The Special Relationship: Parents and Teachers Are Critical Partners in the Work of Social-Emotional Learning
January 8, 2020
By: Bekah McNeel
Source: The 74
On “meet the teacher night” at the start of school, Franklin Avenue Elementary School teacher Amber Barth leads parents and children through a social-emotional learning exercise that demonstrates the power of finding “commonality with those around us.”
She has her fifth-graders play a bingo game that requires them to find people who share common interests and life experiences. While the kids do this, she instructs the parents to watch for how the kids’ faces light up when they discover that they share hobbies, habits and favorites. Students assume they are very different, Barth explains, so her goal is for them to unearth points of connection. She then lets parents know that she will be counting on them to reinforce these ideas at home, enlisting them as partners from day one.