Sybella Pope-Sears

Sybella Pope-Sears, Crusader for Student Success Through Parent Teacher Home Visits

I began doing Parent Teacher Home Visits years ago in other school districts and now continue them in Washoe Schools, where I am teaching at Kate Dunn Elementary School.

I started this because I had a student in the first grade whose attendance was such a problem that she missed a whole half year of school. This child was woefully behind. When I visited her mom at home, I showed that I cared about her child.

I learned that the mom had several very young children and it was a big struggle to get the first grader out the door to school. I showed how much I valued her child and her education. I began to see improvement after that with the child’s attendance and performance. So I made another home visit to reinforce our relationship. It worked!

After that, I began doing home visits whenever I could. When I did home visits in inner city Richmond, California, it was a wakeup call me. My students were worried for my safety getting to their homes. What about their safety as children getting to school?

By stepping into their world, I built buy-in.  They saw that I genuinely cared. So they were willing to try harder in school. I saw the direct connection to my students’ motivation.

Another student I had was the son of gang members. This student was gone for a week from school. When I did a home visit, I realized the volume of issues at home the student was dealing with. But the father shook my hand and agreed to try harder to get his son to school And it worked. This student, who had not bought into school previously, began to care, try and perform.

The message that Parent Teacher Home Visits give are: You are worth my time! You are important! I have a better future in mind for you!