PARENTS AND TEACHERS: HOW TO BUILD A CLIMATE OF MUTUAL TRUST
6 IDEAS TO IMPROVE TRUST BETWEEN TEACHERS AND FAMILY
The educational alliance that should be formed among the students’ reference adults is often lacking: teachers and teachers who lack mutual trust find themselves alone and divided in this challenge.
A school that becomes an educating community should instead activate dialogue with families , as well as with the territory, and make educational pacts being guided also by experts in the field.
The activation of families in the educational path is fundamental and should go beyond school-family interviews , which should be transformed from purely informative moments to pedagogical comparisons.
In order to build this more collaborative climate, it would be necessary to foresee periodic moments of meeting and comparison , such as permanent territorial tables in which parents’ committees and institutions participate.
To increase the participation of families in institutional moments, we should ensure that these are not the only moments of confrontation: it is also important to provide pleasant opportunities for sharing , so that teachers, parents and students can get to know each other even under new light, going beyond the usual roles.
In many schools pupils and families are involved through redevelopment projects that, in addition to improving the educational offer, respond concretely to the needs and contribute to strengthening the sense of belonging of all its parts.
As theorized in the Fuoriclasse Manifesto in Movimento to make the school a true educating community, it is desirable that activities be organized for children and adults, to promote training and / or convivial moments . The meetings should be organized in turn by students, teachers and parents in school settings, open to the area for the occasion.
POSITIVE FEEDBACK ON PUPILS
These moments also have a very positive influence on students and their motivation, especially when they are actively involved in the process. Pupils feel , in fact, listened to in their needs and protagonists of a possible positive change ; they can then ascertain the educational alignment of their reference figures and live with teachers and parents to take care of the school, understood first and foremost as a common good.
The testimony of a teacher
Teacher Paola Benini tells us about the reopening of the school library in the lower secondary school of the Comprehensive “Sibilla Aleramo” of Turin, a moment of work and a challenge that involved pupils, families and teachers.
“The library was housed in a bright and spacious but unadorned classroom; it had few books, old and mostly ruined, and above all it had been closed for many years. It was therefore necessary to reopen it and revive it, making clear its character as a place of ideas where imagination and creativity find a home.
To succeed, the teacher of art and image has created a huge mural with the students of the laboratory that summarizes our idea of reading as overcoming the narrow borders imposed by geographical and cultural isolation. The work was beautiful but not enough : it needed new shelves and, above all, new books. Through the Fuoriclasse in Movimento project the children have adopted the libraryof which they felt responsible for the first time; they therefore involved the parents, calling them to collaborate in a common project, an expression of a need and a dream.
The response was exciting: a group of parents, teachers and educators of the project worked together giving some of their time to mount new shelves, donated by a historic library of the center, clean and select the texts. The library was therefore ready but it needed a name; also this time the students became active drawing from their imagination and also devising a logo. Howgard library: the factory of stories. At the end of the year it was therefore possible to open our library with a beautiful party attended by many pupils and parents, happy to have been protagonists of a beautiful story with a happy ending “.
TWINNING BETWEEN SCHOOLS: 5 STEPS TO REACH THE GOAL
This is the case of the twinning between the Comprehensive Institutes Miraglia Sogliano and Adelaide Ristori of Naples , which this year chose action 14 of Fuoriclasse in Movimento : to offer students opportunities for exchange and knowledge of other realities “.
We are told by the supporter teachers Riccardo Giuliano and Daniela Melucci, suggesting 5 steps to reach the goal.
5 STEPS TO START A SCHOOL TWINNING
Know and recognize yourself Although natural, twinning two schools is a delicate action : compared to other educational actions, it requires in addition to know and recognize those who, in the territory of their city, share common wills and ways of concrete change . The Ristori in Forcella and the Sogliano in Porta Capuana, 10 minutes away but with so much complexity and fragility.
The courage to create bridges
Moreover, when one’s school has a limited opening on the territory , thus perceiving itself as an island more or less happy, it is not obvious nor easy for it to decide to lower a connecting bridge . The school of our times suffers from a bureaucratization that requires authorizations and written norms to be respected, which seem to be made on purpose to cut off the connection and give the illusion that “the less you dare, the quieter you are”. All this leads us to forget that if we do not change a little every day, it will be reality that will forcefully break in, changing us for the worse.
The involvement of the teaching colleges
Once the proposal is defined , it is necessary to start from the decision of both teaching colleges that want to allow the ship to move. In our case, the first phase of approval was all in all simple, considering that, although not really very close, our schools have known each other for a long time, both through the common commitment with Save the Children and through common teaching experiences.
Organizational rigor and imagination
Once launched, the ship needs to go through several stages: organization, schedules, participation . It is necessary to agree on the schedules and the activities to be carried out, and we of the Sogliano have had easy game in collaborating with the teacher of Ristori Daniela Politi, who with her contagious strength, pushed everyone to overcome the shallows and obstacles, and there has brought to its destination: three days of fun, creative and educational sharing!
Teamwork
Teamwork is what keeps us going everyday in an increasingly difficult school context, but if we don’t recognize it, we don’t spend time, space or care on it, the risk is to succumb to loneliness and immobility. The result was a day of confrontation, listening, growth for us and above all for our students.
which we form together. There are two ways to avoid suffering for it. The first is easy for many: to accept hell and become a part of it to the point of not seeing it anymore. The second is risky and requires constant attention and learning: seeking and being able to recognized is not hell, and make it last, and give it space.
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