Of course we know that when parents feel welcomed and are invited in the school often they are more likely to be involved in their children’s education.   Connecting schools with family members, parents, and mentors from the beginning is key for a successful school year.  In "Inviting families to schools to share gifts and talents" allow teachers to design a curriculum to meet individual needs. What can schools do to help the teacher to parent pipeline?The visual created to the right list simple steps to achieve the goal of helping students attain a plan.  Administrators, teachers, and parents can work together and individualize a student curricula based off of individual goals and strengths. Here are some tips that will help:

1. First listen to parents, family members, and students separately- we must identify each student’s dreams and experiences, role models and mentors.

2. Teachers use data to identify student talents and strengths

3. Curriculum guide is created including mentors, projects, and technology research to support her learning

4. Data is collected while re-evaluating goals yearly with the start of the New

Schools can also:

1. Celebrate diversity- Events, Speakers, and Training for family members

2. Create a welcoming environment- Parent spaces, Technology centers with support, Open house, Re-written-Open door policy

3. Mentoring Opportunities- Parent to parent, family to family, alumni student to current students, Mentoring Training/handouts/support systems

4. Input from family to support learning at school- translation materials parent blogs, surveys, focus groups, all working towards the vision

5. Encourage family contributions and leadership- sharing stories, school resources, and personal talents