Dear Parents, Showing Up Matters

Support in education is not about being perfect. It is about being present.

In this episode, Dear Parents, Showing Up Matters!, we talk directly to parents about the powerful role they play in their child’s school experience. From attending events and building relationships with teachers to understanding school language and advocating with confidence, this conversation breaks down simple ways families can support learning every day.

If you have ever wondered whether your involvement truly makes a difference, this episode is your reminder that it absolutely does.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

I'm Miss Jane. And I'm Miss Durden. And welcome to the Bell Ringer. Class is officially in session. Hey y'all. Welcome back to another episode of The Bell Ringer. Before we get started, we just want to thank everyone who tuned in to our first episode, and we hope that you stick it out with us. So, first up on today's episode, this is a letter to our parents. Dear parents, showing up matters. We're talking about something that sounds simple, but it's often misunderstood. What does support actually look like when it comes to your child's education? Support is more than helping with homework. It's showing up in ways that help shape how your child feels about school, their confidence, and even their future. So let's get into it. So when you think about showing up, support can start with something as simple as being there for your child. When your child has an assembly, a performance, or an honors program, we want you to know that your presence speaks loudly. Because even if they don't say it, trust me, they are looking for you in that crowd. I cannot think of how many times I've had to console a child or talk to a child and reassure them that someone is on the way to support them. And even if you can't show up, I've also had to stand in the gap and be there for them. And just know that showing up lets them know that you see them and that you value whatever it is they're doing.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

I was thinking about how I have taught in a lot of low socioeconomic areas. The school I'm at now, in the previous school, I got used to parental support and showing up. But my first two, my first two sites, yeah, I'm sorry, I've been all, I've been places, I've been different to different schools. But my first two school sites, I think it just became the norm for parents not to show up. It became the norm. And that is what you don't want. I have some students, as you were talking, Miss James. I have some students that they know their mom, their dad, aunt, uncle, cousin, they know they're going to show up. So when they know they're going to show up, it's not on their face. And then I've had parents that could not show up and immediately text me on Dojo, and you said how you you had to like stand in the gap or have to console your students, but they ask, can you take a picture? Or sometimes, like, well, I'm sorry you can't make it, but please tell my baby, I'm so sorry I could not make it. And I think it just well, there is even a perfect attendance that I have seen at this point in fifth grade promotion ceremony. The child receives nothing but a certificate of promotion, air quotes, promotion. Their parent is just showing out um for them and they love it, they really love it. So that's that's the first step, I believe, is show up to all the events that you can show up to.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

Absolutely. And I would say communicate that with your child's teacher. If you can't make an event, please communicate that. And I think that's a great alternative, you know, taking pictures, sending it to the parent, just some type of interaction to show that you're that you see them. Because that's all the child, that's all the children want. They want to be seen, be seen, they want to be recognized, and they want to know that their loved ones care about them. And that is so, that is so important. Let me tell you, I know it was a field trip uh this past, was it this year? I think this past um fall semester. I could not make it to one of Nova's field trips. And if you are listening and you don't know me, I do have an eight-year-old daughter. She's in the second grade, and I could not make the queen. I could not make one of her field trips. She cried, I cried, and I felt so bad because I couldn't be there, because I couldn't be there. And but I did have other parents that went on the field trip, you know, to make sure that she was okay. And that parent told me once she was there, she was completely fine. But in that moment, I knew that that was something that she wasn't used to. She was used to me being at all of her events, all of her field trips. And so I can kind of see it from both sides being the teacher and being the parent. They just want someone to show up and they deserve to be celebrated. I don't care. You're right, whether it's a participation award, whether it's the highest honor, they deserve to have that support.

SPEAKER_02 5:10

No, you said you said a lot. I do want to bring up this point though, and communicating with the teachers is very important. When I got older, so for those that are listening, I am 31, no children. And I always wonder, like, how did my mom do it? And what I'm saying about that is she at her point in her career, when I was like in elementary school, she was a supervisor manager, she oversaw um tens of people. She oversaw when she was second in command of her department or her area. But I remember fifth grade, 10 years old, Christmas party. My mom showed up with chicken. I'll never forget that. She showed up with chicken and showed up in her soup. And I just remember being excited. Like my mom brought barbecue chicken. That's when KOC was selling the good barbecue chicken. But she brought barbecue chicken to the class. And so I just want to say this since we're talking to parents mostly today. Um, you know, Miss James works at the school, which is fortunate. So I do want to talk to the parents that do have a job where they're kind of like the manager and they have like a nine to five, which I understand. Nine to fives, it's hard to get off work because I went to school in Bessemer. My mom worked downtown Birmingham. That was a 35-minute commute. And so that goes into like just making sure you plan, that you have the school calendar, that you have the list of things to do. Because certain things we know are coming. Awards day, honors day is coming typically every nine weeks. Christmas is coming, Thanksgiving. Oh my goodness, Thanksgiving dinner. I mean, yeah, Thanksgiving dinner, but it's lunch that happens every year. Those matter. If my mom could not come, my sister would come, or my dad could never come, but they would all come and they would bring somebody in those moments. Like, go ahead and schedule that into your into your planner, into your calendar, so that way your child could look forward to seeing you.

SPEAKER_01 7:27

That's really good. And I love how we're in our early 30s, and look how you can reflect back on those times and recognize the importance of your mom being there. So, parents, please remember showing up matters. Another thing that is very important when it comes to supporting your child is communication, communicating with your child's teacher. Say that again. Communicating with your child's teacher. Preach. You have to hear, and in my opinion, start that communication from the very beginning, from day one. Begin communicating with your child's teacher, build that rapport with your child's teacher. Teachers aren't there to just grade the papers or to just discipline their partners. So this should be a partnership. Reach out, ask questions, stay informed, know what's going on in your child's classroom. And I promise you, it'll make a difference. You don't want to wait until you have a problem and then you want to communicate. Start communicating from day one. And if you never, and if you've never done that before, I encourage you, the school year is almost over. But in August, try that. Try communicating from day one. As it's okay to ask how your child is doing. How are they doing academically? How are they doing socially? What can I do at home to help my child achieve? Honestly, it was very important, and it ties into showing up, but honestly, open house matters. Meet the teacher matters. Those things are truly important. And you can be with you could your child could be in a school and you may know that teacher's name and you may know who she is. So you said he or she is, and you may say, Oh, I don't need to go because I I know them. You may know them, but you don't know them. So please show up to those events, enter into that teacher space because you could have a different experience. Enter that teacher space, get to know your child's teacher, and I promise you that'll make the school year so much smoother. I won't be ignorant and ignore the fact that sometimes parents don't have the best interactions with teachers. So I can only, you know, I can only speak from my experience and the type of teacher I am and the type of parent that I am. But parents, just make sure you do your part. And if you're doing your part, that's the best thing that you can do.

SPEAKER_02 10:02

So I'm just gonna use one word, it could be considered compound, it could be considered a place, the meetings of the mind. There are several, so bear with me. Parents, join the class dojo, join the parent square. I just want to put this tidbit out. Miss Durden has a life, as I tell my students, and I have told my parents, so I don't give out my number now. If you're a parent and you and you're if I've taught you, you know, I I will ration out my number, but at the current school I'm at, but previously you got a Google Voice number because I needed to know if Google Voice was ringing after 4:30, 5 o'clock. I'm not answering. Okay, I just want to put that tad bit out that tidbit out there. So join a class, Dojo, join the parent square. There are so many different you may think it's an inconvenience, but it's an inconvenience for you to tie up my line because sometimes when you have a number, you feel like you could text at midnight. Like I can tell Dojo, these are my quiet hours. When we were out for intercession, which is like um an additional break, I put my quiet hours on for the entire week because I did not want parents to reach out to me during that time because I was on vacation, and I do that, and I say that because I'm the type of teacher when I see it, I read it, and then I'm I'm out, I'm blocked out. And it is um, you are you are right, Miss James. There are different types of level of experience in communicating, but the type of teacher I was, and let me just break down for my my kinders, my first grade parents, second grade, third grade parents, your child's teacher should have a communication folder, a take-home folder, because they cannot do, they probably can nowadays, but back then they could not take this was two years ago. So I had a communications folder. Open the folder, read the folder. I guarantee you, one side will say keep at home, the other side will say uh return to school. I'ma just put this out here. I had a parent that could not understand. I printed out 20 papers, slid the I got the nice communication folder from Amazon, slid it in the front. It had a telephone on it, it's a communication folder, and I also had a take-home photo. Like every folder I sent home, and I know I was that teacher that year. Shout out to that class, they in the fifth grade now, and I know I was that teacher because I had a blue communication folder, a yellow homework folder. Read what's coming, coming home because we communicate through Dojo Parents Square. Um, for some reason, I want to say linked them, but it used to be another one. Remind, remind was a big one. Remind for band room, all these get on them, read them, read it like you read Facebook for the miss and the gossip. Okay, we tell on my fifth grade team, we tell them that Dojo is like Facebook because I got a post, I'm posting with a picture. I sometimes and then I sometimes post my students, like I post pictures of them, so you could take that and put it on Facebook, but make sure you read that message, make sure you read the folder. I have to get on sometimes my friends because they say I didn't hear nothing from the school. Do you check your child's backpack every day? My teammate right now, shout out to her, shout out to Miss Brown Smith, if she's listening. She's checks on her high schooler, she still does that because until they get to college, you're responsible for them. Colleges that colleges to trial and error where they learn, oh, if I don't if I don't communicate with my own professors, then I'm messed up. Mama did that K-12. So make sure you're reading the the class communication sites and the actual literature that's coming home. I just wanted to put that out there. I didn't mean to take up all your time. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

That's good. That's good. I um that made me think back to one of my former principals, Dr. Daniels. May she rest in peace. One thing that I learned from her, I really didn't have any boundaries when it came to communication as a teacher until she became my principal. And she did tell us that as a teacher, she said 24 to 48 hours is a professional time window. And I think that could be used in any in any setting, no matter what your job is professionally, especially if you deal with you know communication between other people. She said that 24 to 48 hours is professional. Mind you, if it's an emergency, you do want to respond in a timely manner. But please give me 24 to 48 hours to respond. And even if it is a problem situation, you giving me that time, I can investigate, I can read your concerns, investigate what's going on, figure out a solution, and get back to you with a solution. So patience is very important when it comes to communication. And then as a teacher, I also try to make sure I communicate positive things as well. So not only reaching out if there's a behavior issue or an academic concern, sometimes I want to tell you something good.

SPEAKER_02 15:27

And I feel like this is a tidbit. Um, I know I was talking, but I everything I was saying was still true and honest. Yes, give us 24 to 48 hours. Typically, I will try to respond within about 32 hours. Something, and you gotta think, if you if you write me at seven o'clock at night, just you you do the math. And I wanted to bring this out. I think you was gonna bring it out, Miss James, but some matters need to just stay with the teacher. I'm gonna let that sit for a second. Some matters need to stay with the teacher, like if you even have an issue with behavior in the class or from another student, you know, we love that B word bully. Don't write the teacher at eight o'clock and then have an email for the prom school at three o'clock. You haven't given that teacher a time to address it. And so, here for my teachers that are listening, a tidbit that my current administrator gave me was the same thing 24 to 48 hours, but the one thing he said that stuck with me was a response is I have received your message and I will continue and I will get back with you. That's a response, too. That's good. Okay, so does that take us to the next topic? Okay, I'm ready for this one. This is this is for the parents that come up in the school and they are advocating, which we're gonna talk about that advocate word. But this is for the parents that come to the school and want to read everybody's rights. I'm for you. I I'm here for the parents. I love the parents. You chose to stay in the neighborhood. This is your school, this is your community. I commute, so come up to the school, but this is what I need you to do so you don't leave an egg on your face, y'all. Listen, come closer. I'm saying come closer, like y'all can see me. Listen, listen, y'all. And this comes up because I had a talk with my best friend and was talking about my god children. Parents, you need to know the code of conduct, you need to know the behavior plan or the behavior expectations that your school dare I say your district. Because if you're in a district like how me and Miss James are in the district, everything is the top down. There are over, I think it's like 41, 42 schools that was in the district. So there are now 42 different codes of conduct. We are systemic going across or systematic. Is it worse systematic?

unknown 18:00

Correct.

SPEAKER_02 18:01

Systematic because I've been watching judge shows, y'all. We I'm on spring break, it's still in my pajamas. So we have systems, you have a code of conduct, right? So the code of conduct will address behavior, it will address technology, it will address dress code. When your child has sit the ISS because they're not wearing a belt, I feel like that's a warning, or because they're not wearing a belt because their pants are sagging, and the dress code addresses that. Okay, and then you're mad, but it's just this. But the reason why we have a code of conduct is because it not only protects your students, but it protects really it protects parents when you want to defend your child. You have to. I was talking to someone about this. You have to know what to use because I'm not saying I do this or my school do this, but I know there are certain professionals that think parents don't know what they're talking about, and they can do certain things. Case in point, let's look at what class three offenses are harassing a school board member. See, I dropped that language on a parent once before, and that's how I refer to myself. I am a school board employee because I am employed by the school board. So if you harass touch, it's it's defined in your code of conduct. That's class three. What does class three mean? That means you that's bigger than a suspension. That means that's a suspension or sometimes an expulsion pending a trial, meaning that these students will have to appear and have a hearing and to discuss what they what they did. That's like the last resort. While you think your child is going to get away with what they're doing, you need to know the code of conduct. Maybe you should you know tell your child, you playing with Silson but don't run with Silzers. The same thing with a pencil. What is identified as a weapon? I tell I used to tell my third graders, don't hold that pencil that way, don't play like you're about to poke somebody because it's a weapon. Weapon is class three. Class three, that's the highest um disciplinary action that you can have. That's what goes on your record. Class one offenses are like deemed by the teacher, you know, talking, not following directions. You know, one to one point, you know, the class, though, the code of conduct when I first started teaching, a class one offense was not coming to class prepared, and I think because it was K-12, that makes sense for high school, right? But for elementary, it was like what? But then I told my students that's a class one offense, and so many class one offense become a class two offense. That's what we're looking at fighting, horseplaying, things like that. When we want to come up here and throw the bullying word, I and I always try to remind parents this the code of conduct is not working against you, it's there for your protection for you to use. But when you want to come up there and you want to talk about what another child is doing, like I tell my parents, I am the advocate for all the children. So just like you want to advocate for your child, there's another parent advocating for their child as well. So you need to make sure you know the code of conduct, you need to know what the consequences are because you know the code of conduct can be changed, just like that was an offense a couple of years ago, class two offense. Some districts have now done away with a K-12 code of conduct, they have like a K5 and then they have like a sixth through 12th grade because it's different, you know. Fight that which I don't I may not agree with, but fighting in elementary is different from fighting when you're in high school because sometimes at elementary it's a couple leaks and we can back away, it's not a brawl like we may see, and you have to dress when other people get hurt. This is my favorite one. Um, I want to bring this up, and I'm gonna give Over to you, Miss James. When it comes to cursing, I was a part of a district where students could not be written up for courtesy. Now, I could do a class one offense, but they would not get suspended. They wouldn't get a formal write-up and suspension. Now, teachers, you should be documenting everything that goes on in your classroom. I'm just saying, but a class two offense was not cursing. Now, if they cursed the teacher, go ahead and get that yellow paper for you, that pink slip for you, and write you up, right? And so I say this because when I would have family members that would come to me and then they get mad that their child got a write-up for cussing and it seemed like they was cursing the teacher. I always ask this question, Are you cursing at home? And do somebody write you up when you curse at home?

SPEAKER_01 22:51

I feel you, but I'm correcting cursing. Period. I don't care if you're I don't care if you're talking to me or you're talking to Sally sitting next to you. Don't curse. So we're going to use some different terminology to express our feelings. I don't play that. I don't want to hear that either. Um, I also want to say to parents, make sure that you support consequences when needed. Support the consequences when needed. I promise you, and I can say it again, I cannot ignore because I know parents have had bad experiences too. And they have been put in situations where someone in the building may not have their best interest in heart or they may not be supportive. But I can speak for myself and the educators that I know they want what's best for your child, and they want and they're correcting them in love. So support those consequences. I've experienced over these past 10 years, I've experienced two different types of parents. Girl, I've had the parents where I've called and reached out about a behavior, and they've gotten mad. They've gotten mad at me or blame me for the behavior of the child. And that will never make honestly, that will never make sense to me because I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything. Support, support to me looks like you identify you identifying your child's behavior and addressing it, not brushing it, not brushing it off, not saying that it's the teacher's fault, not saying that, you know, placing the blame on some on someone else. Right. Sometimes it's the child. I've had to correct my own child. She's well behaved, but she's had her, you know, her days were little things, or she's come home with a clip down on her chart for something, and I've had to talk to her a little clip down, yes. But I've had to address it. I've had those parents, girl, but I've also had parents who will pull up. I've had parents that when I reach out to them and let them know what their child's doing, they'll pull up. I've had parents pull up in the in 20 minutes flat to address their I promise you 20 minutes flat to address that to address their child's behavior. I've had this just made me think back to a couple years ago, and it was interesting. Um, this student, awesome, awesome student. She's in middle school now, very proud of her and all of her accomplishments. She had a bad day, and it was something she did. I think it was more so making fun of another student. Okay, and I had to, you know, correct the behavior, and I let her mom know that she did it. The next day, her mom came to the school, and she had her apologize in front of the class to the girl whose feelings that she hurt. And you know, it wasn't embarrassing. She didn't, you know, she didn't whoop her, you know, whoop her in front of the class or go off on her in front of the class, but she made her apologize in front of the class.

SPEAKER_00 26:01

And it was right.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

It's to me, that's good parenting because you're supporting, like you're acknowledging the behavior and you're addressing it. Never had any other problems out of her, but I just always appreciated things like that because you're addressing the behavior. Do you have to show pull-up in front of the class and do all those things? No, but in some way, whether in public or in private, however you see fit, have those conversations with your child and address those situations before they grow into something larger.

SPEAKER_02 26:36

That part. That part.

SPEAKER_01 26:37

And that's the most that's the most important thing. Addressing those behaviors, correcting them before they grow into something larger.

SPEAKER_02 26:45

I think that that's a good point. And I know we're gonna move on, but you was about to say what I was gonna say. You we have to remember that you know, little Johnny, we always use that phrase in education. Little Johnny and Sally, they're gonna grow up and they're gonna be citizens. And even though we're in a state that does not like to teach social studies and love to minimize or doing testing, your K2, K3 curriculum in social studies is teaching them how to be great citizens. So as they get older and we correct their behavior, because what now is a hearing, a class three, and a hearing turns into things that they, you know, they go to juvenile court because that's what it's setting them up for. They're learning, you know, they have a right to a trial, and you know, we don't want a class three to turn into that wasn't corrected to turn into a misdemeanor and a felony, right? All right, so we're moving on, okay, parents. I know we've been saying a lot. I want to bring out some important points in education. Like me and Miss James up here talking, it's so easy for us to talk in code side, though. I'm thinking about when we were like in in college and we you we have to learn all these different terms, and you always think, How I'm gonna learn all this, and now we're using them. So I'm gonna list some acronyms. And if any educators are listening, when we talk in acronyms in front of our parents, they don't understand anything we're saying, and because we're adults and we feel like we know everything, sometimes your parents are not gonna come up and say, I don't know what they're talking about. So here we go. The first acronym we have is IEP, that is an individualized education program. You guys, that is a 180-day process for a child to receive an IEP. Okay, we're not gonna go into depth for them, but this is what you hear with students that are in special education, referred to for sure as Fed, or as I love to say, your exceptional students. So they had those students will have an IEP. A doctor cannot give an IEP. Doctors think that they can say ask your ask your parent. I say ask your mom, ask your parent or ask your teacher by IEP. It is a 180-day process. Let me give this disclaimer how many days are we supposed to be in school on the calendar? 180 days. So from that time where uh a referral comes to play for special education to receive services, you will not have an IEP, maybe, because you got to go through a process of 180 days. Your child won't receive one if they qualify until like the next school year. Who makes the IEP, that individualized education um program or that plan that IEP, who makes that? The teacher, the um usually a leadership staff will come. So sometimes a principal, assistant principal, or counselor may come, or sometimes a curriculum specialist, depending on your district. The parent um and the special education teacher, they all come make the IEP. What else falls under that? It's a 504. A 504 plan is a plan that provides accommodations for students with disabilities. This is the best one I can give. Little Johnny has gone to school, kindergarten through third grade. This is so common now. Third grade, nine years old, they realize Johnny has stomach issues. They take him to the doctor, he is um diagnosed and having stomach issues. So, what's the issue with this? He has to go to the restroom frequently while he's at school. So if he meets with if his parents advocate and meet with the 504 coordinator at the school, he can receive a 504 because that is going to accommodate him for the stomach issues. He may be out, or she may, I said Johnny, so he may be out of school, and 504s and IEPs that follows them even when they're getting tested. I um test doing standardized testing, I don't want to go down that. So 504, you may hear that 504 plan. And the reason why I love 504 because a lot of parents think when a child has a disability that they're going to get an IEP, but a 504 is a little bit quicker process because you need your doctor's notes and their referrals and everything to show what they have, and that could be coded because for me, parents try to catch me on this one that's noted in the system, and I know before you that, but that goes back to communication, but that goes back into letting your teacher know. But it's coded in the system as well that your child will have to go to the restroom frequently or things like that, because we don't we don't like doing restrooms too much. But if they have an actual plan that helps them, so that's IAP 504. I said sped, we say sped short for education, special education, EL ESL, those are English language learners or English as a second language. So you may hear EL or ESL students. No, they're not Latino. We can't say because all ESL children don't speak Spanish, they can speak a different dialect, they could be there, they can have heritage from a country in Africa and speak that. They can speak Swahili. I that's the African language I that is. So we don't say, Oh, the Spanish kids. No, it's and this is for some of my educators too that be trying that not all ESL children are you know Spanish descent. Okay. Here's this okay, Miss James. This is another episode. RTI responds to intervention, and then you have MTSS, multiple tiers of systems of support. Why did I say these two for last? Because RTI response to intervention is something that your child is getting. If they're struggling in the classroom, it's probably been duly noted. They have probably gone through RTI, and then you have multiple tiers systems of support. Teachers learn, we know little Johnny is not getting what I'm teaching in whole group. So we pull little Johnny in small group. That's all that falls under multiple tiers um of systems of supports. We know little Johnny's not getting it. We realize little Johnny is filling these tests. So, what we do with little Johnny, we take them through PST. It's a problem-solving team. Why are these acronyms important? Because we try to do this before we do a special education referral, okay? Because again, that process takes 180 days. RTI takes less than eight hours. I I know from them what I'm going to do to meet this child's needs, and that documentation is important because that is what the parent, I'm sorry, that's what the teachers probably want to show you if they would like to refer your child for special education. No, I'm not gonna talk about it right now because I want tomatoes. All right, so you have RTI, you have MTSS under multiple tiers of systems of support. That's what we get PBIS. That is where we we in MTSS, PBIS falls under that. We like to reward students for academics and behavior. So there are a plethora of programs and services that fall under that that your child receives just by being in a public school. So when you want to come up there and advocate for your child, just know that there are teachers and there are systems in so there are systems that are in place that will allow your child to succeed if they're not succeeding currently. Okay, so that's why we look at you a little crazy. If you say, My child, my child needs an IEP. We're gonna walk you through what it says under MTSS that multiple-tiered system of supports. That's what we're gonna walk you through. We're gonna um PST them, go to the problem solving team, see if we can accommodate them. And this process, that process takes about 45 days, and we review that every 45 days. I will say every nine weeks, but typically PST comes after the first report card because we want to see that, or after the first progress report in some cases. Um, I'm gonna say this right quick: STEAM that is STEM and arts. What is STEM? That's science, technology, engineering, and math, PBL, project-based learning, SEL, social emotional learning. Just rewind if you just miss it, yeah. Just rewind. And I want to say this one because back in the day it was reading, and I have this thing about when children get older, like like Miss James is considered a reading, a fifth-grade reading teacher, and that gets me sometimes, but she's an ELA teacher because that's how the standards are. ELA English language art that encompasses reading, literature, reading, fiction. So you got informational text, then you have literature, so you have all those literal, non-literal, all of those terms, but then you have writing, then you have mechanics, you have grammar, all of that falls under ELA. And I say this because I had one parent come to classroom one time, and while she was going to town on her son, she said, and you better make sure you get your math work. She was reading the wall, your math work, your science work, and your Elaw work. You guys, that is called ELA. Okay, I'm getting back over. Okay, so those are acronyms you got that you maybe not have known, but that's what we use in our you know, teaching language.

SPEAKER_01 36:42

I'm sorry, you got me with it.

SPEAKER_02 36:45

She said Ela, Ela.

SPEAKER_01 36:50

That is funny. I've never heard Ela, but I'll run it back just real quick to PBIS. PBIS is positive behavioral interventions and supports. Um, parents, PBIS may look like to you if you hear your child talking about school books or any type of books that they're earning at school. Um, sometimes different events, different events that your school may have. Positive behavior looks like when we adjust when we acknowledge the positive things that your child that your children are doing. So they earn rewards or they earn points or they earn certain treats for the positive things. So PBIS, it addresses the positives and not so much the negatives. Matter of fact, thank you. No negatives at all.

SPEAKER_02 37:36

No negatives, thank you, because PBIS yeah wasn't on my list, but as I went through MTSS, it just flowed out.

SPEAKER_01 37:44

I get it. And parents just really understand that it's a process, that it's a process. And I want to know, I want you to know through it all whether your child has a 504 or your child has an IEP or you're looking for additional services for your child, know that support also means being your child's advocate. When you are in those, when you make it to those meetings, advocate for your child. If there are questions that you have, if there's something you don't understand, ask. I promise you, no one's judging you for wanting to wanting to know. Honestly, I have more respect for you when you're inquisitive, when you have questions, or when you come to the meeting with the answers. I love that. I love that for parents because I want them to be, I want them to be aware. And although there are advocates for your child within the building, you are your child's biggest advocate. And not only just you advocating for your child, teaching your child to speak up for themselves as they grow, as they grow older and as they matriculate through each grade level, we want you to make sure that you're instilling those same principles in them. Because Jamise, or Miss Durden, rather, I absolutely love to be in a meeting and a parent has a question. Or when we're reviewing, when we're reviewing those plans and the parent needs an explanation for something, or if a parent doesn't understand the data, the test scores, or what certain what certain numbers mean, I love for them to ask questions.

SPEAKER_02 39:14

Oh, some of those questions like for kindergartners, I don't know if they have grades like physical letter grades, but they actually have those act. So I know one teacher, kindergarten teacher, will put the not the rubric, but the key. But we even do that for our ready, like green means proficient, yellow means intervention, red is urgent intervention. So that tells what gray, if you're in green, you're on gray level. If you're in fifth, that's fifth. If you're in yellow, that's fourth. So we usually try to put that. I was going back to communication, it'd be on dojo, but don't let me get on, don't let me get on my soapbox because sometimes we get those type of questions. What's the spelling words for the week? It was on dojo, or sometimes I send out a message that says, and I don't teach spelling, but um, I'm trying to get on my soapbox over here, yeah. But then also I appreciate a parent that I had that came for me for a grade. They didn't come for me, they were just like, I just wonder why like the assignment is out of 12 points. So for the last three times, and it was a homework assignment, they received 11 points out of 12. That parent said, Is there a reason I had two? Is there a reason they're receiving not receiving that extra point? And I was like, Oh, yes, I got parents that actually look at the grades, and I explained it to you. I love that more than three grammatical errors. I have to take off a point, but anyway, and I love that I love parents like that.

SPEAKER_01 40:39

Girl, I have a parent, I guarantee you, I could post a grade at 918. Is 918 right now? I could post a grade at 918 by 920. If it's something that's not pleasing to her, she will be messaging me to inquire about the grade or inquire about what her child has not done. And I use that too, and that's very helpful when parents are like that because I can tell my student, you know, your mama don't play.

SPEAKER_02 41:08

Right, I love it.

SPEAKER_01 41:10

I love it. You know, you know she don't play.

SPEAKER_02 41:14

Love parent support, absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:17

And I would say before we go into the next segment, Miss Durden, what are some what are some ways that parents have shown up for you and you really appreciate it?

SPEAKER_02 41:28

Uh, two years ago, and I this shout out to them fifth graders. If you're in fifth grade right now, I can shout out this one. Shout out, well, I can't shout them out, I can't say their name, but they know who they are because they follow me on TikTok. But those my my babies, my last class at the school that I was at before I came to this school, they're in fifth grade now. So shout out if they're listening. They that class, it was our first year doing a literacy act, so parental communication was very important because I did not want a parent coming in and saying, I did not know about this because they try it, so that meant having to. I had to go out the box and I had to use my own phone. I had to sometimes message at five o'clock, but I had to stay to the school to seven o'clock to get stuff together, it was just a lot. That's a whole nother episode. But a few things that I did, I communicated all the time. I made like a one-pager of um, and I'm saying all this to wrap it all up. I made a one-pager of what they can do to help their child in each subject without having a textbook. And that's good. Then I did my because we were lemon heads, so we had a lot of things, and what I the reason why how they have shown up is because I was that year I was tired. That is why I wanted to leave said grade. I wanted to leave third grade because I was so tired, but I was it, I had my new job, but I still had to finish out my other job. So I remember being in the conference room, seeing one of my students running in the hall because they called me into the conference room to talk to me. And so I'm like, Yeah, I'm just talking, and at that point, I know I've got a new job, so I'm just over it. But uh, but I also know I'm like, and it's the end of the school year, like it's two more days left for school, and I'm watching my kids run. I'm like, what are y'all doing? So then when I go into the classroom, I'm about to go in on them. I'm like, I'm in the conference, school ain't over. Y'all know I don't play. They surprised the parents surprised me. I did like a Miss Durden favorite things. They know I'm a diabetic. So not only did they give me like my favorite drinks, so like Pepsi, Moun Do, but I used to put it in candy, but they put I put a tidbit on that. I said, Well, Miss Durden is also diabetic, so diabetic drinks and candy is also welcome. Diet Sun Kids, Diet Fanta, Diet, like they had all these different things for me. I had one parent and I didn't catch on. They was like, What's what's office supplies? What's organizational supplies? They got me um every organizational thing you can think like files, file storage, little cute stuff for your desk, a Stanley Cup. Well, it was a Steve, but it's okay. Anything I could think of, like I got usually you get gifts, teacher appreciation week, whatever. All the parents said, Ms. During, we just want to thank you. And I had 15 students in that class, so gave they all gave me gifts out of all my years. Because those are the parents that love me. When I didn't go on a field trip, they was like, Oh my goodness, Miss Durham. And it's like, I think that is kind of like the premise of everything that's going on. Because we give so much, and because you when you have a great teacher, when the parent shows up for the teacher, yeah, you can when you show your appreciation by having my back for your child, little things like that, and then also just rewarding me at the end. So that's that's the the biggest one.

SPEAKER_01 44:58

Yes, I love it, I love it. That that support, it definitely goes a long way. I think I over the years, one thing I really love, because you know, but I don't know if everyone knows. We have our pupil supply money that we get in October, sometimes November, to purchase, you know, classroom supplies. But anytime that you want to make something more extravagant, or if you want to, you know, add food into the mix, or you want to do um an extended lesson or just some type of celebration for the students, the school doesn't provide money for those things. Right. Come on, talk about it. There is no money for those things. I absolutely appreciate when parents help visions come to fruition. So when there is any type of idea, I know over the several over the past several years, I always do my students publish books. We publish a book, and I always like to have a book release party for them. I asked a parent last year to assist with, you know, the decorations and everything. She supplied everything for me to decorate. She supplied everything for the Christmas party for me to decorate. Those things that you need, you know, the things you need to support with going the extra mile to make things memorable for the kids. When parents chip in and help make those things possible, it really means a lot. When they take the time to make goodie bags, or if you want to, I know sometimes like um over the years, we've done like pumpkin activities in in the fall, and the parents provide the pumpkins, little things like that, that it takes a load off of you. Because you know, if if a parent don't supply it, then what are we doing? We're going out and getting it ourselves. So when parents, when parents step in to make the educational experience enhanced, because that's what it is, because a lot of times we could really just do with what we've been given and keep going. But a lot of times you really want to make things extravagant or extra special for the kids. So when they support in those ways, I appreciate it. And when they love on you too, because that means a lot too every time. It does.

SPEAKER_02 47:16

That's another episode. We'll do that before Christmas, right?

SPEAKER_01 47:20

Let's do that. All right, but next up, parents, we also want you to know that support does not stop at the school. And we're gonna talk a little bit about what support looks like at home. We want you to know that learning does not stop at the school. You need to be engaged in the learning process at the house as well. So whether that's creating a consistent homework routine, encouraging your child to read. Girl, kids don't read like they used to.

SPEAKER_02 47:52

No reading logs, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:54

They don't read like they used to. Growing up, reading was actually a thing for me and a lot of my classmates. There were series that we read. It was a it was a whole thing. Encourage that at home. Encourage that at home if really identifying your child's interest. So for me teaching fifth grade, I don't mind like I have a lot of athletes. I have a lot of athletes in my grade level this year. If they want to read a book about every athlete from LeBron to Le to Michael Jordan, if they want to read from about golf to basketball, I don't care. They're reading. I really, really enjoy when I help students develop a love for reading outside of the curriculum, because curriculum is standards-based and we're working on reading comprehension skills. But I love finding time to help them develop their own interests. And I think it's always double fold for me. A lot of the things that I see with my own child, I make sure that I'm addressing it as a teacher as well, and vice versa, because I'm learning, I learned my child's interest and what she likes to like, what she's into, and I encourage her to read those things as well, and that's really good.

SPEAKER_02 49:09

I I agree, I concur. Stars at home, and um, I probably won't do it. I wish, I wonder if could I find that one pager so that I have for parents, but a few things I did like for science and math, put them in the kitchen, and this is coming from somebody who don't even cook. So, of course, reading, but I used to tell parents turn on a closed caption on your child's YouTube videos and on the TV, because I know you're I'm sorry, the ones who are lazy, even you can do that to help your child to learn how to read, and then y'all if you do read with them or you watch TV with even ask them like what's going on in the movie. You know, you can use the TV, yes, to help them comprehend, but get them for math. Thank you. That's part of the test, too. So, listening comprehension. So, do things like that. But if I can link that, if y'all are interested, I can find that one pager that I have. But you know what? You got chat GPT that can tell you what are some great strategies to use for my nine-year-old. You can literally type that in and it will give you great strategies to use for math reading, current events. Reading was a thing. Our producer's gonna talk about this because she's going heavy in the chat right now. But we used to read articles and then have to write about that article with a list of prompts. So, but you can do that. Hey, what do you think about them banning TikTok? That's a current event. What do you think about some of the things that you know? And it's a very there were things that were going on the world that my parents asked me about, but that's helping with social studies because social studies is not about learning facts and then moving on, is you seeing how society works, so but yeah, so all that stars at home, even being in a car, you know, absolutely play a podcast, play a podcast, absolutely, and the last thing I'll say about support at home very important.

SPEAKER_01 51:08

Parents simply ask them about their day and truly listening to what's going on. Make sure you're asking them about how their day went, learning about their friends, learning about their interests. That is very important because you want to be in the know when it comes to your child and not just academics, but socially and emotionally as well. They're all important because at the end of the day, support is about connection, consistency, and communication. You don't have to be perfect, but you do have to be present, and we just want you to know that your involvement matters more than you may ever realize.

SPEAKER_02 51:47

Wow, all of that's been good. And shout out to the people that are still listening. This is a lengthy episode, but I think it was some great things, some tidbits and some tips that were great for you parents and also teachers, because we if it was some things we were naming that you're not doing in the classroom to help open that communication between your parents, definitely do so. But we thank you all for listening. Um, and this concludes our episode.

SPEAKER_01 52:15

And again, dear parents, please remember showing up matters.

SPEAKER_00 52:25

And in closing, I'm Miss James.

SPEAKER_02 52:27

And I'm Miss Durden.

SPEAKER_00 52:29

Thank you for listening to the bell ringer. Class is officially in session.

SPEAKER_02 52:33

Don't be late.