The Family Engagement Project was assigned to my SOCL-306 class at the beginning of the fall semester of 2022. Dr. Bidwell put us into teams where we had to create a Family Fun Time Activity for children that attended the Andy Taylor Center and Head Start. Our class collaborated with the SOCL-345 where they created surveys that asked parents a series of questions relating to the Family Fun Time Activity. I was assigned to be the team liaison because I was enrolled in both of those classes. My team created an emotions flip-book with the goal to help children be able to recognize and verbally identify their emotions.
In SOCL-306, my class was taught about SMART objectives and how to facilitate them within this project. The acronym SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely. Our team had to create two SMART objectives for the family engagement project. We had to incorporate each element SMART when creating our objectives. This knowledge helped me understand the importance of writing program outcomes. Our class was also taught the importance of needs assessments. A needs assessment was sent to parents of the Prince Edward County. The needs assessment revealed that parents feel that they do not have enough time to spend time with their families. The needs assessment evaluation is the reason why this project was conducted. I learned that needs assessments provide an useful resource for those facilitating projects.
There were some areas of this project where I felt could have been done differently. As stated above, our team created an emotion flip-book that was meant to help children verbally identify their emotions. Parents were instructed to go through the emotions flip-book while talking to their child through each emotion. Along with the emotions flip-book, parents were sent instructions and tips. The tips sheet told parents specific questions to ask their child about each emotion. Most of those questions were written like, “what makes you happy?” and “what face do you make when you’re mad?” I think that the tips sheet should have instead given the parents advice on how to help their child handle emotions. For example, one of the tips could have been to instruct the parent to ask a question like “what can we do with our hands when we are happy?” We could have also put on the tip sheet examples of how to help their child recognize their emotions and different ways to express them.
I developed many professional skills while working on this project with my team. Because I was assigned the team liaison, I felt that I needed to take lead. I volunteered to be responsible for submitting majority of the assignments that my team and I collaborated on. I also reached out to my professor, Dr. Bidwell, when I felt we needed assistance. I developed teamwork and organization skills. My team and I worked very well together when discussing the distribution of responsibilities among all of us. Our team decided on specific days when we could all get together to work on the making of this project. When creating the emotions flip-book, we all formed an assembly line and worked on different parts of the project. I learned how to work well with others who are very different than I am.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1bkvD35D4zh9OdNAhAR5u5U0ZDdpJwb24frzUMY5Nz9s/edit?usp=sharing