Meeting students' needs: Technology, parental involvement, and ELL support

¶ … students' needs"

The main objective of teaching is meeting the needs of students. So as to attain this goal, teachers ought to be willing to do whatever it takes. This particular paper explores how educators ought to be flexible enough to permit the application of helpful technology- despite how challenging it is to apply- to assist the students that heed personal education programs. Other things that shall be considered include: permitting complete parental participation through tackling the issues of language, feelings, as well as culture. Lastly, this paper shall study what teachers ought to be ready to do to so as to assist the ELLs students in their learning process. This case acts as a type of case study to illustrate the real meaning of what is meant by doing anything "to meet our students' needs."

Introduction

An understanding of the concept that to meet your students needs is to be willing to go there where the student is. A teacher can meet the needs of every student with respect to their abilities and experiences, and some cultural background that should be taken into account and respected. This helps gain the trust and appreciation of students for teaching them, in addition to the interest of learning from the teacher. In other words, so as to truly "meet our students' needs," the teacher should be ready to explore and experiment new techniques, which can enhance the student's learning. Utilizing new technology could be helpful in assisting the disabled students, however, there are challenges entailed when the devices, tools and systems are part of the individualized education program. In this case, the teacher should be ready to introduce and back new techniques like applying helpful technology, permitting and encouraging complete parental participation, tackle language obstacles, emotional obstacles, and also physical obstacles. As a whole, "meeting the needs of our students" is majorly regarding "anything" to assist in the learning of the students.

Parental Involvement

Various parents do not feel adequate enough to take the responsibility of supporting their kids due to their own low educational levels. Such parents need reassurance that they do not require to have an understanding of the content to support the education of their kids. The support could be in the form of non-educational responsibilities like offering a regular time and spot to finish homework and making sure that the child finishes their homework, among others. Teachers are actually in a better position of putting forward numerous ways through which parents could be engaged. It is essential to develop a sense of community and to be aware of the family challenges. Apart from offering numerous choices of participation, vivid job descriptions for every role go a long way in reducing the fear of being unaware of what to do. Teachers could summon those having specific knowledge and skills to come into the classrooms and pass this information to the learners. Parents are more likely to get involved when they feel that they are welcomed and valued. Some schools have activities, which promote these beliefs, for instance, a day of reading in the library, whereby the parents could share their favorite childhood book (Larocque, Kleiman, & Darling, 2011).

Assistive Technology

Whereas every student could gain from the application of technology into the teaching process, students that have identified educational disabilities might have individualized education arrangements that need devices, tools, or even systems as part of their learning. Assistive technology could be described as any device, equipment, or product system, regardless if obtained commercially off the shelf, customized, or altered, which is utilized to improve, sustain, or better the functional skills of a student with disability. Applying fresh and improved technology for learning and accessing the syllabus for the increasingly varied student populations in schools could be an overwhelming job, for even the most tech-savvy school employees. This particular task could be even more difficult when the devices, tools, and systems related with assistive, or adaptive, technology are a segment of an individualized education program (IEP) for those students that are disabled (Kurtts, Dobbins, & Takeme, 2012).

Physical barriers

By dealing with physical obstacles, schools could facilitate the process of parents being able to physically attend the school activities. It might be as simple as arranging parent-teacher meetings to accommodate the programs of the family. If educators offer several conferences, there is a greater chance that parents shall find time that is suitable for their programs. In case the schools offer childcare or propose alternative locations for conferences, the parents for whom these kinds of subjects comprise barriers, shall be in a better position of being able to physically attend and meet with the teachers. Efforts like that could be time consuming and quite difficult, but worthwhile, at the end of it all. In dealing with some of the difficulties experienced by these families, like not being capable of physically attending the school functions, schools and teachers could make sure that some parents do not feel ignored, by offering opportunities for these parents to take part from home. Various solutions need changes in policies like tax incentives targeted at supporting parental participation. One kind of tax incentive may support workers to provide flexible work programs, hence permitting the parents who would otherwise not have been capable of taking part in activities that call for their presence (Larocque, Kleiman, & Darling, 2011).

Cultural Differences

Understanding the families could be a tool for discouraging the teachers from making wrong assumptions. Parents that do not avail themselves in the school so much, and those that avail themselves, both care about their kids in a similar way. As earlier stated, the studies reveal disparities in the degrees of parental participation on the basis of ethnic background. However, this does not translate to different degrees of devotion to their kids. What might vary is the manner in which parents illustrate their dedication. It is essential to display cultural reciprocity in the need to interact with one another. This entails a dynamic procedure whereby families and teachers exchange values, outlooks, and knowledge of their various cultural backgrounds. Both parents and teachers have a similar goal for the student: academic achievement (Larocque, Kleiman, & Darling, 2011).