Aleena Ijaz

August 14, 2016

Family and Community Involvement Plan

Family involvement inside the classroom is very important in creating a

nourishing learning environment in which the student feels secure and ready
to learn. By engaging parents and families, educators demonstrate that they
recognize the importance of students home lives and see them as
multidimensional human beings. This allows teachers to develop a channel of
communication with parents, which is essential given the interconnectedness
of education and family. In addition, family engagement serves as a positive
signal, increasing trust and both student and parent buy-in. As described by
Edmin, a student can be unmotivated or disinterested for a variety of
reasons, and family engagement gives the teacher a fuller understanding of
these factors (2016).
For daily communication strategies, I intend on using the remind
system. This system is unique because it works with any device and does not
require the installation of an iPhone application. I will use this system to
communicate daily homework assignments to students and parents, as well
as any important reminders of class preparation, quizzes, and tests. In
addition, I will e-mail home monthly newsletters to parents, using e-mail
addresses that I will gather during the first week of class through take-home
surveys. These monthly newsletters will include curricula covered throughout
the month, major projects and labs conducted, opportunities for parent
involvement in the coming month, as well as shout outs to individual
students who have made a lot of progress. In these newsletters I will also
outline 2 or 3 days and times that parents can come and observe the class. I
believe it is important for parents to see their children firsthand inside the
classroom. I would also like to create an opportunity for feedback from both
parents and students. I will send out a formal feedback survey through the

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remind system at the end of each semester, but will also have students give
more informal feedback as their exit tickets periodically throughout the year.
In addition, I want to have a career day and family potluck. As an
environmental science and anatomy and physiology teacher, I want to give
parents in related fields the opportunity to speak to the class during career
day. The family potluck will be organized once every semester during a
weekday evening, on school premises. This potluck will be an informal
opportunity for me to get to know student families as well as an opportunity
for students to engage with each other outside of the classroom. I will also
have several opportunities for parent and family volunteering, including field
trips and more involved labs.
I intend to use several strategies to get to know my students better.
During the first few class periods, I will have students answer questions
about themselves during the do-now. One activity in particular that I will use
with my students in the beginning of the year is the core values exercise. For
this exercise, students will identify a list of top core values and a list of their
biggest time commitments. The goal of the activity would be to see if their
time commitments align with the fulfillment of their most important values.
In addition, I will arrange for individual 10-15 minute conversations with each
of my students during the first week of class, in which I will have an informal
conversation with the student about his goals, future plans, and interests.
These conversations will be planned during student lunch times, before, or
after school. I will eventually use expressed student interests and strengths
to implement a student teaching system within my classroom: each student
will have the opportunity to teach the rest of the class at some point during
the year. Not only will this show students that I care about their interests, but
also it will help increase motivation and grit inside my classroom by allowing
students to engage more heavily with material that truly interests and
inspires them (Nakkula, 2012). I will also have lunch with my students
frequently to get to know their extracurricular and social interests.

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 Finally, I also want to make connecting with the school community a
top priority. For one, this will involve reaching out to my colleagues,
especially in the science department. In addition, I would like to start a
Muslim Students Association at my school. The head of my department told
me that up to 25% of the schools population is Muslim, but such a group
does not yet exist in the school. In addition, I would also look into an Urdu
language club to diversify the available languages at Boys Latin. Overall, I
want to use my skill sets to increase the opportunities offered to my
students.