Essay On "Online Classes:A Collaborated Effort Of Teachers And Parents"
Answers
As a former school teacher and school counselor and currently a mental health professional, I know the importance of teachers and parents working together to foster the success of their students. Communication is the key.
Parents and teachers have a common goal: to facilitate the best educational experience possible for students. When parents and teachers communicate with one another, they are able to work together towards this common goal. Technologies like texting and e-mails have made communication between home and school more efficient, and improved in both quantity and quality. Parents and teachers alike would be well served to seek out opportunities for communication with one another on a regular basis to ensure that all students have their physical, emotional and intellectual needs met. We know that the best educational outcomes occur when each of these needs are met.
A partnership implies that all parties work together — as equals — with specific rights and responsibilities toward a common goal. Each party contributes their own specific skills and knowledge toward meeting the objectives. Unfortunately, much home/school communication is one-sided and school-directed. Information is shared… but power is not shared. This approach is not conducive to creating a genuine partnership. The great majority of home/school crises are a direct result of poor communication.
The Beginning Stage requires teachers to establish their credibility as competent and confident professionals. They must set the tone for ongoing collaboration and outline the specific goals, roles and responsibilities of each member of the new partnership.
The Maintenance Stage requires teachers to use ongoing conferencing and communication to continue and enhance the partnership.
The Ending Stage brings appropriate closure to the partnership by creative and effective and well-planned transition to the next step in the student’s academic progression. Teachers must provide the family with encouragement as they face this new step.
The final stage can be difficult for teachers and parents at certain academic levels. Especially with very young children, parents often develop a dependency on a teacher and are reluctant to end the relationship. Teachers must communicate to the parents that they will communicate with the student’s next teacher and that they will be involved in the transition.
Neither teachers nor parents should become defensive or argumentative with each other when faced with a challenging situation. Do not attempt to construct a defense with a series of excuses or rationales. This approach only serves to anger the person and weakens the partnership.
Merely apologize for the error and express your regret for the situation. Outline steps that will be taken to prevent a re-occurrence. Even the most upset person will generally respond well to this approach. Sincere apologies are not a reflection of weakness or incompetence. Rather, they reflect strength and confidence.
In any effective, functioning partnerships, the power is shared equally and appropriately.
In the teacher/parent partnership it is important to remain mindful that both parties have areas of unique knowledge and skill. The parents are well versed in their (child) student’s long-term developmental history (physical, medical and social), interests and lifestyle. The teacher has knowledge of teaching and assessment strategies, school policies and procedures and the student’s school performance. Parents and teachers should share this knowledge and perspective in a collaborative manner.
The teacher’s knowledge and understanding of the student would be very useful to the parents as they work with the student at home. Parents should speak positively about school and teachers… show an interest in the student’s schoolwork… review school assignments… praise the student’s efforts… encourage independence… establish a specific time and place to do homework… and provide occasional learning games and activities at home… provide the child with a warm, supportive home environment… minimize the use of disappointment and punishment at home and encourage and nurture the student’s peer relationships.
Explanation:
There are more advantages of taking classes in the classroom compared to taking them online; such as being able to physically meet with the teacher, asking for feedback and seeing their reaction.
The traditional way of taking class, which is called the classroom environment, has become a lot easier to manage time because you are going to class everyday if not a little less. Students have more time to meet with their peers and teacher and more time for homework to be done in the classroom with the help of peers and your teacher. Many students learn best though the face to face interaction or the hands on approach that is provided by teachers and peers while attending classes in the classroom environment. Online classes might be effective for some students however many students learn by doing, seeing, and being able to interact with the teacher and their peers.
The social constructivist approach is based on the assumption that individuals learn to construct their knowledge and meanings through interaction with others. It holds that knowledge is not presented to the individuals, but emerges from active dialogue where people create their own learning paths and knowledge. According to the constructivist approach, learners communicate their knowledge to others who provide feedback. (Alkharusi, Hussain, Ali Kazem, and Ali Al-MusawaQaboosi par. 10).
With online courses colleges and universities haves made tremendous impact on the instruction and student learning. Distance education opportunities have brought the classroom from the university or college settings to the home, allowing students the privilege of pursuing college degrees without the inconvenience of actually traveling to campus to take the course.
Thousands of students are earning their degree with little or no traditional participation and no interaction with the teacher or their peers. Students who learn by hands on or best thought the face to face interaction lose all this when they take classes online since you can’t physical meet with you teacher or peers. Some students also lack the technological skills needed to take online classes which causes some students to struggle. Taking classes online is a lot cheaper than taking them in the classroom because of the cost of gas to travel to classes and other financial expenses like baby sister, food and drinks and book bag. Some students have a hard time getting internet access and a computer since the cost of getting a computer is so expense.
Group assignments in the classroom environment have a more set schedule with more time for the project to do in classroom. This is a lot easier, because you can only physically meet with each other and be able to talk face to face with each other compared to trying to do the group assignment online, which could be challenging because of scheduling conflicts.
The weekly schedule you have in the classroom environment all depends on the college you attend and the teacher. At Iowa Central Community College, the weekly schedule was set up with at least six to seven classes which were each two hours long and only met with the teacher two to three times a week. With four to six hours a week of class time this allowed for a lot of stuff to be taught in the 15 weeks we had in the first semester. Right now the accelerated classes I am taking, only last 8 weeks compared to the normal 15 weeks in a semester.
The traditional way of taking classroom classes lets you have a total time of at least 60 hours of face to face as to where the 8 weeks allows for only 32 hours of class. There are set schedules in the classroom environment, but if the teacher feels their students do not understand the concept they can change the schedule or adapt the teaching.
In the classroom environment the teacher can see who is putting the effort in the group assignment and give the correct credit to the students who do the work and effort. This allows for the students that don’t put in effort get the grade they deserve. Meeting your teacher and peers face to face allows for better understanding of feedback, which you receive from your teacher and peers on assignments and allows you to better improve your assignment before the final copy has