Enlisting the parents to motivate students

By Frances Vanderploeg

Thursday, Oct. 2, 2008 | midnight

Before Josh Adams met his first student at Green Valley High School, his former high school teacher back in Kansas had an idea of what Adams was in for in his first year teaching.

Bob Nellis, now Adams' mentor, said his experience has shown him at least one thing: Earning the rewards of teaching can be exhausting — especially when it comes to students who don't seem to want help.

"I think he'll have a great deal of frustration, going home at night, pulling his hair out, wondering what else he can do when you bend over backwards to help them and they still don't want help," Nellis said in August, before the first day of school.

Adams isn't pulling his hair out yet, but a month into school he is starting to experience some of that frustration.

He has incorporated various ways of helping the students succeed, he said, but still he has a few students who are earning D's because they don't complete their homework or study.

"I am trying to come up with some ways to get them interested, but so far I have not had any success with that," Adams said.

During open house Sept. 23, Adams had an opportunity to meet with parents face-to-face and try to come up with a solution. Having support from home is important for teachers, he said.

"Without help from parents, my job is very difficult," he said. "Not all students are intrinsically motivated to do well in school, and parents can certainly help with that."

The evening allowed the parent-teacher relationship to begin, giving parents a taste of what their students deal with and what is expected of them, while also giving Adams a chance to reach out to the parents of students in trouble.

Parents of some of those students came to the open house, where the grades were posted for anyone who knows their child's student ID to browse. As of that evening, parents had not been able to see the updates Adams posted to ParentLink, a Web site used to keep parents current on their child's progress, so this was their first chance to see grades.

"What do you mean you have missing assignments? Why didn't you do the work?" a few parents asked their children as they looked over the information.

Parents made arrangements to get the work in before the next test which, for some students, was the next day.

Once the ParentLink glitch is fixed, Adams said, he would like parents to check the homework updates regularly so they'll realize right away that something is missing and offer motivation from home to do it.

Adams hoped the open house made a difference, he said, but "time will tell."

Open house wasn't just about motivating students in trouble. It was also about expressing appreciation, either for the teacher or the parents.

A few of the parents had words of encouragement for Adams.

"It's the only class he's coming home and saying, 'We're learning this language and this language,'" Becky Parry said of her son Michael, a computer science student. "He talks about it, which is great."

In each algebra class, Adams explained his homework policy, which allows students to redo any missed problems and turn the work back in after it's been graded.

Lisa Hubbs, whose daughter Natalie is in Adams' third period algebra 2 class, said she is a former elementary teacher, and she thinks it's important to give students the chance to learn the material a second time around. She was pleased to hear about Adams' method of allowing students to try again on homework.

"If students get the answer wrong and get no credit, what's the point?" she said.

Frances Vanderploeg can be reached at 990-2660 or [email protected].