Community Involvement

The role of the community on education is very important. It is important for the community have the opportunity to be involved with local students and to provide support. In Fort Wayne, there is a wide variety of this type of involvement. Not only does the community host events for students and families, but the schools also have events that the entire community is invited to attend. My school in particular hosted fundraiser dinners and carnivals, Vacation Bible School, and book sales. This gave people in our city the chance to come see our school, meet students, parents, and faculty, and even make a donation to help the school. Events like this not only benefit the school financially to encourage better education, but also allow the community to feel more involved in the local schools.

         While the individual schools in Fort Wayne do a great job of getting the community involved, the city also hosts educational events for area students and families to attend. The public library hosts tons of reading programs and activities throughout the year for schools and families to participate in. Science Central, the children’s science museum, also has many educational events for local students to attend. The Fort Wayne Parks Department hosts a huge variety of educational activities and programs for the community to get involved in. These are just a few different programs offered in Fort Wayne. In my opinion, my community and its school do a great job of working together to further the students’ educations. 

P/T Conference

I have mixed emotions about the mock parent/teacher conferences. It was difficult for me to act as though this was a true conference. There was a lot of commotion in the classroom with everyone talking at once, and it was a little hard to stay on task. It was also a challenge talking and answering questions about a nonexistant student. 

On the other hand, it was helpful putting the whole thing together, and at least getting some practice in a "conference" setting. Even though it wasn't exactly how a true parent/teacher conference would be, it was still good practice for us. It was slightly intimidating just talking to a fellow classmate, and I know it will be even worse with real parents. It also made me realize how much work is put into these conferences by the teacher, and I only had to do this for one student. It has given me ideas for when I am a teacher, and how I should prepare for conferences.