Module 2 Unit 2 Activity 2
On this activity we had to observe a PTA meeting and write what their strengths and weaknesses were among other details.
Here is what I wrote:
Parent
Teacher Meeting
For
this assignment, I have observed two PTA meetings via Youtube as I couldn’t
attend any meetings this week. One of the gatherings was held at an elementary
school, and the other one was at a kindergarten. I have to start off stating
that they were both very different.
The
first video was held in April 30th 2014. It was very organized and
in my opinion, what a successful PTA meeting should be like. It was not only
organized, but also very positive, productive, and inspiring. The speaker
started the meeting with an overview of the whole year and a few things that
were on the calendar that parents should be aware of before the end of the year
i.e. Field Day, benchmarks, fourth grade events and the fifth grade recognition
ceremony.
She
then addresses two really important points that were coming up. The first one
is that they were going to put a paved walking path in their field that would
benefit the students’ field days, teachers, it would also be wheelchair
accessible, and promote wellness to everyone at the school. She was very
thorough explaining that the budget was $15,000 and that they had $2000 saved
from grants last year. So instead of making a fund raiser, she has already contacted
the director of facilities and finance, and they offered to pay half right
away. Then she sent out a few emails to different companies to sponsor this, she
was surprised how easy it was for her to receive funds from different places.
So unlike having to wait for months, it is already in action and it should be done
by the end of the summer, before the children return to school.
Before
discussing the second topic, she started by showing everyone a video. She
addresses a book she read called, The
Leader In Me by Steven R. Covey and then states that she wants to start
integrating these principles into not only the teachers, but the students as
well. Through collaborating with her teachers, one teacher mentioned that there
was a Leader in Me school and they
decided to drive out there to see how successful it was. When they arrived,
they noticed that it was a school where a lot of lower income children went,
the infrastructure was old, the technology was minimal, but what blew her away
was that even with those circumstances, the children were really responsible
for themselves and very disciplined. They really took charge and had a lot of
common sense (I will add that by this point she has already sold this book to
me)!
She
stating that she has gotten a copy of this for all the teachers and that they
won’t really change the curriculum, but that they will start weaving this practice
into their classes whenever possible.
One
last thing I need to praise her on is that she is going to involve her students
in other ways. One example is when they hire teachers, they will include students’
opinions as children really have a sixth sense for knowing who loves children
and can be a great teacher.
Lastly,
she ended with opening up the floor for questions but there really weren’t any
at all.
If
there were any weaknesses, they were well masked. I perhaps thought that at one
point she did push the book too much like giving a sales pitch (and I was sold)
but I could tell she was just very passionate and genuine about the book.
Some
of the things she did excelled at during this meeting were her positivity, her
ability to demonstrate that things are getting done very quickly, passion for
her school and her students, addressing all key points of the year and future
plans, collaborating with teachers and students and also usage of technology
during the meeting by showing a video.
The
second video I watched was the opposite of this one. This PTA meeting took
place in January of this year. The speaker was dealing with a kindergarten
school and she basically went through the facts, funds, scheduling and tuition of
the school. After she addressed these topics, she opened up the floor for
questions.
There
was an uncomfortable feeling during the whole meeting. She wasn’t very
personable and the feeling I got from watching her was that either she was very
tired, or that she knew she was dealing with a tough crowd. She was holding her
computer up to her face and was addressing everyone by blocking half of her
face with it at times. One of the parents also stated that she didn’t even
receive information about the PTA until a few hours prior, so this led me to
believe they are not very organized.
Some
of her strengths were that she was eloquent, and gave a lot of solid facts, but
many questions were unanswered as she repeatedly had to indicate to the parents
that they still had to go through a series of meetings and that they would know
these answers in a month. In my opinion that could be quite plausible but it
also really felt unorganized and unprepared. They could have maybe had this PTA
meeting after all those other meetings were held, and perhaps maybe they could
answer more questions.
I
do believe that recording PTA’s could really help some parents “attend” without
being there. Negatively, it could also cause parents’ attendance level to a
minimum because they have access to these recordings online and consequently, dealing
with parents via email back and forth could be more time consuming. Overall
these meetings are very important for the parents to be involved with their
children’s education. Many things can improve, discussed, and solved during
these meetings.
Here
are the two links of the videos I’ve watched. I really recommend the first one.
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