We are happy to have hired twelve new employees to fill instructional and support positions for the 2009 – 2010 school year. At Ralph C. Mahar, the new employees’ orientation takes place around this time each August. To begin the orientation this morning I boarded a school bus with our twelve new hires, our Curriculum Coordinator, our Principal, and State Representative Chris Donelan. Mr. Donelan took on the role of tour guide as we took an hour and a half to drive around the four towns that make up our regional school district.
The purpose of this trip was for our new employees to get a first hand look at our area, the neighborhoods that our students live in, and an understanding of the deep admiration that those who live in these parts of Massachusetts have for the outdoors. They were also surprised to learn that some of our students sit on their busses for up to an hour each way to get to and from school each day. They had the opportunity to ask questions and truly become familiar with our demographics.
During my recent studies at UMASS I learned the importance of educators’ connections with the communities in which they work to educate our youth. In the book Funds of Knowledge the author provides readers with this understanding by reporting on a project in which teachers actually interviewed parents, students, and families in their homes. This activity proved to help the teachers be better at educating their students because of their deeper understanding of their students’ backgrounds. The interviews also provided students and parents with the sense that the teachers truly cared about them, which resulted in better relationships and increased support for learning and for the schools.
Activities such as the one that we engaged in today and those that call upon educators to be connected to parents and families will pay off huge dividends in the classroom. Any one of the professionals on the bus today can now talk to students about the fishing docks at Gate 31, the Quabbin Reservoir, Lake Mattawa, or the five elementary schools that we stopped in front of. This effort for our school to build strong relationships with the community is something that you can expect from me and from our administration on a continuous basis this year, and in the years that follow.
The purpose of this trip was for our new employees to get a first hand look at our area, the neighborhoods that our students live in, and an understanding of the deep admiration that those who live in these parts of Massachusetts have for the outdoors. They were also surprised to learn that some of our students sit on their busses for up to an hour each way to get to and from school each day. They had the opportunity to ask questions and truly become familiar with our demographics.
During my recent studies at UMASS I learned the importance of educators’ connections with the communities in which they work to educate our youth. In the book Funds of Knowledge the author provides readers with this understanding by reporting on a project in which teachers actually interviewed parents, students, and families in their homes. This activity proved to help the teachers be better at educating their students because of their deeper understanding of their students’ backgrounds. The interviews also provided students and parents with the sense that the teachers truly cared about them, which resulted in better relationships and increased support for learning and for the schools.
Activities such as the one that we engaged in today and those that call upon educators to be connected to parents and families will pay off huge dividends in the classroom. Any one of the professionals on the bus today can now talk to students about the fishing docks at Gate 31, the Quabbin Reservoir, Lake Mattawa, or the five elementary schools that we stopped in front of. This effort for our school to build strong relationships with the community is something that you can expect from me and from our administration on a continuous basis this year, and in the years that follow.
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