How involved should parents be in homework

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How involved should parents be in homework

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The degree of involvement as a parent in the school depends largely on your child and what the school wants from you as a parent. But one of the things I would say to every parent is watch first. Watch how your child comes home and handles the school work. Don't interview your children for pain the moment they come through the door. Ask them the best thing about their day. And then try and involve yourself in making sure that what they love about school is something that you express interest in, because if they love it at school, it's bound to be a strength. Now if things are hard for children, you want to involve yourself in understanding what the problem is first, not just trying to fix it. You want to empower your child to be intrinsically motivated in school, but also to learn how to handle the things that are difficult, whether it's a social situation or a subject in the classroom. So stand back, talk to the teacher, talk to your child, but don't immediately assume that the problem is your child, the problem is the teacher, or the problem is the school. Look for positive solutions and resolutions to problems. The other thing I would say to parents is it's your child's homework, not yours. But the homework is sent home to give you an idea of the kinds of learning the children are experiencing in school. If your child asks for help, help them. Don't let them sit there and work at a frustration level, because not much goes in and gets retained when children are experiencing frustration. Drop a note to the teacher the next day, or shoot them an email to let them know what was frustrating. Or empower your child, even better, to go in and tell the teacher themselves what they had difficulty with at home. And lastly, do not do the homework for your child, because when they have to come in to school and be assessed on their learning, you're not going to be sitting in the seat next to them. And they're going to have to be able to demonstrate what they've learned and what they've retained.

Watch Reveta Bowers's video on How involved should parents be in homework...

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Reveta Bowers

Head of School

Now starting her forty-second year, Reveta Bowers is the Head of School at The Center for Early Education, an urban pre-school through 6th grade Los Angeles independent school with 538 students. Devoted to children and education, Ms. Bowers served and has served on a number of boards. She is currently on Board of Overseers of the UCLA Healthcare System, on the founding board of the African American Board Leadership Institute and the board of the FEDCO Charitable Foundation. She just completed serving as Chair Emeritus of the Board of Directors of the California Community Foundation. A past president and former secretary of The Educational Records Bureau Board, Reveta Bowers was also a member of the Advisory Board to the Klingenstein Center at Teacher’s College for ten years. She served as an outside director on the Board of Directors of the Walt Disney Company for ten years and is a former member of the Harvard-Westlake, Brentwood and Windward School boards. Reveta was on the Council for Spiritual and Ethical Education board, and the boards of the National Association of Principals of Schools for Girls and the Country Day Headmaster’s Association. She served as a trustee and treasurer of the NAIS Board, and as past president of the California Association of Independent Schools. For the past thirteen years she has also been on the faculty of the NAIS Institute for New Heads where she serves as the Lead Faculty member. One of her proudest career moments was receiving the NAIS Diversity Leadership Award in 2009. She has had a long and rewarding career in independent schools and finds her work with organizations supporting education, students, parents, community and Board work to be continually inspiring.

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