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By Yiben Liu
CCBP Graduate Assistant
The Parent Leadership Academy (PLA) and the Teacher Leadership Academy (TLA) of the Parent Teacher Leadership Academy (PTLA) had a joint session at the Bryant Conference Center on Thursday, January 18. It was their first collaborative session of the year 2018 and the second for the overall PTLA program.
Dr. James E. McLean, executive director of the Center for Community-Based Partnerships, gave the opening remarks and welcomed the participants back for the new year. Dr. Holly Morgan, CCBP community education director and PTLA program director, reported on previous PTLA sessions and acknowledged the great contribution made by PTLA partners and facilitators. “In our last session, parents and teachers began their study of effective communication and collaboration strategies and parents began to explore ways to also assist their children academically,” she said.
The joint session began with a panel discussion titled “Schools and Board of Education Relations: Effective Communication and Collaboration in Family, School and Community Partnerships.” School and district leaders shared their knowledge and expertise of building relationships among parents, teachers and school communities. They also answered questions from the audience about specific strategies, opportunities and challenges they had encountered.
Panelists included: Dr. Brenda Rickett, executive director for teaching and learning at Alabaster City Schools; Vic Herren, deputy superintendent of Fayette County Schools; Tramene Maye, principal of Livingston Junior High School in Sumter County Schools; Dr. Michael Daria, superintendent of Tuscaloosa City Schools; and Dr. Walter W. Davie, superintendent of the Tuscaloosa County School System.
The second part of the joint meeting was the PTLA partnership project planning session. Dr. Morgan gave the participants instructions on how to build project proposals and stressed several key factors such as goal description, timeline, and sustainability.
With seats designated based on school systems, parents and teachers from the same schools then began an enthusiastic discussion on project proposals. They will present their proposals during Session VI of the Academy.
Kimberly Shelton is a new teacher who just started her second year of teaching in The Alberta School of Performing Arts. Shelton said she had “learned a lot from the program” and there is “definitely a lot” that she can apply to her work. “I’ve learned not only about communicating with our parents but reaching out to them, and also having them understand that they can reach out to us as well. [The partnership] can really make a lot of things happen,” she said.
Jamia Williams is a parent participant from Thompson Middle School. She said that parents of middle school students usually don’t participate much, but the PTLA middle school sessions help them “to get involved and stay involved.” Williams also said that middle school students face special challenges as they are at the stage of figuring out who they are. The PTLA program really helps the teachers and parents to work together to guide the students through this critical stage of life “to where they need to be.”
Williams and her parent and teacher partners from Thompson Middle School are developing a project titled “Teen Wellness Night,” designed to help students recognize, handle, and recover from cyberbullying.