Family and Community

1. Family and Community Brandy Holland ECE497: Child Development Capstone Course (CNM1439A) Pilar Carroll October 13, 2014

2. Early and Middle Childhood Children at Lincoln Elementary School are in their early and middle childhood development. The school consists of grades PreK to grade six, and that is children ages 3-12. Children within these age rages are growing and learning a lot in all developmental domains. They start out learning things like how to count to 20 in the PreK, and by the sixth grade they should know how to do more complex mathematics like multiplication and division (Marotz, & Allen, 2013).

3. My Role in Child Development It is my job to ensure that each of my students feel comfortable and are in a caring, loving environment. It is my role to mentor each and every one of my students in both an classroom setting and on an individual basis (Cameron-Jones, & O’Hara, 1995).

4. Importance of Cohesion I feel that it is important for family, peers, community, and teachers to have open communication and work together to make a better living environment for not only our children, but everyone. Our community helps shape our social identity and life courses, and the closer we are within the community the better everyone’s social identity and life courses can be (Forrest, & Kearns, 2001). I think that this starts at home and it is up to everyone, including the school system to make sure that community cohesion can happen.

5. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological System UrieBronfenbrenner believed that everyone develops from within a system of relationships tht are affected by many levels of the environment, and this is known as the ecological systems theory (Berk, 2013). The mesosystem of this theory is makes up the home, school, neighborhood, and childcare centers (Berk, 2013). The mesosystem is where these different places interact to make new experiences for children.

6. Epstein’s Types of Involvement In 1995 Joyce Epstein created the National Network of Partnership Schools. This organization provides professional development to assist schools, districts, and state leaders to develop and implement programs that involve the family and community (Epstein, Sanders, Simon, Salinas, Jansorn, & Van Voorhis, 2002). Epstein made six different types of involvement that make up the National Network of Partnership Schools and they are parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision making, and collaborating with community.

7. Parenting Parents can go through parenting classes and/or go to programs like WIC, The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, to learn better ways to help their children grow and develop properly (Epstein, n.d.). The Lincoln Elementary School is implementing a parenting workshop that teaches parents different parenting styles, and which ones work best, and why they work best.

8. Communicating Communication is important for everyone to understand and know what is going on around them. Communication is key to helping a child learn what they are supposed to as they are supposed to learn it. Lincoln Elementary has Parent/Teacher Conferences that allow teachers and parents to communicate about the child’s progress reports and report cards, and hand out calendars that schedule all school events so that the parents know everything ahead of time and can plan accordingly (Epstein, n.d.).

9. Volunteering Volunteering helps students learn better communication skills and learn how not only to receive tutoring, but also how to become a tutor to others (Epstein, n.d.). Lincoln Elementary has implemented a way for students to volunteer as tutors to other students in need of assistance. They also provide a time for parental volunteering, such as teacher’s aide and helping students with school projects.

10. Learning at Home By continuing to learn at home rather than just in school, students learn new skills, and it helps students learn how to complete homework better and with a positive attitude (Epstein, n.d.). Lincoln Elementary has implemented the use of planners as a way for students to write down their assignments, when they are due, and what they need to practice on for parents and students to work together at home on.

11. Decision Making Decision making is important in that it teaches students and family understand their rights and that their rights are protected. It also helps teach students to strive for goals and achieve them (Epstein, n.d.). Lincoln Elementary has implemented a school paper that tells the students information like who is running for different school representatives, for example, student body president and secretary.

12. Collaborating with Community Through collaborating with the community students learn how to improve their talents/abilities through curricular and extracurricular activities, and they start to learn different job opportunities and start to set career goals for the future (Epstein, n.d.). Lincoln Elementary has a “Family Night” once a month that is a fun way for families to eat and get to know each other and learn different resources that can be of help for the family, such as health plans, counseling, and activities like music and/or art that they could become involved in.

13. References Berk, L. E. (2013). Child development. Boston: Pearson Education. Cameron-Jones, M., & O’Hara, P. (1995). Mentors’ perceptions of their roles with students in initial teacher training. Cambridge Journal of Education, 25(2), 189-199. Epstein, J. L., Sanders, M. G., Simon, B. S., Salinas, K. C., Jansorn, N. R., & Van Voorhis, F. L. (2002). School, family, and community partnerships: Your handbook for action . Corwin Press. Forrest, R., & Kearns, A. (2001). Social cohesion, social capital, and the neighbourhood. Urban studies, 38(12), 2125-2143.