7/4/2020
Marlene Acosta Rodriguez
Proud of being part and work with the Panhandle Area Educational Consortium in Florida, I live amazed with the services provided to the school districts in the area and the state of Florida. One of them is through Title I part C- Migrant Education, through this fantastic program we run the Florida Migrant Parent Association in which we have members of different school districts who are in charge of learning and obtaining great information that will benefit the education of migrant families and then share this information with other parents in their districts.
Migrant families are constantly moving from one district to another and or from one state to another due to agricultural or fishing activities. Students that have this difficult lifestyle struggle with catching up with different school programs, and many of them are also English Language Learners. That is why this fantastic federal program provides them supplementary services that help them close academic gaps with non-migrant students.
During the regular school year, there are four or five meetings with the FMPAC members, and they are usually in Orlando, as is the middle point for many people. When the COVID-19 pandemic started, we were still planning to have two meetings, but we had to get really creative in order to deliver the valuable information that was so needed. The first challenge was to choose the best online platform to have the meetings online. We started to make calls and quickly discovered that many of the members use the application WhatsApp. This application was not an option for the meeting, but it was an excellent way to communicate with parents and ask questions about the meetings. We used it to send a short survey and learn if they were familiar with any online meeting platforms. We discovered that they were not, but we also knew that many of them don’t count on a laptop computer, but they do have a smartphone that could be used for it. After that, we decided to use Zoom as parents could download the application to their phones, and we were able to send screenshots to their phones using WhatsApp with the instructions on how to download the Zoom application and how to accept and join the meeting. We continued providing guidance through phone calls, and finally, all members could successfully download the app and understand the basics of how to use it.
By the end of April, we managed to have our first Zoom FMPAC meeting, and it was a great success. Members managed to attend and other parents from migrant communities too. They learned about migrant services provided during the pandemic, food and masks distribution, emotional support for students and families, and they also received valuable information about how to support education at home and during the summer break. In June, the second and last meeting was performed, and parents were actively participating in all sections with questions and comments that added high participation to the virtual meeting.
“Educators must be experts in effective communication techniques, especially when it comes to parents and other key stakeholders.” (Sheninger, E., 2019)
After these meetings, we sent a survey, and it shows that parents are feeling more empowered and part of the new technology world. Some of them have expressed more confidence with the use of technology and that they are now more able to help their children with online systems.
Communication with parents is crucial and keeping that communication now with the pandemic is really important. We have all adapted to the new circumstances and are more aware of technology and its uses, now including parents.
References:
Sheninger, E. (2019). Digital Leadership: Changing Paradigms for Changing Times. Corwin Press