Breaking Barriers of Family Engagement through Smiles, Waves, and Social Media

Format

Individual Presentation

First Presenter's Institution

Forsyth County Schools

First Presenter’s Email Address

mkillingsworth@forsyth.k12.ga.us

First Presenter's Brief Biography

Meg Killingsworth has been an educator for 24 years and has served as her school’s Family Engagement Coordinator for the past 7 years. She graduated from Indiana University in 1998 and enjoyed teaching kindergarten, first, and second grades along with special education resource before her work with families.

Second Presenter's Institution

Forsyth County Schools

Second Presenter’s Email Address

Ptennies@forsyth.k12.ga.us

Second Presenter's Brief Biography

Dr. Polly Tennies has 36 years of experience in public education. She graduated from Juniata College, Huntingdon, PA with a B.A. in Elementary/ Early Childhood Education. She went on to pursue her M.S. as a Reading Specialist at Loyola College in Baltimore, MD. She received her Leadership Certification from the University of Georgia and completed her doctorate in Educational Leadership at Kennesaw State University. Dr. Tennies has taught elementary school, been a literacy coach, and an assistant principal. She is a National Board-Certified Teacher and a past Forsyth County Teacher of the Year. She currently serves as Principal of Chestatee Elementary in Forsyth County Schools.

Third Presenter's Institution

Forsyth County Schools

Third Presenter’s Email Address

ksarfaty@forsyth.k12.ga.us

Third Presenter's Brief Biography

Kim Sarfaty has been an educator for 19 years and teaches special needs Pre-K students at Chestatee. She received her Bachelor's degree in Education from the University of Georgia where she also played softball for 4 years. Mrs. Sarfaty has taught Special Education in middle grades as well as all elementary grades; the majority of her years teaching Special Education has been spent in the Pre-K classroom. Kim was not only selected as the Teacher of the Year for Chestatee in 2020, but she was also named Forsyth County Teacher of the Year. She loves being a part of the Chestatee family.

Location

Session Nine Breakouts (Ballroom E & F)

Strand #1

Head: Academic Achievement & Leadership

Strand #2

Home: Family & Community Engagement

Relevance

This presentation is relevant to the audience because it supports the Standard, “Home: Family and Community.” Getting families to come to the school, be engaged, and help with learning at home can be a real challenge for teachers and staff. But with kindness, barriers can be broken. When families feel welcome at a school, students win.

Brief Program Description

Family engagement is a common goal for schools. Oftentimes, it is hard to get families to come to the school for learning activities. This presentation is designed to help school employees break barriers and welcome families in easy, reasonable ways.

Summary

products, programs, or services.

Schools are often looking for ways to increase attendance and family engagement at learning events. Often staff don’t realize how uncomfortable school feels to families. With simple kindness tricks like smiling, waving, and social media, attendees will get easy to use ideas to welcome families, break barriers, and increase attendance. Attendees will leave with handouts outlining strategies and QR codes to refer to so that they may implement any one of these strategies at their school

Evidence

Evidence shows that family engagement increases student achievement, but getting families involved can be difficult in many schools. This presentation shows how one school used unique strategies to build trust with families. As a result, family engagement led to a turn-around school.

Learning Objective 1

Participants will be able to leave the conference with easy to implement strategies to welcome families.

Learning Objective 2

Participants will be able to teach simple kindness techniques that break barriers to school staff.

Learning Objective 3

Participants will learn ways to increase the school's social media following and brand the school in a positive way

Keyword Descriptors

Welcome families, break down barriers, kindness techniques, social media

Presentation Year

2023

Start Date

3-8-2023 11:15 AM

End Date

3-8-2023 12:30 PM

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Mar 8th, 11:15 AM Mar 8th, 12:30 PM

Breaking Barriers of Family Engagement through Smiles, Waves, and Social Media

Session Nine Breakouts (Ballroom E & F)

Family engagement is a common goal for schools. Oftentimes, it is hard to get families to come to the school for learning activities. This presentation is designed to help school employees break barriers and welcome families in easy, reasonable ways.