Bearcat Wrap-up Podcast - Week 9: Engaging Our Families

Episode Date: October 21, 2022

Happy Friday!Thank you for everything you have done this week to educate, discipline, deliver, and organize our students! We are already through the first quarter of the 22-23 school year and seem to be going in a very positive direction. I especially want to mention the staff attendance this week. It was very good. In fact, yesterday there was only one classroom teacher out with a sub for grades K through 5, and most of our secondary teachers out were for school business, which means they were still educating. By stringing together weeks of high attendance like this week, we will definitely see the academic growth of our students.This week’s Wrap-up contains an update on the legislative plans I shared with you last week and some other updates, but they are all centered around our need to engage ALL families in our district.District GoalsOur Board adopted the goals that were shared with you all in an earlier Wrap-up, so those things will be our focus for progress monitoring this year. I am sure you noticed certain other aspects of education that are not in the goals, such as a math goal, but our students’ attendance, behavior, and ability to read will enhance all other aspects of their education and our ability to deliver it. By the next Wrap-up, I hope to have a collection of databases to refer to for each one of the goals. They will be updated appropriately.Engaging AllI know there have been great efforts here to engage families in their children’s education and I want to reinforce the effort because it is so valuable to us. The subtitle of this Wrap-up is actually a quote from Heejae Lim, a Korean immigrant who has created a technology tool to expand the communication between schools and families. It is not necessarily her product that interests me, but her experience that led to the product creation and our effort to involve families in education. The more we are able to have families as a partner in their child’s education, the better we will be able to do our jobs.This week in our District Leadership PLC we discussed a section of Leaders Eat Last that referred to our tendencies to turn people into abstractions in our minds, especially parents and the community. Abstraction is the lack of personal connection that causes us to look at others as a statistic or a thing, not a person. This especially happens with large numbers of people. How many times do we reference “parents” as a singular group when each of them has their own personal connection to the school? We must foster that personal connection and make sure it is a good one by giving them facts about their child’s development and supporting them with ways to help their child succeed at home. Making each family and our community confident in us will help us in our effort to improve and get the support we need from them and our leadership in Little Rock.Here are some ways to manage abstractions that the author of our reading provided:* Keep It Real—Bring People Together. The Internet can’t give us deep and trusting relationships. Trust is formed in person.* Keep It Manageable: 150 max. Keep your groups at no more than 150 people to reap the benefit of the group’s cohesion and sense of tribal belonging.* Meet People You Help. Getting a visual and real-world experience of the impact of your work will reward you and motivate you to do even more.* Give Time, Not Money. We value the time and effort we receive more than money (read more on Drive by Daniel Pink).* Be Patient— 7 Days and 7 Years. It takes time to develop a bond of love and trust. No one knows how long it takes but it’s more than 7 days and less than 7 years.Consider who we may be leaving out. Thank you for all you have done to engage families so far this year and let building and district leadership know how we can support this further. We are working on plans to enhance the District’s connection, which we will share as the year progresses and the plans are developed.Senate Education Adequacy PlanIf you did reach out to any senators last week, thank you. They came out with their plan on Tuesday. You can look over it here. It is very similar to the House plan but there are some differences such as incentive pay for teacher effectiveness and demand and the equalization of ESA funds. Both of these have their pros and cons and will have to be closely examined during the upcoming session.ClosingI would like to recognize our Beginning Choir that performed last night. Their montage of music covering the decades from the 50s to today was very entertaining and quite ambitious for beginners. Thanks go to Mrs. Tilley for getting them ready. We look forward to more performances this semester.Our volleyball team will be in the state tournament in Brookland starting Tuesday. Good luck to Coach Lyle and his team as they represent our school and community on the biggest stage for their sport!Our Bearcat Football team will travel to Stamps this afternoon to take on the Lafayette County Cougars at 7 pm tonight. If you are not making the long trip, watch it on the live stream from The Bearcat Foundation YouTube page.Our FFA members finish exhibiting their livestock at the Arkansas State Fair this week. Check out the Mena FFA Facebook page to see their results.Here is last week’s Easter Egg winner!At Mena Public Schools our students are prepared, our staff is supported, and our community is confident. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bearcatwrap.substack.com

This is the week 9 wrap up entitled engaging our families. If we continue to pick and choose who the system engages with generation after generation, we will not be left with a community, a civil society, or even a functioning democracy. Happy Friday. This is kind of an ominous introduction, but it's a quote that I'll explain later. But let's start with the good stuff happy Friday thank you for everything you've done this week to educate discipline deliver and organize our students we are already through the first quarter of the 22-23 school year and and seem to be going in a very positive direction especially want to mention the staff attendance this week

it was very good. In fact, yesterday there was only one classroom teacher out with a sub for grades K through 5. And most of our secondary teachers were out for school business, which means they are still educating. By stringing together weeks of high attendance like this, we will definitely see academic growth for our students. like this we will definitely see academic growth for our students this week's wrap-up contains an update on the legislative plans I shared with you last week and some other updates but they are all centered around our need to engage all families in our district district goals our board adopted the goals that were shared with you in an earlier wrap-up so those things will be our focus

for progressing for progress monitoring through this year i'm sure you notice certain other aspects of education that are not in the goals such as a math goal but our students attendance behavior and ability to read will enhance all other aspects of their education and our ability to deliver it. By the next wrap-up, I hope to have a collection of databases to refer to for each one of the goals, and they'll be updated appropriately. Engaging All. I know there have been great efforts here to engage families in their children's education, and I want to reinforce the effort because it's so valuable to us. force the effort because it's so valuable to us. The subtitle of this wrap-up is actually a quote from Heejae Lim, a Korean immigrant who has created a technology tool to expand the communication

between schools and families. There's a link in the text to her TED Talk where she explains the importance of engaging families. It is not necessarily her product that interests me, but her experience that led to the product creation and our effort to involve families in education. The more we are able to have families as a partner in their child's education, the better we will be able to do our jobs this week our district plc leadership discussed a section of leaders eat last that referred to our tendencies to turn people into abstractions in our minds especially parents and community abstraction is the lack of personal connection that causes us to look at

others as a statistic or a thing, not a person. This especially happens with large numbers of people. How many times do we reference parents as a singular group when each of them has their own personal connection to the school? We must foster that personal connection and make sure it's a good one by giving them facts about their child's development and supporting them with ways to help their child succeed at home. Making each family in our community confident in us will help us in our effort to improve and get the support we need from them and our leadership in Little Rock. Here are some ways to manage abstractions that the author provided in our reading. Keep it real. Bring people together. The Internet can't give us deep and trusting relationships. Trust is formed in person. Number two, keep it manageable. 150 max. Keep your groups at no more than 150 people to reap the benefit of the group's cohesion and sense of tribal belonging.

Number three, meet people you help. Getting a visual and real-world experience of the impact of your work will reward you and motivate you to do even more. Give time, not money. We value the time and effort we receive more than the money. And there's a link to more about that in a book called Drive by Daniel Pink. Be patient. Seven days and seven years. It takes time to develop a bond of love and trust. No one knows how long it takes but it's more than seven days and it's less than seven years. Consider who we may be leaving out. Thank you for all you've done to engage families so far this year and let building and district leadership know how we can support this further. We are

working on plans to enhance the district's connection which we will share as the year progresses and the plans are developed. The Senate Education Adequacy Plan. If you did reach out to any senators last week, thank you. They came out with their plan on Tuesday. You can look at it in the link provided in the text. It's very similar to the House plan, but there are some differences such as incentive pay for teachers' effectiveness and demand and the equalization of ESA funds. Both of these have

their pros and cons and will have to be closely examined during the upcoming session. In closing, I would like to recognize our beginning choir for their performance last, I'd like to recognize our beginning choir for their performance last I'd like to recognize our beginning choir that performed last night their montage of music covered the decades from the 50s to today and it was very entertaining and quite ambitious for beginners thanks go to miss Tilly for getting them ready we look forward to more performances this semester and this year. Our volleyball team will be in the state tournament in Brooklyn starting Tuesday. Good luck to Coach Lyle and his team as they represent our school and

community on the biggest stage for their sport. Our Bearcat football team will travel to Stamps this afternoon to take on the Lafayette County Cougars tonight at 7 p.m. If you're not able to make the long trip, watch it on livestream from the Bearcat Foundation YouTube page. Our FFA members finished up exhibiting their livestock at the Arkansas State Fair this week. You can go to their Facebook page to check out their results. There's also a link to last week's Easter egg winner and I'll finish by reminding everyone that at Mena Public Schools our students are

prepared, our staff is supported, and our community is confident. Have a great weekend.