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Three Legged Stool

Education is like a three legged stool. For the stool to stand, the weight must be distributed equally with all legs holding up their portion. The three legs represent the school, the student, and the parents or caregivers of the student. All have an equal yet different responsibility in the education of a child.

The school has the responsibility for providing a safe and respectful environment in which to learn. A guaranteed and viable curriculum must be delivered daily to all students. Classes and opportunities should be available to develop the whole child including art, music, physical and vocational education. Opportunities to develop 21st Century skills should be offered to give students chances to collaborate in meaningful ways. Students need lessons that require them to create, analyze and use higher order thinking skills. Finally, the schools should develop relationships with students that give them mentors, role models, and caring adults in their lives.

Parents are their child's first teachers. Parents are responsible for developing language and early literacy skills. Social skills are learned at home as well as manners. Parents need to provide a safe environment and a place to study if possible. Academic support should be given and parents should take every chance to turn a simple event such as grocery store shopping into a learning activity. Parents need to establish a plan for daily attendance in school and work with us when attendance becomes an issue. "We see only what we know," requires parents to show their children the world around them. Parents need to be skilled in the art of questioning. Parents should reach out to the teachers and find ways in which to support the learning going on weekly. There is so much that you can do to partner with us!

We want students to be actively involved in their own learning. A learner does not just occupy a seat in a classroom but chooses to become engaged in the lessons. Be curious, ask questions. Think outside the box. Learners need to know where they stand in relation to standards. What is the work needed to get to the next level? Read, read, read! Also, choose an extracurricular activity to become involved in, as research tells us this has a correlation with success in school.

We so value parental engagement. We want to work together to provide a rich educational experience. We need all entities, the schools, the parents, and the students, to uphold their weight in this equation. Working in tandem we can "Achieve Excellence Together."

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