There's a light on the distant horizon It's the dawning of a brand new day
And the hope of all our tomorrows Are within our reach today
We begin by working together Parents, teachers, side by side
Reaching for a better future Letting wisdom be our guide
Together we can, together we can The future is so bright to see
Together we can, together we can Make our dreams a reality
With each day we have new hope For a chance that will ever last
We can take the steps together Shed restrictions of the past
Together we can make a difference For those who learn, for those we teach
Carrying we can work together Towards the goals within our reach
Together we can, together we can The future is so bright to see
Together we can, together we can Make our dreams a reality
Yes, together we can make our dreams a reality.
As educators and parents, we all seek a successful future for our children.
We make that dream a reality.
I'm Bob Smith, and believe me, that dream is within our reach today.
Study after study shows that the importance of parental involvement in a child's education is critical.
Upon a recommendation by teachers, Ohio University has developed Together We Can to involve parents in education.
This program consists of a series of seminars.
They are Being the Best You Can Be, A Successful Student Studies at Home,
Learning to Read and Reading to Learn, Math, Making Active Thinking Happen,
Home School Communication, Volunteerism the Parent Professional, and an Introduction to the School.
Don Washburn, one of the developers of Together We Can, explains the basics of the training.
The training basically was divided into two areas.
One, what a parent can do at home to help their child in the educational process,
and the importance of parent involvement.
The other aspect of the training was what a parent could do in the classroom if they chose to do so
as a volunteer to better help the teacher and the students in that particular classroom.
Qualified by training, these now-parent professionals began to assist their assigned teachers.
When I first come in the classroom, I talk to Mrs. Lacta, the teacher, and she gives me a list.
She usually has it written down of what I'm to do, each child I'm to work with.
And I just take the books and we set up out in the hallway, and we just go over.
You know, I come in and I get a child, and usually she'll tell which child to go because they're all excited about going out and having their special time.
And we just go over each one. They just have different things, each one of them.
The parent professional is not in the classroom to teach, but reinforce.
Mrs. Lacta, Donna Blackinship's assigned teacher, explains the responsibilities and benefits provided by the parent professional.
Back at the reading group, when we work on our new words, our phonics, and our letters, recognizing letters and sounds,
that day that the volunteer comes in, I make a notation of what we do.
I ask her, would she please reinforce, for example, a letter with this child, the sound, the name, or a word.
If the volunteer wasn't here, that child would be reinforced one time with me, one or two or three times, just depending how many times I was able to get to it.
However, with her, I know that it is reinforced maybe three more times during the day, which is a great advantage to this classroom.
Well, when I started with this program, I had no idea how much help the teachers could really use,
because we copy things while they're working with the kids that I don't know when they find time to do it.
I'm glad we were able to help them with that. Spend a lot of time running off mimeographs, copying papers.
While Mrs. Phelps works with one reading group, then I supervise the other group at their desk.
That's what I really enjoy, is working with the kids. It's a lot of fun, because they're so pleasant, and they just enjoy it.
They see you come in, and that's, hello, Mrs. Thumbo, and they're so happy to see you.
She has read stories for my children. There are library books. During Life to Read Week,
she worked with some of my students that were not able to qualify for the amount of books that we asked them to read.
She could help with that, and as I said, she has made my extra little workbooklets that I like to use at this time of year individualized work.
There isn't anything I haven't asked her to do that she hasn't been able to do.
Parent professionals have not just proven themselves effective at assisting in the classroom.
The libraries in many of the schools participating in the program are operated totally by parent volunteers.
These volunteers spend several hours assisting children in how to properly use library facilities.
School officials are seeing the importance of Together We Can outside the four walls of the school building.
Sam Hall, an elementary principal, explains.
Getting parents the proper knowledge to be able to help their child in the right way.
Many parents would come to us and say, you know, I'm helping my child with reading or spelling,
or we work several hours a night on these type things, but in many cases, in talking with them a little further,
we found that they were not doing it in the proper way to really be helpful to the teacher.
So this program gave them guidelines and things they could work with to help their child at home.
And then we felt really the parenting program here at school, parent volunteer program,
would be kind of a spinoff from that that would give us some help,
but really we were interested in the majority of the time of them being able to help their children at home,
which would also be a help to the teachers.
I think they pick up skills. I think they pick up ideas and things that they can do with their own child one on one
in the living room, in the kitchen that maybe they weren't aware of and can work closely with the school.
Also tying in with the lessons and where the children are, if they are more aware of where the school stands
and where we are at that time, that could be helpful too.
At home, the parent volunteer can reinforce the child's learning experience through good listening skills,
provide a good study atmosphere, and promote time management.
Also as soon as they come in we go over their papers.
We look at them and see if there's any problems or anything we need to work on.
Then if there isn't, we go ahead and they usually have had a break on the way home,
so I get them right into their homework. We usually try to get their homework over.
And then we usually have a discussion. We always discuss what happens at school.
I try to with both of them to know what's going on.
So children don't always just come in and start telling us, I'll ask a lot of questions.
As with any new program, there is apprehension and concern about important issues
connecting the teacher and parent professional.
I guess I was a little apprehensive more about the confidentiality part of it,
because in our profession that is a very important aspect of it.
But I have to say it's been no problem whatsoever.
They do take this very seriously and the ladies show up.
And that was something else I was afraid maybe that there wouldn't be continuity to it,
but I'll have to say they've been very prompt and very consistent in showing up.
At first I was a little bit frightened because of me not having a diploma
or having my high school education, I felt like I might be out of place.
Like this wasn't for me. That there would be no way that I could help.
I kind of felt down on myself.
And after being in with the program, it turned out to be more of a motivation to me.
Well, I was sort of afraid that maybe they would misunderstand some of the things I do as a teacher
or some of the things the way we deal with the students.
And she's been very, very, very good as far as relating with the kids or relating to what I'm doing.
It doesn't seem like she's...I thought maybe she would not understand what we do in the classroom
and she did it very well.
One administrator writes, when the volunteer gets involved with the school and works to improve the quality of education,
the system gains the support of the entire community.
They have a better understanding of the educational system
and feel that the school is a partner with the parent in the education of their child.
After two years of use, Dr. Scott Howard sees many barriers being broken down.
The program has caused a number of barriers to be broken down between home and school.
And as educators, we have to realize that there are barriers that we place at the school doors,
whether they're physical barriers or mental barriers.
And parents see these.
And it's our job to remove those barriers and open the doors to the school district
and allow the parents to come in and be an active part of their children's education.
What about the success of the program?
I think it's great. I just think it's been a big boon to our whole school system.
It's got parents involved. It's gotten teachers involved more with parents.
If I could have a volunteer every day, that would just be great.
To see a face of a child that's went from a bad grade to a good grade, that really feels good.
The parents themselves are excited. They see changes in the children, the progression,
and they're just bubbling over with excitement.
One week she came up to me after the spelling test. She came running down the hall.
She said, I made 100. I made 100. That made it worth all of it.
The demands on teachers are just increasing at such a rapid rate.
And we're just finding nobody's giving us any more hours or minutes during the day to do the job
and no extra money to accomplish these things.
And so my answer is to pull some more help into the school in some way.
Together We Can benefits the school system, the parents, the community, and most of all, our future, the children.
Together We Can, Together We Can, the future is so bright to see.
Together We Can, Together We Can, make our dreams a reality.
Yes, Together We Can make a difference. I'm Carol Allen, Program Coordinator.
Together We Can has proven to be a powerful influence in improving not only the education of our children,
but in encouraging home school communication and developing a strong parent volunteer program.
Please feel free to write Carol Allen, Ohio University Southern Campus, 1804 Liberty Avenue,
Arlington, Ohio 45638 or call area code 614-533-4577.
Together We Can, Together We Can, the future is so bright to see. Together We Can, Together We Can, make our dreams a reality.