Parent Involvement: Last year, we had great success with our parent/child book club, a series of three nights where parents, children, and teachers met to enjoy literature and desserts. The event, attended by over 40 parents and children, was very successful for our school. In fact, we had some community members participate without having children in the school. We knew that we needed to expand on and continue with nights like these that engage both parent and child in the learning process. Most of the time, high schools hold parent events that inform parents of the process for college applications, SATs, etc., we have those too, but we wanted something more. The group designed the following events:
STEAM: Parents and children will take place in a program where they will design, scale, and paint a mural for our hi-tech lounge. The mural will be painted on 50 individual canvas frames and assembled by the team. We hope to have everything in place for a December, 2015 event.
Maker Night: Parents and children will participate in our first maker night. We are currently researching our best options for an event like this, which is clearly somewhat different from a makerspace. We will be visiting some schools from InnovateNJ that have successfully implemented makerspaces to assist us with our evening event. This will likely be held later in the spring, possibly April.
BCIT Reads: This event was actually planned by our BCIT Reads group for the parent involvement group. They designed an evening that built on and expanded our parent/child book club. Though we will still be reading literature and enjoying food, this time, we will enlist the author to join us for two evenings. One evening will be to discuss the book, and the other evening will be to discuss the process of publishing a book. This event is due to be held shortly after the holidays in January.
Parent/Child Adventure Night: We have an adventure course in our gymnasium. Our team decided to hold a nutrition awareness night coupled with some team building activities in our adventure course. This event is planned for February.
Carnival Night: Carnival Night is all about probability and statistics. Parents and children will participate in an event that features fun games along with learning about the potentials and probability for winning those game. This engaging event is planned for March.
Our hope is that through a series of events that are appealing and lively, we will increase our parent involvement in school programs and the education of their children.
STEAM: Parents and children will take place in a program where they will design, scale, and paint a mural for our hi-tech lounge. The mural will be painted on 50 individual canvas frames and assembled by the team. We hope to have everything in place for a December, 2015 event.
Maker Night: Parents and children will participate in our first maker night. We are currently researching our best options for an event like this, which is clearly somewhat different from a makerspace. We will be visiting some schools from InnovateNJ that have successfully implemented makerspaces to assist us with our evening event. This will likely be held later in the spring, possibly April.
BCIT Reads: This event was actually planned by our BCIT Reads group for the parent involvement group. They designed an evening that built on and expanded our parent/child book club. Though we will still be reading literature and enjoying food, this time, we will enlist the author to join us for two evenings. One evening will be to discuss the book, and the other evening will be to discuss the process of publishing a book. This event is due to be held shortly after the holidays in January.
Parent/Child Adventure Night: We have an adventure course in our gymnasium. Our team decided to hold a nutrition awareness night coupled with some team building activities in our adventure course. This event is planned for February.
Carnival Night: Carnival Night is all about probability and statistics. Parents and children will participate in an event that features fun games along with learning about the potentials and probability for winning those game. This engaging event is planned for March.
Our hope is that through a series of events that are appealing and lively, we will increase our parent involvement in school programs and the education of their children.