Home visits

I am writig this after a presentation in class last week. A classmate researched and presented on home visits in her school. I feel home visits are an excellent way to build good relationships between families and teachers. In conducting home visits, the teachers are abe to see, firsthand, the environment in which their students live. Also, in conducting home visits, the teachers are able to show the students that they care and are concerned about their learning.



Having home visits, families feel their children's school are really concerned about their children as well as are taking steps to assure their children are valued members of the school. Also, families are able to ask questions or have concerns addressed by their children's teachers. Families can be directed to services they may need and the teacher can have a hand in making sure the families are benefitting from the services provided.



Children feel empowered and important if their teachers are taking the time and effort to come to their homes and sit with them. Teachers are doing such a service to their families when they are conducting home visits.



When researching this topic, I found one school that conducts their home visits prior to the start of school. Each of students are visits and the teachers are able to conduct interviews with the parents as well as plan for the upcoming school year. I think it is fantastic that this school initiates extending their hand even before the students enter the classroom. In doing, so I think they are starting the year off in much better position. In many cases, students will perform better if they know their teacher and/or parents really care about their school. Also, parents and teacher get more involved if they know they have a partner in educating the chidren.



I visited another website that was focused on advocacy of home visits. The guide went on to talk about many benefits of home visits. Listed below are a few of the points made by the article. They included, but were not limited to:



- Prevention of child abuse. There may be a lower chance of child abuse if parents know that there will be home visits during which child abuse can detected.



- Less children lacking medical attention. Research had shown that children that have home visits are less likely to medically neglected.



- Higher school performance. Children who receive home visits score higher in reading and math nationally than children who do not receive home visits.



-Increased school readiness. It had been shown that children that received home visits were better prepared to enter school.


The data above was retrieved from:
http://preventchildabuseny.org/pdf/AdvocacyParents.pdf

Additional resources

http://www.nga.org/cda/files/BENEFITSFINANCINGHOME.pdf

http://www.nea.org/tools/16935.htm

Where have the all the men gone?

In today's classroom, you will rarely see a male teacher, especially in an elementary classroom. You may see a male gym teacher or a male Math or Science teacher, but it is unlikely to see a male teacher in the classroom. I know in all of my years of schools, including college. I have had more female teachers than male teachers. In elementary school, I think I only had 3, two of which were gym teachers and one was my science teacher. I didn't think about the sex of teachers at the time, but now as an adult, I look back on it and I think. Even in my education classes, we always laugh if we see just one male because we are happy. We are laughing at him, we are happy to see him.

I truly believe the classroom will be better if there were more teachers in place. I believe children to have the experience of both male and female teachers. As children develop, sometimes boys will identify more with male teachers as girls with female teachers. I think there is a definite place for males in teaching (and not just PE or secondary schools). I can understand their uninterest in teaching because they feel it will not pay the bills or will not be accepted by their peers. True, some teachers do not make as much as a doctor, lawyer, and so forth, but with education and time salaries do increase.

In 2006, only 24% of the teachers nationally were male teachers according to Denise Sinclair. She continues on to say that since 1981, there has been a decline in male teachers in elementary classrooms which was an all-time high of 18%. What has deterred males from the classroom? (1) Some believe because society thinks of teaching as woman's work, others feel teaching is not good support a family, others feel they are looked at as disciplinaries and not teachers.

A quote in an article by Jodi Foster, makes an excellent point:

"Children are missing out on different teaching approaches, alternative authority figures, and male role models because there are so few male teachers," he says. "Children are also getting a powerful message that teaching is something men just do not do." (2)

In her article, her subject makes a point of men shy away from because they are afraid of unjustified accusations of sexual misconduct by students. Unfortunately, males in many careers have been unfairly accused of sexual misconduct. Teachers may have a high probablity if they are in a position to be a target of a infactuated student or an angry student.

It is difficult enough to retain teachers: male and female. Many leave the profession after five years. So, keeping this in mind, there needs to be a push keep male teachers on board. The system needs to be set up to where male teachers are respected for their work and their ability to discipline students or do certain jobs around the school. Males that enter the education field are often promoted to administrative (quicker than their female counterparts). According to Peha in an article by Dan Brown, "Even if men start out in the classroom, they often don't stay there for long"(3). They venture off into administrative roles than are more lucrative and accepted by society.

Society needs to respect males teachers and get rid of the misconception that teaching is female job. It is not and should never be. Children will benefit from positive male teachers in the classroom, especially since many youth do not have a positive male role model at home.


Websites:

(1) http://www.dailyhome.com/news/2006/dh-localnews-0820-dsinclair-6h19v3957.htm

(2) http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0315/p11s01-legn.html

(3) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-brown/why-so-few-male-teachers-_b_87562.html