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Student-led service project strives to improve parent involvement at local elementary school

As a high-needs school looking to improve the school鈥檚 community, Potter Elementary School has a goal 鈥� increase parent and family involvement, and encourage those parents and families to engage more with their child鈥檚 education.
 
To discuss how to tackle this challenge, administrators from the school met with a group of students from USF鈥檚 Exceptional Student Education program to brainstorm ideas for how they, as future teachers, could help support the school鈥檚 mission.
 
The student group considered opportunities available and developed a hands-on activity to host during parent conference night 鈥� a melted crayon art project that engaged with the school鈥檚 students and their families and encouraged them to learn more about what their children are doing throughout the school day.
 
This project was one of three Community Service Learning Projects created by USF students as part of the curriculum for the course 鈥淐ontext and Foundations of Exceptional Student Education." The project, which requires students to work in groups to provide service to the school community, was created to teach future educators how to meet the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students with disabilities.
 
Course instructor Sarah Semon, Ph.D., said participating in experiential learning opportunities like this project allows students to not only learn important skills such as communication and teamwork, but to also strengthen their understanding of the needs of today鈥檚 students and the schools that serve them.

鈥淭he service learning project is all about giving back,鈥� Semon said. 鈥淭hey are there learning about all of the things that happen in schools and what teachers do, and then they give back to the school for all of the learning that they鈥檙e getting.鈥�

To get started, the team of students hosted a Crayon Drive in partnership with the SCATTER Honors Program to collect as many crayons as possible. Over the next few weeks, the team collected hundreds of crayons and met regularly to discuss the logistics of the project, including what materials need to be gathered and which tasks each team member is responsible for.
 
Coordinating meetings and dividing up responsibilities are just some of the tasks the aspiring educators will experience when they become full-time teachers, and the group agreed that projects like this help them prepare to work alongside their future colleagues.
 
鈥淲orking as a team and making sure that everyone is on board in communication, that is key when you鈥檙e in a group of people and working with a bunch of personalities and different lives,鈥� said group project member Lourdia Jaboin.

Located in Tampa, Potter Elementary serves students in kindergarten through grade 5. The school is part of Hillsborough County Public Schools鈥� program, a group of 50 high-needs schools that receive focused support and additional resources to help them improve their school performance grade to a 鈥淐鈥� or better for three straight years.  
 
Meredith Mullen, a lead teacher at Potter, said trying to increase parent involvement is one of the focuses as part of the school鈥檚 improvement plan. She said the activity developed by the USF student group made the students at Potter excited to attend the event with their families.
 
鈥淚f we find that home-to-school connection, we see an increase in so many indicators for our students, like behavior, attendance and academics,鈥� Mullen said.

 that parent, family and community involvement results in higher academic performance and school improvement, and Semon says it鈥檚 something that all schools struggle with. It鈥檚 an especially important issue for exceptional student education (ESE) teachers, because in conjunction with their varied roles, they also find themselves regularly advocating on behalf of their students for different accommodations and teaching styles that are more attuned to their needs.
 
鈥淭rying to increase parent involvement, trying to increase the capacity of the school鈥� and the challenges that arise from coordinating and working together, it鈥檚 building them as a team and it鈥檚 building their understanding of how collaboration happens and how they can have an impact,鈥� Semon said.

Now that the project is complete, the USF team will take what they鈥檝e learned and experienced at Potter and share it with the other groups in their class during the Special Education Teachers of Promise Celebration of Service. The semester-long experience served as a learning opportunity that shapes their perceptions of the students and school community, and will help build their teaching style and philosophy as they continue in the ESE program.
 
鈥淪tudy after study has shown that the more your parents are involved in your education, the more you as a student are likely to succeed,鈥� said student and project team member Amy Laks. 鈥淓specially at a school like Potter, I think that having as many parents involved with their student is going to be the best thing for them.鈥�