WEBVTT 00:00:05.046 --> 00:00:07.806 My name is Tamara Estrella, and I am the Parent Coordinator here 00:00:07.806 --> 00:00:10.086 at P.S. 24 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. 00:00:10.146 --> 00:00:16.536 As parent coordinator here at P.S. 24, there's really a lot that goes into my work here. 00:00:16.976 --> 00:00:21.306 One of the more important things that I do is that I act as the liaison 00:00:21.736 --> 00:00:25.846 between the parents and the staff of the school. 00:00:26.316 --> 00:00:31.616 And I say the staff because it's not only with the teachers but also with the administration, 00:00:31.956 --> 00:00:34.976 as well as with the guidance counselor and the school psychologist. 00:00:35.606 --> 00:00:40.876 So, anything that a parent comes to me with-whether it's a bit of information that they need 00:00:40.876 --> 00:00:44.426 about a meeting, whether it's a resource they need for their child, 00:00:44.726 --> 00:00:49.266 a resource they need for themselves-I act as the person who will get them that information 00:00:49.316 --> 00:00:53.016 and find them that resource, whether it's here in the school or within our community. 00:00:53.766 --> 00:00:59.396 Some of the other things that go into my work here are conducting workshops 00:00:59.396 --> 00:01:05.166 and also organizing workshops, working with community-based organizations here, 00:01:05.656 --> 00:01:09.326 and bringing in the resources that parents need. 00:01:09.396 --> 00:01:16.786 Whether it's ESL classes, which we do have for parents, 00:01:16.786 --> 00:01:20.426 or workshops around health issues that are affecting them or their children, 00:01:20.526 --> 00:01:27.106 such as childhood obesity, which is something that's affecting our community, asthma, diabetes, 00:01:27.516 --> 00:01:32.146 domestic violence, these are all issues that I would find someone, 00:01:32.146 --> 00:01:34.366 some professional from a community-based organization, 00:01:34.646 --> 00:01:40.986 to come in and give all of that information to a parent and help them not just in that way 00:01:40.986 --> 00:01:43.276 but then also with their child's education. 00:01:43.586 --> 00:01:46.306 There would be many purposes to the parent workshop. 00:01:46.806 --> 00:01:50.676 Definitely, some of the workshops that we offer are educational based. 00:01:50.936 --> 00:01:55.996 So, let's say a state exam is coming up-math state exam, ELA, 00:01:56.596 --> 00:02:02.536 which is the English Language Arts exam-what I would do is I would get some professionals 00:02:02.536 --> 00:02:06.026 actually in our school, find our literacy coach, our math coach, 00:02:06.356 --> 00:02:10.976 to offer maybe a series of workshops for parents so that they can not only understand the exam 00:02:11.306 --> 00:02:14.136 but maybe give parents some tools so they can help their children 00:02:14.136 --> 00:02:16.446 at home to practice for the exam. 00:02:16.776 --> 00:02:19.126 Some of the other workshops that we have offered as well, 00:02:19.446 --> 00:02:23.076 working in conjunction with our community-based organization, 00:02:23.076 --> 00:02:26.156 which is here and runs our after-school program as well, 00:02:27.066 --> 00:02:29.986 is a series of Peace in the Family workshops 00:02:30.476 --> 00:02:33.356 because that's also a very important component for us. 00:02:33.516 --> 00:02:39.506 We don't want to just focus on the education of the child in terms of books and reading and math 00:02:39.506 --> 00:02:42.506 and numbers and the diet of the child. 00:02:42.816 --> 00:02:49.746 We also want to focus on the social-emotional health of a child and of their family, 00:02:50.336 --> 00:02:54.866 and so what we do in this series of workshops is we introduce all of the themes 00:02:55.106 --> 00:02:59.936 that we are teaching to the children here in school: how to mediate a conflict, 00:03:00.246 --> 00:03:04.496 how to be a good listener, how to do what we call "I Messages" where, 00:03:04.926 --> 00:03:08.676 "I feel this way when you...," things like that. 00:03:08.676 --> 00:03:10.476 And so we teach parents to do that. 00:03:10.666 --> 00:03:17.446 And after the first couple of workshops, we then invite their children to come in, 00:03:17.446 --> 00:03:20.526 and we watch them mediate a conflict that they're having. 00:03:20.886 --> 00:03:25.366 The workshops that we conduct here at our school are very informal, all of them. 00:03:25.546 --> 00:03:30.316 We want parents to feel as welcome and as comfortable here at the school as possible. 00:03:31.196 --> 00:03:32.916 There are no prerequisites. 00:03:33.346 --> 00:03:36.796 There are no, "You have to sign in before the date." 00:03:36.796 --> 00:03:38.186 No. We give you the date. 00:03:38.306 --> 00:03:42.036 We give you all the information, and we want you to come. 00:03:42.036 --> 00:03:48.926 We definitely focus on the informality of it because we do want parents to feel comfortable. 00:03:49.046 --> 00:03:54.886 Trust is a key component in parents feeling welcome in our school, welcome in sharing, 00:03:55.506 --> 00:03:59.576 feeling safe in sharing any issues that may be going on. 00:03:59.996 --> 00:04:02.866 And so, that trust piece is a very big component, 00:04:02.866 --> 00:04:06.086 and so we don't like to try to make anything too formal. 00:04:06.386 --> 00:04:09.386 We have several different people who facilitate workshops. 00:04:09.516 --> 00:04:13.546 We definitely have in-school staff like our literacy coach, our math coach, 00:04:13.896 --> 00:04:16.995 our dual language coordinator, the assistant principal. 00:04:17.375 --> 00:04:21.406 These are all people who can facilitate and do facilitate workshops with parents. 00:04:21.406 --> 00:04:24.006 But we also have our community-based organizations 00:04:24.006 --> 00:04:28.016 who offer their professionals to give workshops. 00:04:28.016 --> 00:04:30.836 Parent response has been really great. 00:04:30.836 --> 00:04:34.206 Year after year, we're finding that parents are getting more and more involved, 00:04:34.616 --> 00:04:41.006 and I think it's because-actually, no, I know it's because they're beginning to view the school 00:04:41.006 --> 00:04:44.266 as a resource not just for their children but also for themselves. 00:04:44.796 --> 00:04:48.236 We've been able to develop that basic level of trust with them. 00:04:48.496 --> 00:04:50.176 They know we want the best for their kids. 00:04:50.376 --> 00:04:52.976 We want the best for them, and they view us as a resource.