Something I saw on Twitter about a year ago planted a seed in my head that it would be great to have a Parent/Teacher book study. I’d just read Mindset by Carol Dweck, and thought that would be the perfect book.
We got a grant from our PTA to buy 30 books, with the idea that there would be about 15 parents and 15 teachers who would participate. In a school of about 600 students, I thought it would be easy to find parents who would be interested, but I was worried about finding teachers. We were giving the book out right before summer break, and I knew that many were ready to relax and hit the beach with books that are in no-way-related-to-school.
It turned out that my prediction was wrong. More than enough teachers signed up – some even offered to buy their own books if there weren’t enough. However, it took several e-blasts and personal pleas to interest 15 parents. We finally got a group of over 30 people, and delivered all of the books right before the school year was over.
The idea is for everyone to read the book over the summer, and to then come together for a discussion in September. I deliberately decided not to make any summer participation mandatory, but I did want to send out frequent highlights of the book, links, and some optional discussion boards.
I created a Padlet for the first month, and then sent this Smore link (that includes the Padlet link) to all of the participants. So far, I’m the only one to post to the Padlet – so this idea might be a complete dud. Or it might just take everyone time to feel comfortable discussing. Or everyone thinks I’m a dork and they are silently thinking, “Doesn’t this girl ever stop thinking about school?!!”
Anyway, I wanted to share the Smore I did for this month with all of you. You might enjoy the links, including the one to Dr. Michele Borba’s article about teaching your children not to be quitters. You might want to share it with others, or you might want to comment on the Padlet yourself so my comment doesn’t feel isolated and ostracized 🙁
I LOVE this idea! I am thinking about expanding my parent book club this year (I only invited my class parents and got 3 who participated-I actually thought that was a good start). I really like the idea of getting parents involved with the teachers though. Thank you as always for sharing! 🙂
That was an awesome start – a better percentage than mine 😉 I’ll keep you posted on how it goes!