To bridge the gap between future educators and families, The Ohio State University College of Education and Human Ecology hosted its first Family Engagement Symposium, reported OSU News. The symposium aimed to foster an understanding among student teachers of the nuances behind engaging with families and how such partnerships could enhance a child's educational journey. Various Ohio school district representatives, parents, and administrators participated in this collaborative event.
Antoinette Miranda, the Department of Teaching and Learning chair, expressed the department's intent to expand outreach efforts for educators. "The department has been looking at how to do more outreach for our educators, and this was an opportunity to give student teachers some more information about working with parents," Miranda told OSU News. Sessions at the symposium covered essential topics such as forging robust family-school partnerships and navigating challenging interactions with the support of a panel discussion titled "What Families Wish Teachers Knew."
Barbara Boone, director of the Ohio Statewide Family Engagement Center, highlighted the positive correlation between effective family-teacher collaboration and teaching professionals' job satisfaction. "We know that teachers who work well with families have high levels of job satisfaction. We want to contribute to that," Boone explained to attendees via the Ohio State News. She encouraged future educators to approach their budding careers with a concrete family engagement strategy.
During the "What Families Wish Teachers Knew" panel, parents shared personal insights on the pivotal role of communication between families and teachers. Charis Davis, a parent with children in Portsmouth City Schools, stressed how constant communication with educators was crucial for her children, who face the challenges of dyslexia. "At the beginning of the [school] year, I’m like, ‘Hey, here’s my number, here’s my husband's number," Davis recounted to OSU News. "And if that teacher says, 'Oh, okay, well here's my number,' I'm like, 'Yes!' … If I don't hear from them for a couple weeks, I’m saying, ‘Hey, how’s [my son] doing?"
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