Supplement Vs. Supplant
By Christina Benassi, Migrant State Director
Schools are starting up across Kentucky again. Please remember that the Migrant Education Program (MEP) is a supplemental program which means districts and regions should use other funds before spending migrant money.
Most migrant programs are accustomed to purchasing school supplies for migrant students in August. Please be mindful, migrant funds should only be used as needed and after all state and local funds and other resources such as Family Resource and Youth Service Centers (FRYSC) have been exhausted first.
If your school has a FRYSC, you should be partnering to get students school supplies from them first. If a child is homeless, you can work with your homeless liaison, Title I coordinator or finance officer to discuss using the district set aside in Title I, Part A funds to purchase school supplies. There are also lots of community organizations that donate school supplies and backpacks to students, such as churches. Please remember to use those other resources first.
Parent Involvement – Building Partnerships
By Sharma Aitken, Migrant Consultant
The following information contains examples of questions to help build rapport with parents, as well as websites and resources to share with parents and families. When you have your back-to-school event, these are some great ways to connect with the migrant parents. Building relationships is key with the migrant education program.
Valuable Questions to Ask Parents at the Beginning of the Year
- What do you see as your child’s greatest strengths or skills? Tell me about a time when you saw your child demonstrating these skills.
- Next May, what do you hope your child says about his/her experience in school this year? What’s the story you hope he/she will tell?
- What was your experience like in this grade? How do you remember that year of school?
- What are your fears or concerns about your child in this year of school?
- How and when would you like me to be in touch with you this year? What do you hope I’ll communicate with you about?
- Is there anything else you can tell me about your child that you think would help me support his/ her learning?
- Is there a question you hope I’ll ask you about your child?
The following websites offer free reading and math resources for parents and families of various ages. Some are available in English, Spanish and other languages. As part of the Service Delivery Plan, regions and districts must provide reading resources and bilingual resources to families and students. These are some great ways to accomplish this goal.
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En Camino – A comprehensive toolkit of educational resources that support Spanish-speaking families' aspirations for education.
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Storyline Online – A children’s literacy website.
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Read.gov – Online books for all ages.
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30 Days of Families Learning Together – 30 days of various family centered activities
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The Family Time Machine – Spend time with family while learning, imagining and playing!
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MyPlate Kids' Place – Resources from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for kids, parents and teachers that includes games, activity sheets, kid-friendly recipes, and physical activity tips. Curiosity Machine – Build hands-on engineering design challenges.
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A Day at Dollar General – Launch Interactive games and instructional guides to financial literacy. National Center for Families Learning (NCFL) and the Dollar General Literacy Foundation have teamed up to educate families about money management through an online interactive game that makes it fun and educational for both children and parents to learn basic budgeting skills.
Camp at General Butler State Park
By Jackie Roth, Northern Regional Director
For the past two years, the Northern Migrant Education Regional Center has held its middle school camp at General Butler State Park in Carrollton. This is a program called the Responsible Educated Adolescents Can Help (R.E.A.C.H.) that is normally used by schools during the school year. The General Butler staff extended this program to us to do during the summer.
The cost for a two-day, one-night camp was $100 per student and includes food and activities and lodging. The activities included events such as leadership games, birds of prey, a magic show, swimming with a lesson on the chemicals and safety at the pool, a tie dye shirt activity with a lesson on how to breakdown the material to absorb the dye and a pottery class where each student got to make a pot and learned about the materials and equipment used to make it. The northern regional migrant program provided a pre- and post-test and a lesson with owl pellets to go with the birds of prey, which cost about $40. We also paid for a Lego STEM activity.
Last year, the northern migrant program did a tour of the Butler home. We used the Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority bus, which was free, and the park provided environmental lessons. Two years ago, the Eastern Region took students to Carter Caves, where the state park also gave us the R.E.A.C.H. program. We got to go in a cave and explore.
The state park system has been very helpful and the students seem to like the programming provided. Each park seems to have unique offerings. This is a great opportunity to check out in your region or district.
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