Mainely Middle

Journal of the Maine Association for Middle Level Education

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Volume 10, Number 1
Fall, 1999


Authors:
Melany Hessert, Patty Dorman,Cheryl Bossie, Debbie Somers, Candace Roy, Diane McCubrey and Loretta Holmes

All of the above are members of the Caribou Middle School's parent organization, Vikings Voices.

Bridging the Gap Between School, Community & Parents

Viking Voices is a group of parents working together with a school administrator to establish a communication link with the school. That link has grown from one brainstorming meeting to a twelve page newsletter distributed monthly. It has formed a bond between members that recycles information to others: students - staff - parents - community - students. The Viking Voices team continues to grow, to strive for betterment of the school's effectiveness in communication with parents and the community.

We named our group "Viking Voices" because the school mascot is the Viking. Therefore, the teachers, parents, students, community and administrators all share this mascot. We are all Vikings. We represent everyone's voices, the Viking Voices.

There is major apprehension when your child enters the Middle School or Junior High. Diane Parent, then assistant principle of Caribou Middle School realized this and took action. She had a sign-up list on school orientation night for anyone interested in meeting to form a parent group to connect to the Middle School. About twenty people met, broke up into smaller groups and brainstormed ideas to promote increased communications. The most common comment of the evening was that nobody knew all the things there were to know about the school. Not that anybody ever could, but there was a general lack of communication that everybody at the meeting seemed to agree on. At the middle school level, parent volunteerism in the classroom is different than in the lower grades. We, as parents, needed an avenue in which to involve ourselves in our children's education. Thus, the brainstorming sessions began. A newsletter that included dates of activities, school announcements, sports, music and academic highlights, a question and answer column, a message from the school nurse and a word from the principal, was born. It eventually grew to include a table of contents, monthly lunch menu, list of student awards and the honor roll, an FYI (for your information) column, extra-curricular activities column, a town Recreation Center column, a lunchroom update, library information, and summer camp information, as well as the beginning articles. The group dwindled down to at solid group of six workers after the initial meeting and then doubled in size.

Our monthly meetings also serve as a support group. This could not be more true. One parent had a child with a teacher that, let's say the chemistry wasn't just right. There was another parent in the group who had gone through that same situation with the same teacher two years earlier. Because of this parent's experience, she was able to offer insight into the thoughts and actions of her child and the stages of communication to get through the situation as smoothly as possible. Our "support group" posed questions to the assistant principal that she could not answer. Therefore the questions were included in the newsletter, into the "Dear PT Bytes" column (PT standing for parent talk and a computer byte). They would be given to the appropriate resource to be answered. Sometimes the questions weren't easy ones to answer and sometimes hard for individuals to read. We knew they were important. You can't bridge a communication gap without open communication.

From our monthly meeting attendees, we also formed a volunteer base for the school. If somebody is needed to help monitor a game session, or cook hot dogs at a Field Day event, or put on make-up for the drama club production, or chaperone a school field trip, the school staff has a list of people to call. The volunteers always come with a smile on their faces and offer interesting situations to the activities. This form of volunteerism has accomplished our initial goal of making our presence as parents known at middle school.

As the newsletter grew, the Viking Voices group felt that concentrated informational meetings were needed to inform parents, teachers and the general community about pertinent topics. Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder were topics of discussion at many of our monthly group meetings so we all agreed that an ideal topic for an informational meeting would be a discussion of how to deal with ADD/ADHD in the educational system. Teachers, Caribou parents, and parents from other communities attended the meeting. Other informational sessions included testing, such as MEA's and CTBS, and how to read them and understand them; and asthma, and how to deal with it in the school setting (What do you do if your child has an asthma attack in the middle of a class? What teachers can do to help us rid possible causes of the attack in the classroom). We had a specialist on asthma treatment come in to give a very informative lecture on this subject. Thus far the informational meetings have proven successful.

Joining the Viking Voices has been one of the best things I have done in regards to my child's education. It has enabled me to talk directly to teachers, on a first name basis. I usually have a pretty good idea what's going on in the school and my child sees the respect I get and give for my efforts. Viking Voices has been a powerful tool for the teachers also. It's easy to think that the teachers are right there and they know everything that's going on. But, if you happen to be a French teacher with 450 students, or a teacher preparing your students for MEA's, or on a field trip, it's understandable that you don't have time to chit chat with your peers about what they're doing in their classrooms. But it is possible to throw a newsletter into your brief case or pocket book and read it during your coffee break.

"Viking Voices" will continue to grow and be successful. We have set some goals that we feel will achieve our growing success.

  • Continue our Parent Support Group: One of the most rewarding aspects of our group, one that all the members agree on, is the support part of our meetings. At times, it is difficult to deal with the emotional middle school child, with the troubles the child may be having with his/her peers or teachers. If you are able to hear other people who have gone through similar things, it helps in coping with one's own situation.
  • Continued community involvement: We have had physicians and social workers from our community help with our Informational Meetings and we also include a section in our newsletter called "REC News" which includes the current events and happenings of the Caribou Recreation Department.
  • More parent involvement: We've doubled our monthly meeting size and are in hopes of doubling our present size. Each member will invite a member to our monthly meetings and through word of mouth we believe we can achieve our fortified numbers.
  • Aid in the development of school policies that support the betterment of our student: In most school systems, volunteers work in committees to provide input on a variety of topics. Viking Voices hopes to continue addressing challenging topics in a constructive manner to better understand school procedures so we may support and share with other parents and community members.
  • Continue the Informational Meetings: We have had meetings on understanding CTBS and MEA test scores, Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyper Disorder and on Asthma: how to deal with it in the class room. Our future Informational Meetings topics include Learning Results, transition process from middle school to high school, classroom and parent disciplining in a cooperative manner, a complete understanding of the health class reproduction syllabus... to name a few.
  • Assist in the compliance with the "Caribou School-Parent Compact": This is an agreement between the school and the home that describes how both parents and school staff will work together to help students learn well.
  • Form Partnership with the Teachers: We want to continue to build our relationships with all the teachers that works toward the common goal of our children's education and well being.

Viking Voices will grow and continue to be respected by parents, teachers, administrators and teachers because it is a goal we all want. V.V. is our way of supporting the school system's vision of "Striving for Excellence -- Preparing for Life."

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