Technologies I have used in my classroom...

For my ARP, I am working on having parents become more involved with their children through active participation in their studies at home.Since I work in an elementary school as a 1st grade teacher, I am constantly surrounded by concerned parents wanting to know how their child is doing in school. Since I work with mostly only Spanish speaking parents, it is difficult for them to know how to help their children in school. Even if they want to help, most parents feel uncomfortable to volunteer in the classroom, or even help their children in their studies for fear of not being able to understand the material being taught. My struggle, then, was how to get parents in my classroom to support the learning of students at home? However, my main research question centered on how I could effectively find ways to encourage more parent participation with their child's academic studies at home?
Further, in what ways could parents with little or no educational background help to contribute to their child's education? What support could parents give to their children at home? Taking Action: Video as a Solution In order to help answer these questions, my goal was to get parents involved by having the children video-taped during their regular reading time. The film created in the classroom included the students singing their ABC’s (letters and the sounds) while I pointed out the letters. Also included were student responses to questions on reading letters to make words. Hence, the primary target was phonics and word blending. Essentially, this video was created to help the parents who have difficulty with learning English, as well as provide an easier way for parents to get involved with their child’s education in a fun and interesting way. Most importantly, the plan was to help parents feel valued as an integral part of their child’s education since they would need to spend quality time watching the video together. For parents whose native language is not English, this video provided valuable assistance to those struggling to learn English since they were able to study with their children at the same time and promote a positive learning environment at home.
Here is the link to the video: http://students.pepperdine.edu/vaazizi/ARP.htm