The Importance of Breaking Down Barriers

Transcript

Kris  0:00  

Hey everybody, and welcome. We are so excited. You’re here joining us today talking all about family engagement. I’m super excited to be welcoming Justin here from Eugene, Oregon. I am Kris, your host, we’re going to be chatting all about how families can be engaged, and how that powerful learning loop can be connected with our communities. Justin, I’ll let you introduce yourself really quick before we jump right in.

Justin  0:24  

Yeah, my name is Justin Huntley. I’m a curriculum administrator here in Eugene School District, out in Oregon, where I think the fifth largest district here in Oregon, we’ve got four comprehensive high schools, and eight middle schools and like 20-21, elementary schools, so a lot going on, a lot going on. I’ve been in education for 26 years now, most of which have been as a secondary administrator. But for the last five, I’ve been enjoying life, in the curriculum department, here at the district office.

Kris  1:05  

Awesome, awesome. I love it, that’s, you bring such a wide breadth of experiences, which is always great, and helps you to just really serve your community, serve your teachers in the right way. We’re going to kick off with a pretty basic question here, Justin, why is family engagement important for you in your role?

Justin  1:27  

You know, I think it’s something that I’ve learned over my years of being a school administrator. You know, I thought as a high school principal, I did a good job, getting things out using social media, kind of using the latest technology and kind of, you know, you get that high insight, hindsight, and you realize you could have done a better job. And, I will say, having, having daughters and having kids grow up within the system, elementary teachers do a far better job than secondary teachers communicating with parents, they send a lot of things home, and you kind of have an idea what’s happening in the classroom. And as they get older, the disconnect between families and school just widens. And I think we can do a better job, opening the doors and opening, you know, the window into the classroom, when that’s, you know, one of the reasons I’m a real proponent of Seesaw is it does just that. So and does it in a way that no other tool does?

Kris  2:41  

Is there anything you do at the beginning of the year specifically, that really helps to kick off this climate, you’re aiming for a positive connection with your community, a positive connection with your families.

Justin  2:54  

You know, Eugene’s a unique community, in that we have a lot of individuality, even amongst our schools. And so there have been a lot of unique efforts at various buildings that are different. And so it’s not necessarily a unified district way of going about it. But I think our schools have done a good job of reaching out, they host the various events at the beginning of the school year, where they’re inviting those families into the schools, you know, whether it’d be an open house or or they, they just have some, some very unique community type activities where they reach out and, and some of them have picnics, some of them have barbecues, and they invite their, their community to the school, and try to get connected that way. 

And, you know, it’s funny, too, you know, communications are always changing. And so folks are changing their phone numbers, and, you know, you’ll get those families that still have their, their original email, and you know, they’ve got their Yahoo, here, AOL, AOL, and you know, you have to kind of appalling when those come across, but then there are others that are changing, you know, monthly, and it’s like trying to keep up with how best to communicate and reach those parents. And so you’ve got to, you’ve got to reach out, you’ve got to connect them to the school in some way, and invite them in and the more that you can get that regular communication set up, the better off you’re going to be. 

Kris  4:32  

What has been the most impactful change you’ve made in your roles helps to increase family engagement?

Justin  4:41  

I think that in my role, my biggest strength or impact that I’ve had is being able to work directly with principals to show them the tools available, you know, specifically to get them familiar with how to use Seesaw. So that professional development that You do upfront to help folks, especially at the beginning, you’re everybody, you know, there’s never enough time at the beginning of the year, but to spend the time etch it out, do the professional development. So people have the least awareness that the tool is there. And then maybe in a couple of weeks, when they can take a deep breath and go, Okay, I need, you know, come out and help me, walk me through this so that I can start to use this tool. I think that’s the biggest, you know, the upfront loading and the upfront work, can pay huge dividends in the end. And so it’s just a matter of forcing yourself to sit down and learn that new tool. 

I met with a principal just last week, and she was asking me this exact question: what’s the best way to communicate with parents? And, you know, I walked her through the tools and what you can do within Seesaw, but then I said, Hey, you know, again, you’ve got to reach parents, where they’re at you, you, you know, she was used to doing this newsletter and using, you know, I think some more to use to do that newsletter. And hey, if you’re already doing that, keep doing it. Just add another tool to your toolbox. Just add another way to reach out, because the more that you can do, the more tools you can do, you’re meeting parents where they’re at. And so just trying to convince folks that just try it, you know, just send one message, see what happens. And just getting them over that phobia of I’ve never used this. And now all of a sudden, I’m going to use it as my communication tool for my first interaction with a parent. It’s like, no, it’s not that big a deal. You know, you can always, you can always just like we’re doing here, we can always delete it, go back. And you can ask me that question. Again. It’s not, it’s not the end of the world. And so trying to get them over that phobia. At the beginning, I thought it was important. 

If I were to give advice to another district, one of the things that we just kind of don’t have the ability to do here is kind of that top-down. You know, edict, this is exactly how you’re going to communicate. So we have an interesting district in that we’re very, very site based in our management and not district based. And so that has its pros and cons. But you know, in a district where you are centralized, to be consistent in your communication, because if I’m a parent, and I’ve got a middle school student, a high school student, and an elementary student, and I’m getting communicated with three different ways, it’s hard for me to keep up. Again, let’s meet that parent, where they’re at. And make sure that that parent, whatever it is that they’re using, whether it be social media, whether they’re using the app, whether they’re getting on Canvas, that it’s very clear, on, on how to access those tools. And so and, and to do it multiple ways, you know, if you do a letter newsletter, make sure you’re just copying that link, and you’re dropping it into a message and you’re sending that via whatever message system you’re sending. You don’t necessarily have to recreate it, you can just send a link to it. But at least they have access to it. And I think access is the key. 

We’re really cognizant of trying to make sure that we are putting out messages that are multilingual, we want to make sure that we’re hitting all of our families that we’re not just catering to, you know, the dominant majority. We want everybody to be connected. And so looking for tools that translate into multiple languages. Yeah, having sat down with one of our teachers at one of our high SEL population schools, she talked about how powerful it was to use Seesaw in that it broke down that communication barrier, you know, the parent at home, didn’t speak any English. And she didn’t speak the language of that student, the home language of that student and so Seesaw allowed her to, to break down those communication barriers because they could chat two ways, and it would translate for each of them. And so kept him connected, kept that parent involved in what was happening in the classroom, allowed her, you know, an avenue or a venue to be able to communicate, and it just broke down all those walls. And so if we’re not using technology, do you want to do those kinds of things? I mean, you’re missing the boat, it’s the 21st century, there’s no reason why these things can’t happen. There are so many tools, so many really good tools that do this. And so if you don’t, if you don’t find one that works, you’re not trying very hard

Kris  10:22  

in terms of maybe starting the year, or even if you have new families coming in, if you’ve ever come across a challenge, or a barrier that was tricky for you to overcome, and if you did, what did you do to get through that barrier? How did you bridge that gap, to have that positive connection that you are aiming for?

Justin  10:43  

Yeah, and I’m going to kind of go back to my earlier answer. And I know, Eugene, as a community, along with a lot of communities around the nation right now are seeing a rise in homelessness and just a lack of access. And so, I think that that partnership that we were able to have, where we were providing cell phones and cell service and internet service, to those families. And really breaking down those barriers is huge. You know, and, again, one less barrier for a family that’s, that’s really experiencing trauma and going through some difficult times, if we can break those barriers down, and give them the access, they need to communicate with the teacher, which is that’s our goal, we want to connect that parent directly with that, that teacher in that school, if we can provide at a fairly low cost a way to do that, you know, I think the benefits fall far outweigh the expense. 

So you know why I’m a proponent of Seesaw is because of the student voice. You know, parents don’t necessarily want to hear that principal’s message, they don’t want to read through all of the pieces and parts, you know, we got my teachers at the elementary or my daughter’s they sent stuff home every Friday, and you know, it became the newspaper, to me, it came every day. And if there was something catchy, I looked at it, if not, you know it, you know, I didn’t really pay attention. And I didn’t ask my student about it, either. I just looked at it. And that was the end of it. Whereas with Seesaw, I think the power is I get to hear my kid narrate what they’re learning in the classroom. You know, whether that’s over the top of the picture that they’ve taken, or they’re doing an actual video, and I’m listening to that, watching that. I’m gonna watch that, you know, I’m gonna be tied right into that, you know, I’m not gonna get tired of hearing my kid with that little short video clip, talk, you know, so and I’m going to share that share with the person next to me, Oh, look at my kid, you know, it’s, it’s the dad pulling out their wallet, pictures, you know, but it’s, it’s, Hey, here’s my kid, look what my kids doing. You know, I, I just, I can’t stress enough how important I think that tool is. 

And, the other piece I think it does, is because I have that window into the classroom when my student gets home. And I asked them, I’m not asking them, hey, what do you do today? And I’m gonna get the answer to nothing. You know, that’s the classic answer, right? And then you have to probe and pull teeth to figure out what they did in class today. No, I got to see exactly what they did in class today. And I’m going to ask that specific question. You know, oh, I got to watch your video today. You know, tell me about that. And they’re gonna get excited as well, because, you know, you saw something they did. So it just takes the barriers down. It takes those, you know, the curtains off the window, I can see what it is that they’re doing every day. 

Kris  14:17  

I just want to close up with saying thank you so much, Justin for being here. Thank you for chatting about family engagement and family involvement in your schools. We learned a ton from what you guys are doing here. And we’re very excited to share your stories with everybody who’s interested in continuing to grow their family engagements and bridge their family connections. Thank you so much, Justin. Thank you