"Diligent Dads Direct Their Children's Destiny"
To fulfill course objectives, our graduate class on Early Childhood Learning environments created the following brochure for schools, teachers, and others to share with men, to encourage them to become more involved in their children's schools. It is published here in three forms:
| Father Brochure .pub (Use MS Publisher 2003 to read/edit) | Father Brochure .pdf (Use Adobe to read/print) | Fathers Influence.doc |
Here, our graduate students share their thoughts on field testing our brochure, using these materials to assure men of the value of their influence on their children.
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Upon reflection on our class project, I am very pleased. I believe we have produced a final product that will be productive. This project was and is more than simply an instrument to measure and quantify learning and then be discarded. This is a tool that can be used and distributed to others in the education profession. The flyer will, I hope, be useful to not only pre-service and new teachers, but also to veteran teachers as a tool for educating and encouraging fathers to become more involved in the lives of their children. Ultimately it would be great if children could benefit from father’s becoming more involved as a result. In researching the content, I personally learned a lot about the real importance of a father’s involvement in his child’s life and the benefits not only for the child, but for the father as well. I believe it is important to have real and identifiable suggestions to give a parent when asked how they can be more involved or how they can help their child. Often parents would like to do more, but don’t really know how. This flyer gives some simple, but effective suggestions that should be easy to understand and implement. I am pleased with how this project evolved. I do not believe it would have turned out as well as it did without the collaboration of everyone involved. I began this project with a view toward meeting the course objective of demonstrating knowledge of how to establish effective communication with parents. I was looking at completing the project individually and focusing on the ideas of Bill Cosby. I began to look at what I could find on him on the internet. When I was unable to find anything I thought I could use, I continued to look at how a father’s involvement affects his children’s lives. I liked the idea of producing a flyer along the lines of this project. When I showed my rough draft to Dr. Thompson, he suggested that we take it and turn it into a class project. I knew before this project that dads are important in the lives of their children. I have seen the effects of the lack of paternal involvement in the lives of others. I hope that this project will be useful to help teachers encourage fathers to be more effective in influencing their children’s lives and giving them a better future. |
Jason |
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The project that was chosen to work on as a class was great. For us to be able to produce a tri-fold pamphlet that can be shared with so many men that play an important part in a child's life, was really great. I enjoyed getting to research on the internet how a man's involvement in a child's life can make such a difference. On the other hand, the lack of involvement can be so detrimental to a child's life. This is information I will always take with me and continue to research in the future. I plan to share this with teachers that I know. Hopefully it can be introduced to our local school district and maybe they can take it to the next level in order to get the information to many people. I feel that by this information being available in our schools that direction of lives could be forever changed. |
Melinda |
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I believe our class project was a success. I think that the pamphlet is going to be very useful, especially in areas like I teach in. I think that our progression towards selecting this theme was slow to begin with, but after hearing various scenarios, it was most appropriate. The project itself was great, because it provides quick, easy reading for parents who don’t have much time or resources, to research these issues themselves. I liked my part, because I got to look up suggestions for fathers in different situations. I think that the final project will be useful for parents, future teachers, and myself. |
Amanda |
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I took the rough draft pamphlet up to the school counselor to see what she thought. She really liked the layout of the pamphlet. She also told me that they were always looking for ways of getting dads involved with the school. Parents need to know how much of an impact they have when it comes to children and their school work. The kids need both parents to be a part of their life. |
Teri |
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I enjoyed putting the pieces of our class together and writing this poem; I hope you enjoy it too. (the complete poem is available here ~ My Poetic Reflections of ECE 566 ~.doc - a three page document) Here is an excerpt dealing with parent involvement: ... we did skits on how to reply, To parents who approach with no blink of their eye.
What do we say when they get in our face, We can't lose control, we must answer with grace. We must remain calm and be wise from the start, Dealing with parents is teachings' tough part.
We started to talk about fathers in school, A tri-fold we thought to create would be cool. We shared our ideas and e-mails we sent, Little delay, without hitch off it went.
The tri-fold has power, statistics are real, We hope it makes fathers to think and to feel; How important it is to be “Fathers Involved”, Then problems avoided, consequences resolved... |
Tracy |
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ECE 566 gang, Wow, I feel like I have come a long way since the beginning of the semester. Thinking back to how overwhelmed and under-qualified I felt when I first found out I would be teaching my own class I realize how much confidence I have gained, due, at least in part, to this class. I think our final project is good because it brings attention to a problem that many of our students are dealing with in their daily lives. I know that a piece of paper is not going to solve the problem of delinquent dads, but if even one father out there uses any of this information to become more involved in their child's life, we have really accomplished something. I like our tri-fold because it is very practical. The consequences and benefits are a convincing way to show dads how important they are. I don't know if all father's realize that their role is just as important (if not even more so in some ways) than that of the mother. The ways to be involved offer some simple things that all dads can do even if they don't have a lot of time. The resources give fathers access to more information to help them become better dads. I hope everyone saves my email and stays in touch. I would like to know how everyone is doing. |
Jennifer |
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I felt like we came up with a great project in the end. I was not sure of our direction, in fact I was concerned. But I was very happy with the outcome. I have emailed it around my school and have received nothing but positive response from it. I had many teachers wanting to share the information further, such as having it available to fathers as they come in. Or sending it home to fathers with their daily folders. I felt like Dr. Thompson really guided the final product. The final result was a very easily read, fast reference source for men. I tried to contribute many websites to the end findings. I did find some books that I forwarded on the information, as well. I felt like us all taking a small part made the project come together easily. I thought the initial paper that Jason had submitted was a big starting point. He provided much of the needed start and information. I found the final project to be a really good jump off point for schools, daycares, or churches, etc. The involvement of fathers is crucial and over my first 1 ½ years teaching, I have really come to the realization of the importance of family involvement. I think before you are in the classroom, you think children come overcome these problems. But when you are so involved with their daily lives, you realize the importance of a stable home. Even parents that are separated can provide some stability. |
Stacey |
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The dad folder project is a wonderful project in that it provides a missing entity for centers and their parents. More dads need to get involved with their children’s education and this folder points that out very clearly. It was meaningful to be a part of such a project. |
Linda |
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This project has helped me become more sensitive to making sure both parents feel welcomed in my class. I have made an effort to try to have conversations with the dads when they come to pick up their child or drop them off and pick up their child at school. I have shared it with some of the students in my other class and they thought it was great. This tri-fold can be instrumental in helping fathers become more involved in their child’s life because we are providing the reasons why it is important and how it will benefit the child. This assignment is very important and I plan to share it with others. I hope this tri-fold will have a lasting impression on many father and child relationships. |
Latisha |
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I had the opportunity to meet on Sunday morning after church for a focus group with 3 young fathers to discuss the project. I asked the men to read the pamphlet and share what they liked and what they thought should be changed. The overall assessment of the pamphlet was good. One of the fathers liked that instead of being too wordy, the ideas and suggestions were to the point. And one of the fathers brought up that the bullets were great for targeting a male audience. I hadn't even thought of the fact that while most of our class consists of women, we were creating a pamphlet for men. The dad who mentioned using bullets happens to be working on earning a degree in graphic design and was very impressed by our class' work! He did suggest that we should enlarge the pictures since we are targeting a visually-stimulated male audience. He also shared that connecting the pamphlet to a single website where further information can be found might be a good idea. I appreciate that our class took part in this project--and that I had the opportunity to help with the part suggesting how fathers can participate in school--because I don't think I would have considered providing supplemental reading material as a way to connect with the the community otherwise. I hope that the teachers at the school where I will eventually teach will promote and be just as passionate about connecting not only with the students but connecting students with their families and community. |
Tiffany |