This episode of Simple Civics: Greenville County is brought to you by Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, providing free books to children zero to five throughout Greenville County. To sign up, visit greenvillefirststeps.org/freebooks.
How can you ensure your child thrives in elementary school? The journey from kindergarten to the upper grades is filled with new challenges and opportunities, and effective parental support in elementary school is the key to building a confident, curious, and successful learner. Many parents make the mistake of seeing school as separate from home life, but the secret lies in building a powerful partnership with educators. This episode addresses the core question: What practical steps can families take to create a strong foundation for their child's academic, social, and emotional growth?
In this episode of Simple Civics EdTalks, we sit down with two seasoned educators from Summit Drive Elementary, Principal Jennifer Woody and School Counselor Jenni Dixon, who share their invaluable insights. They emphasize that the foundation of a child's success is a strong parent teacher communication strategy built on mutual trust. Woody and Dixon view this as a partnership, where parents and educators work together for the well-being of the child. They discuss the importance of communicating through various channels like email, Dojo, or text messages to stay informed and aligned.
For families new to the school system, the conversation provides a detailed guide on how to prepare a child for kindergarten. Our guests share proactive strategies used at their school, such as hosting "Here's the Scoop on Kindergarten" events in the spring, introducing staff on social media over the summer, and holding new family orientations to make the transition smoother for both children and anxious parents. They explain that when parents show trust in the school, it helps the child feel safe and secure.
As students advance, the focus shifts to supporting elementary student academics. Woody and Dixon offer practical advice for parents of upper-grade students, from reviewing weekly newsletters and syllabi to using the Greenville County Schools Backpack app to monitor grades and assignments. They also highlight the school's role in this, detailing how they conduct goal-setting conferences with students for state assessments and utilize staff like instructional coaches to provide extra help. A key takeaway is the power of spending just 10-12 minutes a night reviewing school material to prepare for future tests.
Finally, the episode explores the broader impact of getting involved in your school community. Our guests explain that joining the PTA or SIC (School Improvement Council), volunteering time (even for small tasks), or becoming a substitute teacher are powerful ways to build relationships and support the entire school family. They stress that every adult in the building, from the principal to the custodian, is invested in the success of every child. This episode is a must-listen for any parent looking to build a strong, supportive, and effective partnership with their child's school.
Episode Resources:
Introduction
Mary Leslie Anderson: Elementary school years are all about building the foundations academically, socially, and emotionally. Families play a key role in helping children develop healthy habits, a love of learning, and the confidence to take on new challenges.
Erin Rigot: We are Mary Leslie Anderson and Erin Rigot with Rooted Consulting, and this is Simple Civics Ed Talks. Today, we'll explore what families can do to support their elementary school students, whether that's setting up strong routines at home, encouraging curiosity, or partnering with teachers to build strong connections. Our guests today are Principal Jennifer Woody and School Counselor Jenni Dixon from Summit Drive Elementary, who will share practical ways to make the most of these formative years.
Mary Leslie Anderson: Thank you for being here with us today. We have Jenni Dixon and Jennifer Woody from Summit Drive Elementary. Would you two like to just take a minute to introduce yourselves?
Jenni Dixon: I am the school counselor at Summit Drive, and I have been doing this for about 20 years, but I worked a little bit in Charleston County and then moved up here and took some time off when my babies were little. I have been at Summit Drive. This is my 14th year at Summit Drive. And I love my job. I have the best job. I get to work with all of the students and I get to know the families and I get to watch them grow from kindergarten all the way up to fifth grade. And when they come back to visit as high school seniors, it's the most fun time.
Jennifer Woody: Thanks, Jenni. I am Jennifer Woody and I am the proud principal at Summit Drive Elementary School. I was born and raised in Greenville County. I am a product of Greenville County Schools. And so it is only right that I come back and teach in the district that raised me, per se.
This is my 18th year in education, 12th year in admin, I can't believe it, and my third year as a proud principal. I've been all over the board, started out as a elementary school teacher in third and fourth grade, and then started my admin career in the wonderful world of middle school and did that for seven years as an assistant principal. I then decided to go back to elementary as an assistant principal, and now I am here as a principal. Very excited to be joining you guys today and speak all about our lovely littles on the elementary level.
The Parent-Teacher Partnership: Building Trust and Communication
Erin Rigot: Thank you all so much. We are so excited today to get your take on what do you think are some of the most important ways parents can support their elementary student. As an elementary parent, it's a whirlwind when you start elementary school and then as you adjust to the different levels. What is one of the first things that comes to your mind as something that parents and families can do to support at the elementary level?
Jennifer Woody: I think the biggest thing for parents to understand is this is a very important relationship. We understand that you are sending us your prized possessions. We are the start to many people's educational career. Some of our students are starting from home or coming from a stay-in nanny or something like that. It is a huge level of trust that we know that you guys are putting into us. The biggest thing is it's a relationship. We don't expect you to just drop your babies off and leave and never talk to us again until you pick them up. We truly want to get to know not only our students, but their families, too, because that's the best way that we can support them.
I'd say the most important thing is remember it's a relationship. And with relationships come trust. You have to trust us to do our job, just like we would trust you to do your job. I don't know what happened to little Johnny the night before, the morning of, or what he ate, but what I do know is what he did in class, how he interacts with his friends at recess, when he's upset, when he needs to take a nap, and those are the things we need to discuss.
Making sure that you trust us as educators and we trust you as the parents. Communication is huge. Communicate, communicate, communicate, whether it be email, whether it be Dojo, text messages—there's so many different outlets in which we try to make it very easy for our families to communicate with us. And remember, you have more than just one person in the building. I know that you have a teacher, but your teacher is not your only person. We've got awesome school counselors. We have mental health counselors. We have proud principals who are there to talk to you, to help you and to guide you. Just remember, it's a relationship. Remember to build that trust with the relationship and then communicate. I think that's very important as you are starting your educational career with your babies.
Jenni Dixon: I think so, too. I think that there are so many people in an elementary school that can help support parents and families. There are resources that are available at all elementary schools that parents don't even know about to even tap into. I think that being able to communicate with the teacher, but also know that reaching out to the school counselor, reaching out to the principal, assistant principal, reaching out to any related arts teachers, because everybody in our school, it's a small school so we know all students, but I know that there is an adult for every student at the elementary level.
How to Prepare Your Child for the Kindergarten Transition
Mary Leslie Anderson: When you think about going into K-4, K-5 for the first time as a mom or a dad or a guardian, what are some of the things that you guys think about at that level to help with that transition? Because I'm sure I'm not an elementary parent, but I'm sure that that is really scary for the parent.
Jenni Dixon: I think oftentimes the parents have a harder time than the students do. I think it's real important to have those conversations and communicate to the child that they're going to a safe place and that mommy, daddy, grandma, grandpa, whoever is their trusted adult will be there for them after school is over. And I think that sometimes parents don't have that trust, as Jennifer was talking about, in the school. But elementary schools are the fun first experience. And we want them to love school as much as we love teaching them.
Those little babies, those K-4, K-5, it's so fun. It's fun in kinderland. After they make it through the first couple of days and go home with smiles on their faces, I think one of the fun things that I can do is I walk down there and the parents that are struggling with leaving their babies for the first time, I will usually give them a call and let them know that their babies are doing great, that they're having a great day. I know our teachers do a great job of communicating with the parents about how great their day is. They have something to talk to them about when they get home.
Jennifer Woody: And we try to do a lot of things on the front end as well. We do all of that to support them when they're there, but we try to do some things on the front end. In May, before the new school year starts, we invite all our newly enrolled kindergarten families in and we do a session called Here's the Scoop on Kindergarten. We give them a tour of our school and we let them meet all the kindergarten teachers and a lot of the staff in the building so that they know what's going on. They get to go down to the kindergarten classrooms with no expectations. They go in, they can use their eyes, their hands, their ears. They do all these things just to touch and feel the environment. We're very intentional about setting that up the May before they start in August.
We also do a lot of things throughout the summer. We make sure that we are very visible on our social media. We start introducing all of our new staff members and staff members in the building. For families, they can start looking at social media and say, "Oh, look, this is Ms. Dixon. This will be your counselor next year. Oh, look, this could be your teacher next year." We do a lot of that so that the parents can start prepping their child as well over the summer and building up that level of excitement.
We do our Meet the Teacher night. And I know a lot of people love Meet the Teacher and everybody's really just ready to find out who their teacher is. But there is benefit in that, too. It gives you a chance as a family to come into this building, to take a tour, to meet all the individuals that are there, to hear all the information that we do. One thing, and many schools do it, but we just added it to Summit Drive and it was huge for us, is before Meet the Teacher, we even did a new family orientation. New families came in as first-time families to Summit Drive to explore the elementary school and all the resources that we have.
We do a back to school night that talks about curriculum. Nobody's really worried about curriculum. We'll meet the teacher. We just want to meet the teacher. But after that settles in for a couple of weeks, we want you to come back and hear about the curriculum that your child will have. That way, when you are trying to do homework at night, as my mom would say, "They didn't teach me math like this," you at least have an idea of what the content is and what to expect as you go through the school year. We do a lot of things in the front end to try to help set our students and families up for success so that when they are there and they're in our presence, it can make the transition a little bit more smoother.
Jenni Dixon: I think as a parent, trusting that adult, because kids feed off of the feelings of their grownups, their trusted adult. When they see that mom or dad is feeling anxious, that translates. And then when mom and dad won't leave the room because they're not sure how their child's doing, that lingering makes it harder on the child. Giving them a hug and a kiss and telling them they're going to have a great day and then letting us do our job is a great jumping off point for parents.
Supporting Elementary Student Academics in the Upper Grades
Mary Leslie Anderson: I think it's really important for folks to hear how strategic you are in preparing for that school year and preparing for that transition in going to elementary school. But also, let's wonder about the upper grade levels, when we're getting into testing and we're getting into real, not real academics, but the academic subjects that are in need. How can parents support there as the academics get harder?
Jennifer Woody: I think it goes back to that communication piece that we spoke about. Communicating with the teacher, making sure you are paying attention to those weekly newsletters that come out, making sure you're paying attention to the school website, the teacher's website, the syllabus. We have syllabi in the elementary level, starting at K-4 and all the way up to 5th. Looking at those to see, "Ooh, what are we doing this week? What are we doing next week?" Paying attention to the upcoming tests.
One thing that has been very big for my family, because I have two school-age children as well, is we spend 10 to 12 minutes a night just reviewing something. I don't care if the test is in two weeks, but if we spend about 10 minutes going over this, then we have started to prepare ourselves. And you can put those in any types of pockets of time. I call myself a mom Uber. We are always on the road. Just finding those times that are beneficial and work for your family to get those things in. But it does go back to having that communication with the teacher so you know what's happening. And even on that side, when we have families who are struggling or students who are struggling, it goes back to what Jenni was saying about who's in the building to help.
Every person in that building has an adult they can go to. It may be the custodian that's sitting at the lunch table reading a book with a kid that we know is a struggling reader. Or it may be our instructional coach pulling some of those fourth and fifth graders to the side and doing some math intervention because she knows that they struggle on some of those foundational skills. We do a lot of that within the school building so that we can also help parents when they get home.
But we also communicate. Progress reports go home. Report cards go home. We have that lovely app for Greenville County Schools, Backpack. Check the Backpack app. It is a live tool that tells you if your kids are turning in assignments, failing assignments, and all the good. I have mine set for a grade of 101. That means I find out if my kid made an A or below because I want to celebrate the good. But we also need to discuss those areas of growth. Those are some of the things that are already in place for parents to use to help their student as they go through their educational career.
Another thing we do, you spoke about testing, Mary Leslie, is we have an adult in the building that works with all of our students who take the state assessment. That's third, fourth, and fifth grade. And we sit down and we do goal-setting conferences with those students. Every quarter, we sit down and we say, "All right, this is what you did last year. What are your goals for this year? How can we support you? How can we help you?" And the students take the time to write down their goals. And then they have to take it home, and we tell parents, "Hey, we just finished a goal conference. Make sure you bring it up at dinner with your kid," so that the families can have a part of that as well.
And that's one of the great things we love about our older students because we are really trying to hold them accountable for their learning and make sure that they can speak about it. I know all the kids go home. "What'd you do at school today?" "Nothing." They've done plenty. We've got plenty to talk about. We make sure that we give our parents those resources and tools to bring up those conversations.
Jenni Dixon: And I will say there are some parents that don't know how to get on Backpack and parents that might not be English-speaking parents. We have tapped into doing special workshops, helping parents sign up for Backpack and showing them. We have social workers that are district employees that we will call if we can't get ahold of a parent and we want to support them and they will go out to the house. There's so many resources out there to help a parent and sometimes they're scared to admit that they don't know where to go. I highly encourage them to call somebody. Call your school counselor, call your principal, call your attendance clerk. They can help guide you to how to get set up on Backpack so you can communicate if you want to know the grades rather than emailing the teacher to find out the grades.
Getting Involved in Your School Community
Erin Rigot: Y'all have spoken to the amount of people in the building that, no matter what school you are in Greenville County Schools, the amount of people in the building that have a role that is to positively impact the children and students of that building. Because that is not just for your school, that's for everyone. I love that you tapped into the intention behind the adults in the building, because that's really what we see across the district. What are some other ways that maybe a parent or guardian could support, either from the counseling perspective or whole school perspective?
Jenni Dixon: I think it's important for parents to know that the educators in their building want the best for their child. I think sometimes as a parent, I have older kids, there's a defensiveness. And as educators, we know that all parents are doing the best with what they have. I think that knowing that you can work together with the people in the building, knowing that you're all working for that child, that whole child—social, emotional, academic—the end goal is the same for both. Almost being like a stool with three legs, if you don't have that third leg, your stool falls.
I think that being in communication as Jennifer talked about and building those relationships, it's so important to support the teacher, even when you're frustrated with them, because the minute that you don't, you have taken one of those legs of the stool away for that child and they don't want to perform because their parent might be mad at the child or they don't take that responsibility. And that's part of what we teach them, being proactive, teaching them responsibility and respect because eventually they're going to be productive members of society, we hope. For parents to know that we're doing the same thing that they're doing, that we want the best for their child.
Jennifer Woody: I think on the whole school level, it goes back to those things that are already out there and that most of our schools have. You may be a stay-at-home parent, you may be a working parent, but there are many things that you can do and support. I would say as a part of that relationship, that communication, join your school PTA. Join the school PTA so that you're getting newsletters from that end.
Volunteer your time, even if it's only 30 minutes. Somebody needs copies. Somebody needs something laminated. Somebody needs something. Volunteer your time whenever you can. SIC is a great way to also join your school community. Typically those meetings are, if they're not in person, they can be virtual or you can join virtually. Even if you have to do it on your lunch break, you're still a part of that school community and building relationships with multiple people within the school.
We always need subs. What better way to get in a school than be a sub for us? You could sign up to go through our substitute orientation for Greenville County Schools and that way you have a very eye-opening experience into the classroom and what it looks like to be an educator. I'd say jump on any of those things as well. Those are other ways that you can support not just your child, not just your teacher, but the school itself.
One thing we love to say at our school and I've heard other schools say it too is we are one school, we are all a family. The 600 students in my building are all of our students. It's not just Ms. Dixon's students. It's not just Ms. Anderson's students. We are all a family. We all take care of each other. And that goes the same with our parents and our community. If we're all here to help each other, we have to all lift each other up. Just joining in in any way you can, it would be great.
A Final Word on Public Education as a Partnership
Mary Leslie Anderson: I think that y'all have really spoken a lot to the humility and the humanness that is education on both the educator side and the parent side and that we need that humility together and to make this work. Thank you for that. If there is one thing that you want the public to know about public education and what we do what would that be?
Jenni Dixon: I think I'd want them to know that teachers are humans and they take home all of the stuff that happens during the day. They work tirelessly. They work on the weekends and they go to bed thinking about your child had a bad day. What can they do differently? They absorb all of the students that are in their classroom that they consider their kids and they absorb all of their frustrations. And I think that clearly we know that teachers are not paid enough, but I don't think they're given enough credit for how much they care.
Jennifer Woody: I think the one thing I would want everyone to know about public education is, just going back to what we said at the beginning, it is a partnership. We are not against each other. We are together in this. We love your children. We support your children and we want to see them do well. But we know that we can't do that alone. We give it our all because we are your partners and we are invested just as much as you are. Just trust the process, embrace the partnership, and remember relationships key.
Mary Leslie Anderson: Thank you for joining us for today's conversation.
Erin Rigot: We're Mary Leslie Anderson and Erin Rigot with Rooted Consulting.
Mary Leslie Anderson: Until next time, keep nurturing school culture and…
Erin Rigot: Keep growing strong roots in your community.
Credits
Simple Civics: Greenville County is Produced by Podcast Studio X.
A Greater Good Greenville project.
