Artifact #4

Artifact #4 - Beans, Bacon and Bannock - Parent involvement 

Educators value the involvement and support of parents, guardians, families and communities in schools: 

During my practicum I had the opportunity to teach a unit on Natural Resources where we ended up spending a lot of time discussing mining; this was fitting as we integrated this knowledge as a part of my Language Arts unit where the class read a novel about the Gold Rush.  To celebrate our knowledge I assisted and planned a Beans, Bacon and Bannock luncheon for my class and the grade five students across the hall so they could experience what lunch was like for the gold miner’s who traveled to the Cariboo and Barkerville in search of their fortune. 

Part of this learning celebration involved getting parents to come and help us set this up for the students.  This gave me the great experience of planning and coordinating with parents, booking a room to use, getting fryers for the bannock, ensuring that supplies were picked up and that we had enough people to help organize.  It really helped me connect with a few of the parents because they were excited about doing this activity and they really loved that they could be involved.  It also gave me a reality check into how much planning was involved in one simple luncheon! Truth be told, I never could have done this without my parent volunteers, so above all it helped me to appreciate their support and willingness to be there!