I am on a journey, and I am realizing that journey is both exhausting and exhilerating. I spent nearly a decade teaching high school students in a suburban district in Columbus, Ohio. Parents used to come to me with concerns when their children were not performing up to their potential. I decided to do some research and create a suggested reading list for parents, but I found very little for the list. Most of the books helped teachers design lessons for the struggling student or taught them how to work with literacy issues in classrooms. For parents, most of the books dealt with the angst of the teenage years and how to navigate the adolscent years. I realized I would need to write the book parents could use, so I did. No Parent Left Behind: a handbook for parents of struggling students appeared in print in spring 2007. Almost immediately, schools started contacting me to come and speak to their staff about how to involve parents. One school even bought a copy for each freshman parent.
After I wrote my book, I knew I needed to leave the classroom to promote it. I could not miss school days to facilitate presentations and professional development, or the students would suffer. The position as a community relations coordinator at a local career center opened and offered a flexible schedule and the ability to meet and network with people in the educational community. When I began there, I planned to do a lot of community events and networking, which I did my first year.
I am very passionate about the fact that education is the responsibility of an entire community, and that doesn't just mean financial responsibility. The number one predictor of student success is parental involvement. I take that a step further. A school that truly prepares our students for the future should have businesses, as well as parents and social services, involved in a hands on way. The school should be the community center where students can learn much more than just academics: they should learn what success means TO THEM and learn about themselves, their responsibility to their society and the education they need to reach their goals. The mission of every school should be "To foster passion." Connecting students with local opportunities in business should offer a good return on investment for the businesses as they attempt to develop their workforce and groom tomorrow's leaders.
My job at the career center changed from networking to marketing. I am no longer in the community creating those types of connections for our students. I am now engaged in marketing, web site design, and screening for advertising opportunities and professional photographers and designers. Although I am sure I could learn to be really great at coordinating all those tasks, my daily tasks are no longer connected enough to education to satisfy me. So..I will move on.
I am a firm believer that life throws opportunities my way and I just have to make sure to keep my eyes open so I can take advantage of them. My new journey back to school as a doctoral student at The Ohio State University's will be an adventure in a variety of ways. I expect to be challenged academically, financially and philosophically as I navigate the coursework and begin thinking of my research interests for the future.
I plan to use this blog to share educational research I encounter during my doctoral coursework. I also plan to use it to help people see what life is like as a doc student. I hope current educators and administrators I have worked with will follow this blog to see what new perspectives I can bring to their schools. I also hope to offer a place where educators, parents, administrators, and business people can discuss issues about education and parenting students. The contribution readers of this blog can make will greatly help me shape my research interests and future workshops.
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Sometimes we are the experts. Sometimes the students. Sometimes the entertainment. Balance is key.
About Me
- Lisa Riegel
- Powell, Ohio, United States
- I authored the book No Parent Left Behind: A handbook for parents of struggling students. I facilitate professional development for teachers, administrators and parents. I am also a doctoral student at The Ohio State University in Education Policy and Leadership and am participating in research about charter schools. I taught language arts and communication for a decade at the high school and college level, and although I miss the students, I am excited to be a student myself again at OSU.
No Parent Left Behind
click book cover to purchase
Purpose of this blog
I plan to use this blog to share my perspectives on educational research I encounter during my doctoral coursework. I have posted a few of my past articles to help people understand a bit about the content of my book as well. I have been a guest columnist for the Suburban News in Columbus, Ohio for a couple years and written under the column title "No Parent Left Behind." I hope current educators and administrators will follow this blog to see what new perspectives I can bring to their schools. I also hope to offer a place where educators, parents, administrators, and business people can discuss issues about education and parenting students. The contribution readers of this blog can make will greatly help me shape my research interests and future workshops.
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Professional Development services
To learn more about my professional development experience and services, please contact me at riegel4@verizon.net. I can customize training that can help your teachers and administration address your district's individual needs.View a couple descriptions of the types of workshops I facilitate at the bottom of this blog.
Workshops and services
No Parent Left Behind: Developing strong working relationships with parents and reworking the intervention process in your school.
Grade levels: 6-12
This presentation begins with a discussion of basic truths about parents and teachers. Riegel helps teachers identify ways to build relationships with their students’ parents including ways to use Web 2.0 tools to help make communication easier. She offers suggestions to help teachers provide tools to help parents become more involved in their children’s education. Teachers generate a list of fifteen great ideas in fifteen minutes and then share their practical suggestions to the whole group. She also illustrates pitfalls some teachers encounter as they try to develop relationships with parents and discusses ways to work with combative parents.
Riegel then shares research on learning, brain development, gender, asset building and literacy as she introduces the main reasons students struggle. She explains methods from her book, No Parent Left Behind, methods teachers can show parents to help them work with their children.
Finally, Riegel helps teachers to discuss gaps in their department or school policy in regards to intervention. In small groups, she helps teachers and administrators begin drafting their own intervention models by helping them identify what elements should be in every intervention plan, what process should be implemented, and how and in what capacity parents should be involved in intervention. She discusses the power of using standards based instruction and grading in a world of standards based curriculum and assessment. Teachers learn to develop systems for intervention in their classrooms and their districts.
After each main topic, she gives teachers time to process in groups and begin working on the changes they may want to implement based on the information they learn. This workshop is rich in research and yields practical strategies teachers can use immediately.
Designing relevant curriculum.
Grade levels: 6-12
This presentation begins with a discussion of the state of education in this country and points out the fact that our current educational system’s practice and design is not what students need for the future. It offers many compelling examples of how our current school structure is out of date and needs revised.
Riegel then offers some suggestions on how to make learning relevant through inquiry based learning and creative lesson planning. She also discusses ways to break down the school walls to make the education of our youth a community’s task, not just the job for a group of teachers. She offers unique methods of planning and instruction and shows how those methods can yield results when properly implemented.
Finally, she facilitates discussion and brainstorming for teachers as they begin to examine their own curricula and instruction methods. The teachers in this session create lessons they can use and generate ideas to implement in their classrooms and communities immediately.
Riegel also offers easy ways to prevent failure in the classroom by sharing results-oriented interventions teachers can use in their planning so failure isn’t an outcome for their students. She discusses the challenges of differentiated instruction in our current system of education and ways we can make baby steps to move educational systems forward into the 21st century.
Grade levels: 6-12
This presentation begins with a discussion of basic truths about parents and teachers. Riegel helps teachers identify ways to build relationships with their students’ parents including ways to use Web 2.0 tools to help make communication easier. She offers suggestions to help teachers provide tools to help parents become more involved in their children’s education. Teachers generate a list of fifteen great ideas in fifteen minutes and then share their practical suggestions to the whole group. She also illustrates pitfalls some teachers encounter as they try to develop relationships with parents and discusses ways to work with combative parents.
Riegel then shares research on learning, brain development, gender, asset building and literacy as she introduces the main reasons students struggle. She explains methods from her book, No Parent Left Behind, methods teachers can show parents to help them work with their children.
Finally, Riegel helps teachers to discuss gaps in their department or school policy in regards to intervention. In small groups, she helps teachers and administrators begin drafting their own intervention models by helping them identify what elements should be in every intervention plan, what process should be implemented, and how and in what capacity parents should be involved in intervention. She discusses the power of using standards based instruction and grading in a world of standards based curriculum and assessment. Teachers learn to develop systems for intervention in their classrooms and their districts.
After each main topic, she gives teachers time to process in groups and begin working on the changes they may want to implement based on the information they learn. This workshop is rich in research and yields practical strategies teachers can use immediately.
Designing relevant curriculum.
Grade levels: 6-12
This presentation begins with a discussion of the state of education in this country and points out the fact that our current educational system’s practice and design is not what students need for the future. It offers many compelling examples of how our current school structure is out of date and needs revised.
Riegel then offers some suggestions on how to make learning relevant through inquiry based learning and creative lesson planning. She also discusses ways to break down the school walls to make the education of our youth a community’s task, not just the job for a group of teachers. She offers unique methods of planning and instruction and shows how those methods can yield results when properly implemented.
Finally, she facilitates discussion and brainstorming for teachers as they begin to examine their own curricula and instruction methods. The teachers in this session create lessons they can use and generate ideas to implement in their classrooms and communities immediately.
Riegel also offers easy ways to prevent failure in the classroom by sharing results-oriented interventions teachers can use in their planning so failure isn’t an outcome for their students. She discusses the challenges of differentiated instruction in our current system of education and ways we can make baby steps to move educational systems forward into the 21st century.
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