Home School and Community

Imagine you are a teacher beginning employment at a school or early childhood program:

1. Name and describe three areas or kinds of guidance, support, or training you will need to become comfortable and capable in working with families.

2. How would you go about getting this assistance?

3. If you could ask for information, help, or advice from a supervisor or more experienced colleague, what three questions would you ask?

ANSWER

Home School and Community 2

Teachers play a vital role in shaping learner outcomes. They create a conducive working environment that enables students to achieve optimal outcomes amidst challenges experienced at the family level. Newly employed teachers at a school or early childhood programs should focus on marriage, family, career, and guidance counseling to effectively work with families. These ensure that teachers can handle internal and external challenges likely to affect their service delivery. Reliance on educative materials and mentors improves their chances of dealing with emerging limitations. Colleagues and fellow teachers can also pass essential information about the working environment’s status to achieve productivity. Teachers beginning their employment at a school or early childhood program should cultivate viable ways of handling students and their families for optimal results in the learning environment.

Key Areas of Guidance, Support, and Training

Newly employed teachers in a school should focus on three strategic areas that comfortably work with families. One of these areas is marriage counseling, where teachers are expected to acquire insights on handling issues emerging at the family level. Partners might have differences that affect their children’s welfare. Teachers struggle with children emerging from such backgrounds. For example, in the classroom, these children are likely to lack effective concentration as their minds are preoccupied with the problems at home. Teachers have a huge role to play in accelerating their concentration where they are expected to involve the parents to discuss the matter at hand. Learning about marriage counseling allows teachers to engage parents adequately to eliminate prevailing differences. For instance, the teacher can have a session with the parents and inform them that their differences have a greater impact on their child’s learning process. The discussion can conclude with a word of advice from the teacher to the parents to heed the advice to create a conducive home environment. This boosts a child’s level of concentration in the classroom. The other support system is family counseling, where new teachers should familiarize themselves with viable tactics of handling a family unit to help them overcome challenges. This ensures that children grow and learn in a safe environment.

Lastly, career and guidance counseling is another critical area that enables teachers to become comfortable and capable of working with families. They need to become competent in their responsibility towards students inside and outside the classroom environment (Lai-Yeung, 2014). Teachers act as excellent support systems in school and home settings. Their interventions extend beyond the classroom environment where they offer advice and guidance to families as this unit largely impacts the learning process. They gain exposure to the appropriate guidance and counseling tactics they need to incorporate when dealing with children and their parents. For example, if a child has a challenge deciding their career path, teachers can have a session with the child and the parents to discuss the issue. At times, parents tend to select career paths for the children against their wishes and desires. A teacher’s contribution comes in handy where they communicate with the parents to offer a suitable recommendation. For instance, the teacher can urge parents to allow their children to make career choices themselves.

Methods Used by Teachers to Obtain Assistance

As a new teacher, educational learning materials and role models act as viable resources that can offer appropriate guidance and support for the students. Educative materials such as books, videos, and articles to learn more about guidance and support that they need to provide for the learners. These materials have a wide range of information that teachers can utilize to expand their knowledge and skills. This enables teachers to find comfort and achieve capabilities working with families. In today’s setting, there are rapid changes that keep emerging both at school and home setting. New teachers might struggle with these adjustments that generate new and advanced ways of handling issues. However, scholars are constantly updating resources to ensure that they meet emerging trends. Thus, new teachers can invest their time and efforts in reading educative materials to ensure that they obtain and cultivate viable ways of engaging students and their families. These resources have improved and strategic ways of enhancing learning outcomes. They expose teachers to imperative perspectives that can enable them to make a difference in learner’s lives at school and home. Mentors can also offer the necessary assistance for new teachers’ employees in a school or early childhood programs.

Entry into the learning environment is not an easy task as new teachers might encounter complex issues that challenge their ability to deal with students and their families. Mentors can offer essential support for these teachers. It is a form of strengthening teachers’ competencies in the education system (Petrovska et al., 2018). They achieve advanced levels of professional development. Learning from fellow teachers or leaders positively impacts new teachers. They inspire, encourage, and assist teachers in achieving greatness. Since these professionals have been in the industry for a long time, they have a broad understanding of students’ issues. Notably, they are well-versed with parental involvement in a student’s success and failure. Thus, they can guide new teachers effectively to learn about potential ways of handling families. Overall, newly employed teachers can rely on educative material and mentors to accelerate their comfort and capacity to work well with families.

Questions Students Would Ask Supervisors or More Experienced Colleagues

One of the questions that I would ask a more experienced colleague or supervisor is what I wish to know as a first-year student. I believe that teachers can encounter different issues before familiarizing themselves with the working environment. Thus, it is essential to ensure that they learn before developing proactive strategies for dealing with them. This will enable me to develop adequate preparedness that will enable me to deal with challenges likely to emerge. Another question is the best advice that one would give me about teaching. The feedback acquired can expose me to strengths and problems that I stand to encounter in my teaching journey. Lastly, I would ask a supervisor or a work colleague about staying organized. This will enable me to learn the different tactics that I can incorporate to overcome emerging limitations.

Overall, newly employed teachers stand to encounter different challenges that might affect their ability and capacity to deliver exceptional students’ exceptional outcomes. The learning environment might present challenges due to internal and external factors. These professionals should learn about marriage, family, career, and guidance counseling to find comfort and work with families. This ensures that they can impact learners positively by dealing with issues emerging from the family level. Notably, teachers can focus on educative materials and mentors to learn more about the educational working environment. There is a dire need to seek further clarification from supervisors and colleagues about the working environment. This enhances their preparedness in dealing with problems likely to occur.

References

Lai-Yeung, S. W. C. (2014). The need for guidance and counseling training for teachers. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 113, 36-43.

Petrovska, S., Sivevska, D., Popeska, B., & Runcheva, J. (2018). Mentoring in the teaching profession. International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education, 6(2).