"She Sat On Our Couch"

We are the parents of two daughters, including Lupita, who is in Kindergarten at Kate Smith Elementary School.  

My wife and I came to the U.S. from Mexico to have a better life. It was scary in Mexico with a lot of crime and kidnapping. Our daughters were born here and we want them to have opportunities to learn and do well.

 When Lupita started in pre-school she didn’t speak English and was shy and quiet in school. We were visited by Perlita’s teacher, Ms. Kelly, twice. We told her that school was very important to us. But we didn’t know how to help our daughter. I was scared at first to ask her questions.

But Ms. Kelly got to know us and we found out what a caring, kind teacher she is.  She offered good ideas about how we could help our daughter and she asked for our ideas too. We were very happy to meet her in our home. She sat right on our couch.  She took the time to answer my questions and to listen.

After the first visit, Lupita became very motivated to learn. She says, “come on I need to study.” She grew to love math. And her communication improved. She grew happy and made more friends.

Then this school year, Ms. Mueller, Perlita’s Kindergarten teacher, visited us twice. She is a great teacher. She told us that Perlita is learning very quickly. I am so happy to hear that.

Lupita tries hard.  She wants to learn about everything and tells us that she wants to be either a doctor or a teacher, like Ms. Kelly and Ms. Mueller.

I want to help her to succeed. And with the support of the great teachers at Kate Smith Elementary, I think I can.  Maybe if Parent Teacher Home Visits were in all the schools, there would be no more shootings or bullying. The teachers and parents would know each other and what is going at home and at school.

 ~ Elia Vilelzo and Rene Espinoza-Morales.

This is Why I Teach: Calen Evans 

Champion for Parent Teacher Home Visits

I am  2^nd Grade teacher at Lemelson STEM Academy. I became a teacher to help improve the lives of children.

Lemelson is both a wonderful and very challenging place to be a teacher. Its student population is mostly poor with many English language learners, high transiency rate, and low pre-K education. As an Anglo teacher, I face barriers of language and culture.

This year I was fortunate to be involved in the Parent Teacher Home Visit Program for my school and visited the homes of 20 families. These visits helped me to have a better understanding of the lives of my students and the difficulties they face that come from poverty, racism, undocumented status, witnessing violence and more. The visits have increased my ability to openly communicate with parents, building my communication with them in improved ways,  making my job of educating children vastly improved. 

When I visited the home of a student I will call Mara, I faced language barriers, and fear from the mom who was reluctant to participate because of fear. She was intimated by participating in the school life of her child because neither she nor her husband was able to finish a grade higher than 5^th.

There were many difficulties they faced that opened my eyes to the reality of my student. Five people in their family all live in a one bedroom apartment; all five sleep in the same room. Dad works full time as a mechanic and mom is a waitress.

Yet I found that they want a better life for their kids. We were able to develop a relationship built on trust and communication.

Now, every day, Mara’s mom brings her into the class says hi and hugs me. I know the family’s names and ask about them. It is obvious that I care. She now feels comfortable talking to me, even though her English is very limited.

Her daughter is one of the highest performing students in the school and ranks in the 85^th percentile nationwide, despite being bilingual with little English spoken at home. Her brother is also excelling. 

This is why I teach. To put into practice the care and love I have to give the children in my classroom the opportunity to have a better life, just like their parents want for them.

True Believer in Parent Teacher Home Visits

4th Grade Teacher LaNesha Battle

This year at Anderson Elementary School we began the Parent Teacher Home Visits Project with the entire faculty. We were able to recognize that a disconnection between home and school was not good for our children, for the parents or for us as teachers.

 Before the home visits began, only the same parents would sparingly come into the schools. Teachers felt that parents were too busy to participate in the education of their students and that we had to do it all.

That was a huge misconception! Most of the parents thought teachers only cared about the academics of students – another huge misconception! Teachers and parents were both surprised at the outcome of the home visits.

I visited with one family where I had taught the older sister and her sister is currently in my classroom. The mother was hesitant, but both daughters were excited about my visit. When I arrived, the mom had her 3 daughters, 2 toddlers, and the baby she watches, all there. So of course I now understood her hesitancy!

They were very excited to see us. The mom was standoff-ish in the beginning, but as the daughters excitement began to show more and more she warmed up. We laughed and talked for the entire visit.

When the student told the class about the visit, the other students wanted to know when I was going to visit their homes! This student and I created a new bond that will never be broken, all because I showed I cared, by visiting with her family.

So to my fellow teachers, I say: "Yes, Parent Home Visits will take extra time out of your day. It will require you to make some additional phone calls. But, ask yourself: If you have children, how many of them build relationships with people you know nothing about? Is it worth an hour out of your day to make a connection with a student who will remember that hour for the rest of their life?" 

Yes! It is worth it to me and to those children whose lives I touch.

12 Year Old Dreams of Her Future

 Nayeli Castillo First Public Speaking

On March 26, 2014, 12 year old Nayeli Castillo delivered an amazing speech in support of Parent Teacher Home Visits. Here it is in her words. 

I am twelve years old and in sixth grade at Echo Loder elementary school. My dad is Jose Castillo and my mom is Yolanda Partida. I have a twin brother, Daniel. I started at Echo Loder in kindergarten. My mom and dad are from Mexico and they speak Spanish.

When I’m not at school, I usually do my homework and read. On the weekends, I like to spend time with my family, play games, or read scary stories for fun. In school, I love doing math because it’s challenging.

I have never had a home visit before this year. When I found out my teacher was going to come to my home, I felt excited. I felt special because none of my other teachers had come to my home.

 I was also a little nervous because I was worried my teacher might say bad things about how I am in school. But it turned out to be all good things.

My teacher, Mrs. Morton, and my brother’s teacher, Mrs. Thobodeaux, came to my house in November. They talked with my parents about my future, like my goals for middle school and high school and what I want to do when I grow up. They talked a little about how school was going, and about the soccer game on TV. 

They also met my crazy uncle, who ended up doing a lot of the talking, and made our teachers laugh. After the home visit, I didn’t feel nervous anymore because everyone had said nice things about me.

Because my mom is usually working and hadn’t been able to come to teacher conferences, she isn’t usually able to meet my teachers. The Parent Teacher Home Visit made me feel special.

I have been dreaming about my future goals, especially since the home visit. I am dreaming about becoming a teacher because I like to help students and I am patient. If I were a teacher, I would like to do home visits myself because I think it’s important for even the parents who can’t come to conferences to be able to meet their children’s teachers. I hope there will be a home visit program when I become a teacher!

NEW VIDEO WITH TEENS TALKING ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCE

PARENT TEACHER HOME VISITS in Washoe County, Nevada

video here  

                                                           Parent Believer in Home Visits

                                                        Harmony Mcquade Tells Her Story

     I am a proud mother of two wonderful children. My daughter,Danae, is 16 and a junior in high school and my son is 5 yrs old and is in kindergarten.

     Last year was exciting  for us because my son started school for the first time at Kate Smith Elementary. We are a very close family and spend lots of time together . 

     I was a stay at home mom since the day David was born so I was not sure how David was going to react to our separation when school started, but I was hoping for the best! On the first day we were both excited and a little scared all at once. I think I probably stayed for at least an hour on that first day and had to pry David's little fingers from mine when it was time for me to leave. 

     Unfortunately that became a daily struggle for us. It was extremely frustrating and a little embarrassing for me . I would always think  "I wonder what his teacher thinks ? David is so different at home I wish she could see the independent outgoing little boy that I know so well." 

     This went on for about two months. David would come home from school happy and excited to tell me about his day so I knew he was having fun and liked school . I was not sure what to do.

        

     Then his teacher, Ms. Kelly, approached me and asked  if I would be interested in a home visit . I had no idea what a home visit was but I said yes.

     I was not sure why a teacher wanted to come to our home ? Did we do something wrong ? But she assured me that she just wanted to come by to get to know our family better.

     I told David every day leading up to the visit that his teachers were going to come to our house and he was very excited . When Ms. Kelly arrived David was in the front of our house building a bike ramp so that he could show her how he can "get some air" on his scooter. She was so surprised to see how brave and outgoing David was. 

    She came in and to my surprise she just started asking us about our family (what we liked to do for fun on the weekends, our hopes and dreams for David's future etc.) And we talked about me being from Hawaii. She asked if I would be interested in coming to the class to share something about our culture. I always wanted to volunteer but I was not sure how go about it . She made me feel like I was needed and welcomed me to be a volunteer in David's class . By the end of our visit I really felt like we had made a great connection.

       

     When David went to school the next day he seemed so much more comfortable . From that point on he stopped crying when I would drop him off and really became the outgoing kid that I knew he was.

 

    As a parent I think I always kind of assumed that it is the teachers job to teach at school and the parents job to teach at home . And I was a little intimidated by the "Teacher" title . But through the Parent Teacher Home Visit I have learned that teachers are human and that their hopes and dreams are the same as ours. They really just want to teach our children to be smart, happy, confident individuals. And that is pretty AWESOME !!

Grateful Teacher, Kelly Carr

 Despite my initial hesitancy, I started doing home visits four years ago.  I decided to try a few and see how it went. 

Not only do Parent Teacher Home Visits open up doors to improved communication, they build trust and caring between the parents and me. This had been missing in the prior years of my teaching experience. 

“How did school and home come to be so separate?” I thought, and I began to consider how this separation was affecting my young students, many for whom, this was their first experience with formal schooling. 

Each year since then I have increased the number of families I visit using the best practices model of Parent Teacher Home Visit Project.

 During the 2012-13 school year I approached David’s mom, Harmony, about doing a home visit.  I selected her because David was extremely shy, and was having a hard time separating from parents when it was drop off time for his afternoon Pre-K class, even though it was two months into the school year. 

I was wondering why David was having such a hard time separating from his family.  Had he not been socialized with other adults and children before age 4?  Was his family enabling the behavior by not letting him be independent at home and babying him? 

I went with an open mind and had a wonderful visit.  David was playing on his bike and scooter in the front yard, building ramps and jumping them, while mom watched hesitantly, but supportively.  He was clearly a very independent child.   I also noticed a trampoline in the backyard and neighborhood friends stopping by occasionally to play.  He clearly had lots of interaction with other kids. 

 Mom and I visited and I got to know about the family, their interests, and their hopes for their son's future.  I learned that Harmony’s mom had been a Parent Involvement Facilitator in Hawaii and that Harmony wanted to be more involved in the school, but wasn't sure of the procedures to do so here. 

My visit made our classroom more comfortable for David, as he saw me as a part of his inner circle now… a part of his family.   Shortly after our visit, David’s daily anxiety about separating from his parents was gone, and he was opening up to me and others in the classroom, making friends, and enjoying school more. 

This visit helped me see that my assumptions about why David was shy were incorrect.  He just really loved his family and didn't quite trust me yet.  I am so thankful for Harmony opening her home to me which positively changing the course of her child’s school year.

I shudder to think of all of the missed opportunities that would have been if I had not made this home visit.  It makes me consider all those other students and families in past years that I missed.