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Defining Parent Engagement in 2019

Elise Twyford

Elise Twyford

Teacher

Elise Twyford is an early-years educator and lifelong learner. She is currently running the Sprig Learning Oral Language Learning Program in her classroom in Toronto, Ontario.

What does parent engagement look like in 2019?

Parents spend countless hours caring for their child — they are the experts on the little person that you meet in your classroom. They send their hopes and dreams into school with their child, and every parent wants to see their child succeed. As educators, we get the privilege to spend a few hours a day helping their little learners build the skills they need along their path toward academic success.

But while we know that relational trust between schools and parents is linked to higher levels of student achievement, how much time are we as educators dedicating to actively nurturing our relationships with parents and caregivers? How can we create a welcoming and responsive classroom culture, one where engagement is initiated and led by parents, caregivers and community members? And what does parent engagement look like in the culturally responsive classroom, particularly in communities where trust in the education system is lacking, oftentimes because of historical trauma?

What does it even mean to engage parents in early learning?

We tend to evaluate parent engagement by the number of parents who attend parent-teacher interviews, or how regularly we communicate directly with the home. These numbers, although important, are often more representative of a parents’ busy schedule than their meaningful engagement with their child’s education.

Because we lack the framework and tools we need to discuss and describe parental engagement, we as teachers often find ourselves unable to analyze and assess the true fruits of our efforts. We know that we are doing “something” to get parents engaged in our classrooms—but is it enough?

Ken Leithwood argues that we need to shift away from the current model of trying to get parents into the school, and towards a model where parents and caregivers can support learning in the home. After all, this is where half of the learning that we are responsible for as educators happens.

The Ladder of Participation

Roger Hart (1992) developed the Ladder of Youth Participation to describe levels of youth engagement. At the bottom of the ladder, you can see an engagement model that is providing information. At the top of the ladder, you see a model that has ideas initiated by youth and both adults and youth sharing in the decision making.

Could this same framework be used to think about how teachers engage parents in classrooms?

https://healthyschoolsbc.ca/healthy-schools-bc-resources/healthy-schools-network/

Typically, when we think of parent engagement, we think of the communication that happens through emails and calls to the home. We think of parent representatives on school committees, parent volunteers in school-wide activities, and parent-teacher night. The common thread here is that engagement happens on the school’s terms rather than the parent’s. From Hart’s ladder, this would look like the bottom 1-5 rungs (if we were being generous).

But what if we imagined a more engaging approach, one that supports parents to direct, define and lead the engagement?

This is especially true when looking at the culturally responsive classroom of 2019. For example, in speaking to culturally restorative practices at the First Nations School of Toronto (Parent Discussion Night, January 23, 2018), Estelle Simard described engaging Elders, parents, and community members in how culture should be taught in school, and the importance of creating meaningful engagement that enabled families to both initiate and define how they engage with their child’s school.

Estelle provided an example of a community where the Elders wanted regalia making, the creation of traditional and sometimes sacred clothing and accessories, to be a component of the school’s curriculum. The school then aligned curriculum and opened the door for the community to share their knowledge on the subject, creating a community of sharing and mutual respect.

Building Bridges between the Home and the School

We work hard to build relationships with our students. In order to increase parent engagement, we need to further that hard work by building relationships with parents, caregivers, and the community. So how can we honour this in our own classrooms and begin building bridges between home and school? 

  • – Attend community events – and don’t be shy about engaging with parents. Even a small wave or nod will start you on the path to building trust and a positive relationship with parents.
  • Create a classroom culture that encourages constant dialogue between yourself and your students’ caregivers, and work together to determine how to best support their child. Remember, the dialogue must be reciprocal. At the end of the day, parents are the true experts when it comes to their child.
  • – Most importantly — listen.

One of the benefits of working with the Sprig Learning Platform has been that it provides me with the opportunity to connect my classroom to every one of my students’ home lives, and to provide parents and caregivers with the tools they need to reinforce learning in their own homes.

 
 
   
 
 
 
We started out with a classroom birthday party for a haptic-enabled moose puppet named Antle, who is the star of Sprig’s Learning and MK Education’s Oral Language Learning Program. We invited parents, grandparents, and caregivers into our classroom, and encouraged them to learn more about the literacy learning that happens every day at school.
We interviewed each caregiver on the iOS-based caregiver survey, and parents and caregivers gave us more information about the literacy learning that happens at home and in the community. We all had such a great time at the party, and the small interactions that took place really built trust and strengthened our relationships with the families. Even better, we established a two-way dialogue between the home and school, both in-person and through the Sprig Learning online platform. Our students’ parents can now see activities that we recommend to further learning in the home, and trust that we are both working together to lead their little learner down a path to success.

Parent-Teacher Partnerships Lead to Success

The lasting effect of parents and teachers working together is clear when we see these students grow into healthy, confident, and curious lifelong learners. It’s important to find the approaches and strategies that work best for your classroom, but always remember to listen, be open-minded, and to have fun.

 

This guest post on the Sprig Learning Blog was contributed by  Elise Twyford, a teacher and lifelong learner based out of Toronto, Ontario. You can follow Elise here.

For more information about a holistic approach to assessment or holistic education, book a demo today or send us an email at letstalk@spriglearning.com.

It Takes Two to Keep Student Data Safe

Technology isn’t leaving anytime soon – that’s a fact. With job markets desperate for digital skills and teachers desperate for support, devices have a place in today’s education system. The trouble is, schools are adopting technology at an accelerating rate while the concern of cybersecurity lags behind. It’s an issue that schools are starting to take seriously, but it takes two to keep student data safe.

In education, student needs should always come first. It’s important for students to develop digital literacy, but it’s even more important to protect their privacy. Technology will always collect information, but it’s what companies do with that information that should concern educators. With more tech in the classroom comes more student data vulnerable to commercialization.

What schools need to look out for are companies that sell student data to advertisers. Advertisers use this data to create individual advertising profiles for more effective advertising in the future. The more information an advertiser collects, the more they can tailor their messaging to be more effective to each individual. It’s a sickening notion to think students are being exploited, but it’s an unfortunate reality.

What can schools do to protect student data?

First and foremost, schools should partner with edtech companies that care about students. From pedagogy to platform and privacy, your tech partners need to put students first. Ask for a copy of the company’s privacy policy and make sure it looks something like this. If an edtech company values the best interests of students, they will not sell data to advertisers.

Another way to protect students is to use different devices in the classroom. Though it may be a seamless option, putting all of your school’s digital eggs into one tech basket can be damaging to students and their privacy. When a student becomes too familiar with a company’s products, they may become uncomfortable using other technology, creating brand loyal customers at a young age. It gives tech companies an opportunity to collect student data at every possible juncture.

There are resources available for parents to protect student data as well. The Parent Coalition for Student Privacy was founded in 2014 after the legal battle with former student data company, inBloom. The coalition formed with the concern that parents were ill-equipped to protect their children’s privacy. The Parent Coalition for Student Privacy offers information and resources for parents who have had a hard time tackling the complicated topic of student privacy.

How does Sprig protect student data?

Using regulatory requirements and ISO cybersecurity standards, all Sprig software and platform services are held to stringent requirements to keep student data safe and privacy assured. Student privacy is critical and as such, Sprig does not sell or market any student data to third parties.

To further reinforce the importance of privacy, Sprig has teamed up with TwelveDot Security as its development partner. TwelveDot develops all of Sprig’s platforms using only the latest digital security measures and requirements. For the last eight years, TwelveDot has been a global leader in cybersecurity, assessing and protecting organizations from data breaches and cyber attacks.

The fact is, there is only one way to fight the sale of information: with information itself. Staying informed is the only way to protect student data and the onus is on caregivers and educators to learn with students in mind.

Caregivers and educators need to work together to protect student data inside and outside of the classroom and educate themselves so that they can understand the technology their children use. It takes two to keep student data safe, make sure your education partners are in it for the right reasons.

For more information about a holistic approach to assessment or holistic education, send us an email at letstalk@spriglearning.com.

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At Sprig Learning, our focus lies in finding effective early learning solutions tailored for teachers instructing preK to Grade 3 children.

The mission involves facilitating successful learning experiences by presenting proven strategies that have worked for various schools, families and communities.

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Student Data Privacy – What Makes Sprig So Secure?

Protecting student data is a top priority for school districts and schools, and with the upswing of new edtech products on the market, it can be hard to qualify which tools offer the kind of protection that you and your students need. While some edtech companies may believe that following cybersecurity best practices adds extra complications to an already lengthy development cycle, Sprig Learning is fortunate enough to have security built into each and every product by design.

That added piece of mind is thanks to our co-founder, Faud Khan. Faud is an international leader in cybersecurity with over 23 years of experience in the field, and he is known for his work with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), as well as his work with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

So who better to share what makes the Sprig Learning Platform so secure than Faud himself! Keep reading to hear exactly what it is that makes our education platform so secure, and what you should look for when choosing an edtech partner.

Here’s a word from Faud:

With Sprig Learning, we had an opportunity to create an edtech product that was not only going to benefit the market from a holistic learning perspective, but one that provides enhanced privacy and security within the school ecosystem.

Cybersecurity is top-of-mind for most people, including us. As parents ourselves, we wanted to reassure our students, their parents, and their educators that we did everything in our power to identify and mitigate any risks to our online platform – as well as how we operate our company. I want to take this opportunity to share with you exactly what it is that makes Sprig Learning so secure. Allow me to dive into a little cybersecurity speak to help explain our process:

We take data security seriously.

So serious, in fact, that we have reviewed all of the possible ways in which our platform could be compromised. Every single one of them. Using a functional specification for our product development allows us to keep track of every component, identify potential risks, and methodically address each and every one. For a company that’s less than a year old, that is a pretty big accomplishment.

The functional specification makes it easier for us to complete both a Threat and Risk Assessment, as well as a Privacy Impact Assessment – two key components in creating and maintaining a secure platform. To be brief, completing a Threat and Risk Assessment allows us to identify any potential weaknesses in our digital properties, and address each one to reduce any risk. The Privacy Impact Assessment, on the other hand, helps us to identify and record any components of our system related to personal or student data that may be at risk – then develop a plan to manage and mitigate those risks.

These assessments and documentation cycles have allowed us to establish a Software Development Lifecycle that reduces the overall attack surface of our platform. We test ourselves and our platform. Constantly. Maintaining a secure platform doesn’t end once development is wrapped up. We aggressively monitor our servers for any sign of risk, and our multi-layered system ensures that if our web server were ever to become compromised, our student data remains safe. In fact, we even try to compromise our own platform with regular penetration testing in order to ensure that we did not make any mistakes in our code or in our server.

Our Promise to You.

As you can see from a security and privacy perspective, we have gone above and beyond the typical edtech standards. Our engineering team is strong in these disciplines, which helps us to grow and continuously develop our security and privacy controls as our business evolves. That is a commitment to all of the members of the Sprig Learning Team, and our promise to you – the Sprig Community. Should you have any more questions about our approach to security and privacy, please reach out to us at security@spriglearning.com.

Yours,

Faud Khan
Co-Founder and CTO Sprig Learning

For more information about a holistic approach to assessment or holistic education, send us an email at letstalk@spriglearning.com.

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The mission involves facilitating successful learning experiences by presenting proven strategies that have worked for various schools, families and communities.

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Sprig Learning Wins Best Language Learning App of 2018

We are thrilled to announce that the Sprig Learning Bookshelf has been named the Tech Edvocate’s Best Language Learning App of 2018!

The Sprig Learning Bookshelf was built in partnership with Mi’kmaw Kina’matenwey of Nova Scotia, and provides Indigenous and non-indigenous students with access to guided reading in both the English and Mi’kmaw language. It provides early literacy support through levelled readers, and a variety of interactive features.

As an extension of the Sprig Learning Oral Language Program, the Sprig Bookshelf brings the stories of the Mi’kmaw people in Nova Scotia to life and provides access to parents, caregivers, and educators looking to extend learning beyond the classroom. Readers can choose to either read alone, or have the story read to them in either English or Mi’kmaw.

Beyond early literacy, the Sprig Learning Bookshelf acts as a tool for language revitalization among the Mi’kmaw community in Nova Scotia. Each of the four titles currently featured in the bookshelf was created in partnership with a working group of educators, community members, and Elders to represent the localized experience and culture of Mi’kmaw students. Speakers and non-speakers alike can see the Mi’kmaw language come to life, and promote language adoption and retention among some of their youngest speakers.

Download The Sprig Learning Bookshelf for free on the iOS app store for iPad Air today.

For more information about a holistic approach to assessment or holistic education, send us an email at letstalk@spriglearning.com.

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At Sprig Learning, our focus lies in finding effective early learning solutions tailored for teachers instructing preK to Grade 3 children.

The mission involves facilitating successful learning experiences by presenting proven strategies that have worked for various schools, families and communities.

Sprig has previously presented stories and themes centered around enhancing early learning in school districts. This article covers successful case studies. It sheds light on 5 compelling case studies derived from 16 different schools across the US.

Each case study is paired with key takeaways, providing valuable insights for both educators and administrators.

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Culturally Responsive Teaching for the Digital Age

Children of all backgrounds should have role models to admire. Most young children have heroes and they’re often quite literal in the rationale behind their choices. Race and gender are often deciding factors and while pop culture is responding by diversifying content and characters, we’re seeing a similar shift in the education space.

Just like role models play a vital part in education, so too does culturally relevant content. Culturally responsive teaching has been a topic in education since the 1970’s, so it’s a wonder why many education systems continue to use the ‘melting pot’ approach. Learning is proven to be enhanced when children can relate to lessons on a cultural level. Before this can happen though, it’s important to understand what it means at a teaching level. 

Switching from Melting Pot to Mosaic

Culturally responsive teachers may have to abandon old ideas about cultural deficits. They must be careful not to convey judgment that might reflect upon students’ families, friends or histories. This often means looking inwards to address their own assumptions about behaviours, like the caregiver who forgot to sign the student’s agenda or missed a parent-teacher interview.

A culturally responsive teacher is grounded in pedagogical practices. They teach ideas and social relationships that enhance learning by relating the curriculum to students’ backgrounds, establishing connections with families and communities, understanding cultural experiences, creating shared learning experiences, and recognizing cultural differences as strengths.

By acknowledging a child’s specific needs, beliefs and backgrounds, curriculums could shift from the traditional ‘melting pot’ to a more inclusive ‘mosaic’ approach. But before making the switch, it’s important to understand culturally responsive teaching spans deeper than just culture.

According to Gloria Ladson-Billings, culturally responsive teaching is a pedagogy that empowers students intellectually, socially, emotionally and politically. Adopting culturally responsive teaching in your own practice means getting to know students in a way that is personal and individual. It’s important to embrace a student’s racial or ethnic background, but it’s only a fragment of their identity. Recognizing and respecting students means learning how they learn and about their areas of interest.

To be effective, teachers must show courage, confidence and capability in the classroom. 

Responding to The Need For Change

What makes culturally responsive teaching so important is how it filters content and teaching through cultural frames of reference. For example, if you ask a young Indigenous student in northern Saskatchewan what sound a subway train makes, they may have never even heard of one. Ask a Caucasian student from Toronto the same question and it’s a different story. The same could be said for an African-American student being taught to revere the discoveries of Christopher Columbus, an explorer known to have African slaves. Students whose lives and cultures are not treated as equal are less likely to buy into learning, whereas those who are empowered and feel valued will be ready to learn.

“While “caring about” conveys feelings of concern for one’s state of being, “caring for” is active engagement in doing something to positively affect it.”

– Geneva Gay, Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice 

With a culturally responsive curriculum, it makes room for learning opportunities that connect students to different cultures inside and outside the classroom. These connections can be made through something as simple as teaching a lesson through pop culture, movies or music the class will enjoy. The goal of culturally responsive teaching is to empower students and to expand their capabilities in other spheres of learning by making their own skills, languages and attitudes meaningful in the classroom.

The best way to establish meaningful, culturally responsive teaching is through collaboration. Connecting educators, caregivers and members of the community in student learning encourages sharing their wealth of cultural knowledge with students. Not only that, but when students see collaboration and mutual respect, they’re more likely to buy into their own education in meaningful ways.

Encouraging the use of native languages in class is another way to be culturally responsive. Encouraging students to use their native languages in class can result in students’ to be fluent in both the standard classroom language and native languages.

Connecting Cultural Responsiveness With Current Curriculums

What it boils down to is culture and heritage are two things that no one chooses. They are an unconditional part of being human and should be treated with the same respect and privilege that education commands.

Without engaging cultural responsiveness, it’s inaccurate for educators to claim that they can attend to the needs of different students. Keeping up with current ‘melting pot’ academic practices will continue to influence students in divorcing themselves from their cultural backgrounds.

The key to connecting cultural responsiveness with curriculums is technology. It’s no secret that technology is a fantastic tool at making connections in education, but the important part is finding technology that connects caregivers, students, educators and community to bring cultural context to the classroom and enhance learning for every student. 

For more information about a holistic approach to assessment or holistic education, send us an email at letstalk@spriglearning.com.

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These six rules are integral in ensuring that early learners are set up for future success.

3 Crucial Factors in Bridging The Gap Between Research and Early Literacy Success

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Through exploration of translational science, researchers have examined the many layers that exist between research and classroom teachers.

The existence of all these layers can impede the successful communication and adoption of research in classrooms.
But worry not, the gap between research and practice, and consequently, the achievement of early literacy success through practical application, can be bridged.
By addressing the three crucial factors outlined in this article, any school district, governing body, or elementary literacy team can enact policies or implement measures to successfully translate the latest research into actionable practices.