Samplings of Parent Involvement and
Classroom Essentials Training

Each MegaSkills Workshop for Parent Involvement includes Five Complementary Instructional Components.

To provide an overview of how this works, here are examples of each component drawn from five different MegaSkills Parent Workshop Programs.

1. Setting the Stage

Confidence and Motivation: My Child's Special Quality (10-15 minutes)

This warm-up exercise introduces participants to each other and begins the work session.

Think of one positive quality about your child (or a child you know) and tell this "secret" to the person on your right. Each participant will then know a special quality of someone else's child.

Share these together with the group.

2. Mini-Lecture and Discussion

Effort and Responsibility: Then and Now (20-minutes)

Sometimes we hear that "children just aren't like they used to be." Were children really "better" in the good, old days? Did you, when you were a child, make more effort and act more responsibility than your own children do?
If you made more effort than your children, why is this? Perhaps the reverse is true and your children today work harder and are more responsible.

Talk about parent expectations and children at different ages and stages. What, for example, does "responsible" mean at age 3 or 6, or 10 or 15? How does it change? Ask participants for examples from their own experience.

Are we asking too much of our children? Too little?
Can we look to people prominent in their fields to provide examples of what to do? Or are we seeing what not do?

3. Small Group Sharing

Caring and Teamwork: Down Memory Lane (15 minutes)

Form small groups of 4-6 participants

Think about and remember a time when someone was particularly helpful to you. These need not be big moments. They can be small but meaningful caring times. Share these memories with your group.
Think about a time when you were helpful and caring to someone else. What did you do? What did the person say? Share a memory of one or two of these incidents with your group.

4. Whole Group Discussion

Focus and Lack of Focus (15 minutes)

Ask participants to think of an individual who has Focus. List some of these "focused" people-celebrities and just plain folks. How do they demonstrate Focus? What do they accomplish?
Do we each pay attention in different ways? Some people need quiet; some people need noise. Finding "novelty" in what we experience has been identified as one way to help us pay attention.
What keeps us from being focused? Ask participants to brainstorm a list of "distractions" in their daily lives - at work and/or at home.
Next to each distraction, ask participants to identify at least one solution. These can be easy, daily ideas, such as turning off the TV, not taking phone calls at dinner, etc. Don't edit. List as many of these you can cover in the time period. Ask participants to think to themselves which of these solutions to daily distractions can work for them. (See Optional Activity: Using Focus to Battle Stress)

At times we can get so distracted that we forget what is really most important to us. Use the Appreciation Plan to get focused and refocused on the everyday experiences that really matter.

5. Wrap Up

Getting Ready for School: Taking Heart and Toughening Up

There are, as cited in MegaSkills, five basic messages children need to hear about "having heart" for the everyday rough and tumble of school:

These things happen.
They don't kill us.
There is always another day.
Have courage.
Remember, we love you.

Tell parents: Before you leave this workshop, say one of these aloud or make up your own "have heart" message. Say it aloud now to a member of this group, say it to yourself, and when you get home today or tomorrow, say it loud and clear to your child.

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The samples above are drawn from five of the twelve complete MegaSkills Workshops provided in the MegaSkills Leader Training for Parent Involvement Program. Each workshop provides a consistent, sustainable narrative with participant experiential exercises for leaders conducting the program.

Sampling the MegaSkills? Essentials Programs

MegaSkills Achievement Essentials Lessons Include Six Complementary Instructional Components

Here are examples of each component drawn from six different MegaSkills Achievement Lessons. These can be used as "stand-alone" activities or can be integrated into the academic subjects as outlined in the Essentials Sourcebook.

1) Presenting the MegaSkills

What is Confidence?
It gives me the courage to do what I think is right and not worry about what others think.

2) Defining the MegaSkills

Motivation -Wanting to do something.

We recognize motivation when we see it in ourselves:	We recognize motivation when we see it to others:
We tend to say YES more than we say NO.	These are people who have goals and who work toward them:
We say, "Tell me about that. I want to learn more. That's interesting."	Mary is learning to play the guitar.
When someone says, "You won't be able to do that," and you say, "Let me try it."	Tom is learning how to cook.
	These children say; "That's something I want to learn about!"
	These children remind themselves of what they need to do to reach their goals.

3) Talking About the MegaSkills

Responsibility? Conversation Starters.

Early Grades	Middle/Upper Grades
Did you draw yourself at home? at school? at another place?	Can we recognize responsibility by what people say about us?
Are you more responsible at school or at home?	"I can count on you." "You are reliable and dependable." "When you tell me something, I can believe in you."
Do you turn off the TV when you have other things to do? That's a sign of self-discipline?	Who or what helps you be more responsible?
That's responsibility.	Is there anyone who encourages you to responsible?
	Is there a special person who helps you to act responsibly?
	What have you done recently that shows you are a responsible person

4) Seeing the MegaSkills Work

Initiative:
Early Grades: Seeing Initiative Work in Me

One way I can take charge of my TV watching is to check how many hours I watch. Two hours a day is a top limit.

If I watch more than that, what can I do instead? In my promise to myself below,

I will try to list what I can do instead of TV: Maybe I will learn new games, or play with friends, read good books, practice the guitar?

That's INITIATIVE!

Now I can tell myself and my friends:

Take INITIATIVE!

Using My Own Initiative: I promise
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Middle/Upper Grades: Seeing Initiative Work in Others

Inventors, artists, politicians use initiative. Let's think together of people who have good ideas and work to make them happen.

Let's think of men and women from all walks of life: famous people like Thomas Edison and Martin Luther King and not such famous people like our own teachers and parents. What do they do that shows Initiative?

Recognizing Initiative in Others: I see

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5) Thinking about the MegaSkills

Perseverance? Moving to Bigger Questions
Upper Grades

Try these for a lively discussion:

When we are first learning to ride a bicycle, we fall off a lot but most of us keep on trying? When we are learning to ice skate, we fall down a lot but many of us keep on trying? When we have a hard homework assignment, we work on it but many students don't keep on trying?

What's the reason? Sometimes it's very hard to keep at something. Is there a secret, maybe the idea of a reward, that makes it easier to keep on going?

Is the journey to something really the best part, or is the best part finally getting there? That is, is the experience of trying to learn something as exciting as having learned it?

How do we make ourselves do things that we don't want to do?

6) Technology Tips

Focus? Technology Tips

There is so much to be found on the Web; it can seem like a very strange land. When we know what we're looking for, it is a wondrous land. When we don't, we may retreat. There is help. Every day new guides and maps to the Net are appearing in newspapers and magazines. Start notebooks of favorite Web sites: you will create your own map to this new land and you will stay on track, focused and able to meet your goals.

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The samples above are drawn from six different MegaSkills. The MegaSkills Essentials Sourcebook provides consistent and tested components for each MegaSkill.