involvement would impact them or myself. But I quickly
learned differently. I have done what I can to help with the March of Dimes
fundraiser. Being involved with this made me more aware of what it was

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about and allowed me to educate my students about it. They were also
more excited and interested and willing to participate because of this.
I also have helped with Safety Patrol. In the mornings, older
students stand outside (in the front circle) and open doors and help other
students out of the cars. They need a teacher to supervise them and help
them.
Another activity is Fine Arts Night. I attended this and helped where I
was needed. The music classes and chorus all performed on this night.
The art classes also sold art in order to raise money.
On the same night as Fine Arts Night (before), there was an ESOL
night. The students receiving ESOL services and their families were invited
to come and get some materials as well as a picture taken and be able to
design a photo frame for that picture. I was able to attend and help a little
bit with this.

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