Category Archives: Parental Engagement Series
Welcome To The Real World: Math in Action
Be aware of the ways that math springs up naturally in day-to-day activities and seize the opportunities to show math in action in the real world. Real World Math When I was growing up, my dad would work on my math skills by giving my brothers and me real-life math problems. On long trips in…
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The Reason for Math
One of the greatest inhibitors for students in learning math is that it seems impractical and unnecessary to them and thus they lack motivation to apply themselves. However, there are good reasons for learning math. In this post we’ll explain the reason for math. The Reason for Math We learn math so that we can…
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The Importance of Sequence and an Individualized Pace in Teaching Math
Teaching math in sequence is just as important as teaching someone how to drive by showing them one step at a time. Sequence is Important Imagine if someone tried to teach you to drive by giving you the keys and telling you to drive home. Without learning basic skills like how to brake or use…
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Ben Carson: The Power of Parental Engagement
As the story of Ben Carson shows, when parents are engaged, great things can happen. He grew up in extreme poverty. His parents divorced after his mother, who had married at age 13, found out that her husband was a bigamist who had another wife and children. He grew up an African-American in Detroit; his…
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Parental Engagement: Research Says It’s Important
Parental engagement has a huge impact on student’s academic achievement. Students whose parents are engaged in their education tend to do well. Study after study affirms that parental involvement is beneficial and even essential when it comes to student academic achievement. For example, one such study, entitled Parent Involvement in Early Intervention for Disadvantaged Children:…
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Parental Engagement – Music
Like many young people, when I entered my teenage years my tastes in music diverged from that of my parents as I began searching for sounds that resonated with my swirling thoughts and emotions. My mom took the time to engage with me, not as critic of my current taste in musical form but as someone…
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3 Tips for Parental Engagement
Research continually affirms that parental engagement is crucial for children’s academic success; here are helpful tips for parents. According to marriage and parenting expert Gary Smalley: “affirming words from moms and dads are like light switches. Speak a word of affirmation at the right moment in a child’s life and it’s like lighting up a…
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Why You Should Vote
In the 2012 presidential election, only 57% of the eligible adult population voted. To put it another way, a little less than half of the adults in the United States didn’t vote to decide who should be the leader of our country. Of course, statistical research also shows that there is a large amount of…
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Voting With My Parents
In order to build a stronger civil society, parents need to take a more active role in passing on the civic value of voting to their kids. My parents are regular voters. When I was growing up, my parents would take me and my brothers along with them when they voted. I remember the old-fashioned…
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Obama, Millennials, and the 2008 Election
In 2008, a multitude of young people (millennials) became actively engaged in the presidential election. Barack Obama leveraged the incredible power of social media to reach out directly to the voters and this in turn started trends like the micro campaign donations that played a part in funding his campaign. More importantly than the funding…
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