Parent/Guardian Support Strategies

Tips for daily support and student accountability

Read planner.

Review completed work.

Work with your student to establish goals, to organize their time, and to prioritize their responsibilities.

Model and reinforce behaviors that clearly communicate that academics are a top priority.

 

Tips for working collaboratively with Rancho Pico staff

View our staff as your extended family.

Participate in everything that you can (Team activities, orientations, fundraisers, family events, Parent Advisory Committee activities).

Partner with us as we support your student. Discuss and reinforce our school’s behavioral expectations.  Please help us to take advantage of the “teachable-moment” opportunities available when we implement accountability consequences for poor choices.

 

Tips for working collaboratively with teachers

View our teachers as willing and able partners.

Contact each teacher directly.

Email is typically the most effective and efficient method to make initial contacts, to communicate updates, and to ask “easy-to-answer” questions (i.e.: Did Johnnie turn in homework assignment #12?).

Voice mail is also available.

Share insights and “strategies that work.”  You know your child best & we want to learn from you.

Seek clarification whenever needed.

A note about email:                                                                                 We all know the challenges of non-verbal, indirect communication.  It is really tough to “read” the author’s tone in email. 

Something to consider - let’s not attempt to engage in lengthy, complicated, or potentially adversarial conversations via email. 

Tips for working collaboratively with your student

Help your student to understand the difference between a “necessity” and a “privilege”

Necessity = food, water, oxygen, clothing, shelter, and medical care.

Privilege = Everything else.  In the jr. high world, this translates into material objects, entertainment sources, personal service (French-tip manicure), parent-provided transportation, or parent-paid expenditures that are not required to sustain life.  

Examples =  cell phone and Internet usage; playing on a game console; buying name-brand clothing and shoes;  transporting him/her to the mall or to a friend’s house;  allowing him/her to “hang out” with friends; granting the always-desired “free time.”

Help your student to examine his/her way of thinking

Ask:  What do you think that you deserve?  What do you think that you must earn?

Challenge – whether they admit it or not, most students believe that they are entitled to the things that we as adults consider “privileges.”

Problem – if students are not required to EARN their privileges, then we are prompted to establish a negative consequence system.  This means that we look for things to “take away” when our students do not meet our expectations.

Solution – Adopt a new thinking paradigm & communicate this new philosophy to our students.

Tips for establishing high expectations and implementing a positive reward system to support your student

“The Big Picture” 

Help prepare your student for the real-world life experiences, where

attendance, preparedness, productivity, and competency are prerequisites for gainful employment.

Help your student to see himself/herself as capable & responsible.

Help your student to demonstrate that he/she believes that “School is my job

Help your student to understand and accept that the answer to “What’s in it for me?” is so much more than a getting a new_____, or receiving $______ for doing their homework or getting “good” grades.

Help your student enhance his/her self esteem through academic confidence.

Establishing appropriate positive rewards

Work with your student to determine what is reasonable, logical, and desired.

Random reinforcement of rewards tends to be more effective that attempting to acknowledge and rewarding every positive behavior.