On this episode of the Innovative Schools Podcast, we sit down with Ernesto Mejia as he talks about family engagement and how it can enhance your school and your community. Come on. Let's learn together. Hey, everybody. Welcome to this episode of the Innovative Schools Podcast.
Will Anthony:My name is Will. I'm joined today with Jordan.
Jordan Bassett:What's up?
Jordan Bassett:What's up, everybody?
Jordan Bassett:I'm excited to be in the second chair today and not the first one.
Will Anthony:I know. This is pretty rare. This is a pretty new thing.
Jordan Bassett:I think we're good. Yeah.
Will Anthony:Well, we're excited to bring you guys today a Very special topic. But before we get into that, I want a quick question for you, Jordan.
Jordan Bassett:Yeah. What do you got?
Will Anthony:When you think back to when you were in school Uh-huh. What type of role did your family play, or maybe you as a father now play in your school? Like, was there any type of kind of engagement with there as a parent, part of the family, anything you remember about that?
Jordan Bassett:You know, like, as a kid, as a student oh, okay. I'll kinda break this down between elementary, middle, and high school because I feel like there's three different experiences. Yeah. Elementary school, I felt like my parents were pretty involved. My mom actually sent me just a couple of days ago.
Jordan Bassett:I don't know what she was doing. She found my report card from third grade.
Will Anthony:Really?
Jordan Bassett:Yeah. And it has, like, all the teacher's notes. Like, it's a like, they apparently kept it through all the quarters. So every quarter, the teacher would write something in it. And my parents would respond.
Jordan Bassett:And it wasn't just like, thanks for teaching. My mom would write things like, oh, we're so glad he's growing. Please let us know how we can help going home. So my parents were kind of involved. In middle school, it was kind of rough.
Jordan Bassett:I actually ended up being homeschooled because I didn't like middle school that much. So I'd say very high family engagement during the middle school years while being Very high. Yeah.
Jordan Bassett:High school,
Jordan Bassett:I don't think my parents knew anything about my school, honestly. Good. I worked also and was fairly self sufficient. And so I didn't even ask them for yearbook money. Like I feel like they had very little involvement in like knowing what was going on.
Jordan Bassett:So it like changed. Now that I have my kids though, I feel like it's probably different. There's like 17 different apps that the school makes us download Really? For like different things, and I don't know which one's the right one to, like, talk to the teacher on. But I'm not sure.
Jordan Bassett:It's more informative. I wouldn't say it's as engagement based, I guess. I can't remember if you you actually used that word or not. Did. If I just gave something away.
Jordan Bassett:Okay. Cool. Sweet. But I get a lot of information. And my kids' schools have, like, little things.
Jordan Bassett:Like, my son's school had, like, a dad's doughnuts with dads is what they called it. And we went, and they're the cheapest doughnuts, but, like, still wrapped. Like, just little tiny, like, little Debbie doughnuts. Seven Eleven birthday package. But my son loved it.
Jordan Bassett:We built this little birdhouse together or whatever. That was really cool. But so yeah. I feel like it's two sides. There's, like, a lot of of, hey, come to the school and do things or some things like that.
Jordan Bassett:But most of it feels like, hey, here's what we did this week, is kinda how that that works out.
Will Anthony:Like more just like general updates.
Jordan Bassett:Yeah. I don't know exactly what the listeners will do with that, but that's that's what I have to share.
Will Anthony:Well, I'm I'm glad that you mentioned all that because we actually have our own resident expert Expert. In family engagement, Ernesto Mejia. How are doing today?
Ernesto Mejia:I'm good. Thanks for having me. I don't know I don't know about expert, but we'll see what happens here.
Jordan Bassett:We'll let the people decide.
Ernesto Mejia:That's right.
Will Anthony:I have in my notes, you actually said it said call me an expert. I think it's what expert we have here. So maybe that's wrong.
Ernesto Mejia:I gotta Let's keep it going.
Will Anthony:Yeah. Awesome. Alright. Well, I do I don't wanna keep the listeners waiting too much.
Jordan Bassett:Would you mind just kinda letting
Will Anthony:them know a little bit about yourself and what you've been doing?
Ernesto Mejia:Sure. So my name is Ernesto Mejia. I'm part of the CoolSpeak when you said his name. That's right. He tried.
Ernesto Mejia:He tried.
Will Anthony:We'll work on that one. I can't
Jordan Bassett:do it.
Ernesto Mejia:So I love to say that I'm part of the CoolSpeak family because it's a family culture with our company and our team. I've spent probably the last fifteen, seventeen years focusing my energies on family engagement. And we also work with students and the professionals that serve them. But family engagement is really something that I enjoy. I think it's critical and it's important to deliver in a different format than it has been because Jordan was mentioning parents were involved in elementary.
Ernesto Mejia:That's the norm. K through 12, I'm there for everything, K through four or five. 67, 8, occasionally. 9 through 12, like, they're all right, they're big. There's a difference between missing a day where we had donuts Yeah.
Ernesto Mejia:Versus missing a day where we could have helped you earn hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for college.
Jordan Bassett:That's what I'm here for. That's what I'm here for. Where are those days at that elementary level? That's right. That's right.
Ernesto Mejia:So, again, I'm just part of the CoolSpeak family and happy to be here.
Will Anthony:Awesome. Why
Jordan Bassett:I'm jumping in quick.
Will Anthony:I'm not gonna lie. Yeah.
Jordan Bassett:Personally to you, why is family engagement so important? Like, why why is this your soapbox and passion?
Ernesto Mejia:Yeah. I just spoke about it recently. For me, the ability to deliver both in English and Spanish, not just bicultural, not just bilingual, binational, but being appreciative of other cultures and being so diverse now in this country with the amount of people that are coming in from various parts of the world and not being engaged, I felt like that was my parents. And one of the things that I like to say right away is if you feel these parents don't care because they don't show up to a meeting, you may need to reevaluate because my parents were working fifty, sixty hours a week, didn't speak the language, didn't necessarily feel welcomed. Why go?
Ernesto Mejia:They couldn't. They were busy. But there are other ways that we can engage them, and that's what I'm trying to focus a lot of my energies on because we want to help. We want to be a part of it. But even like my parents, I always say, if you were to have come to our house, you would have thought after religion, it's teachers.
Jordan Bassett:Mhmm.
Ernesto Mejia:That's the ranking for us. And for my parents, it was always education, education. We came to this country for you to get an education. You're gonna get an education. Like, okay, I get it.
Ernesto Mejia:K through six, I missed one day of school. That's me. But if you don't engage with those families, those parents, you think they don't care. And I'm here to try to help our schools and our administrators and our teachers realize they do care. But in many cases, they don't know how to get involved.
Ernesto Mejia:They don't know where to start. And just like you said, when you're giving me 12 apps, I'm like, don't I even know how to use an app, and you gave me 12. How am I supposed to start? So to me, and we'll get into this later, I'm sure, the number one thing that I'm preaching right now is I want us to focus on relationships. Mhmm.
Ernesto Mejia:If I can build a relationship with a parent, then I can help you with your child and ensure that we're successful.
Jordan Bassett:So to sum that up real quick, so you're a product of your parents' engagement.
Ernesto Mejia:Mhmm.
Jordan Bassett:Is that kinda
Ernesto Mejia:It is. Absolutely.
Jordan Bassett:So was your school doing who was doing the heavy lifting in that? The school or your parents?
Ernesto Mejia:Would say really about your parents for me. Yeah. The school, I couldn't tell you in all honesty and at least, you know, pre k mean, elementary, sorry. If they were, they weren't. You don't pay attention as a student then.
Ernesto Mejia:Right. Just the big events, like you said, the donuts with dads, the muffins with mom, you know, are critical events. Yeah. And my parents couldn't go to those because they were working.
Will Anthony:Sure.
Ernesto Mejia:So I don't know, but I did have high quality teachers, and I'm not saying that that others don't, that allowed me, like, one of the stories that I shared, to bring my father in for show and tell when I was in, like, fourth grade. My mom became involved, not necessarily by choice, but she became the janitor of my elementary school. Everybody knew her. So there was parental involvement overload probably there, even though she didn't speak English. But I do know from experience, whenever I go out and do work, it's great and parents feel more comfortable, more confident, more secure when they get to hear something in their own language, if it's Spanish.
Jordan Bassett:Yeah.
Ernesto Mejia:When they get to see you appreciate different languages, even if I don't speak it, I try to allow them to express themselves. Hey. Can you teach me how to say good morning, good afternoon, thank you in your own language. Like, really? Like, you care?
Ernesto Mejia:I do. And that makes a big difference. So I think because of what my parents experienced kinda made me into what I am now. Yeah.
Will Anthony:Heading down this path, like you kinda mentioned before, kind of relationships being such a heavy point, kind of heading down that path, I think, kind of start a little bit further out. Like, if you were to paint a picture of what family engagement typically looks like right now, you know, in The US, what would you say that picture kind of looks like?
Ernesto Mejia:Oh, it's a funky looking picture, but I hate to tell you that. We're struggling. When I say we, the entire education system is struggling. Even more so now than ever before because there's so many distractions, so many reasons as to why I can't attend, so many obstacles now as to why I can't attend meetings. And, you know, one of the things that I try to highlight is you not showing up to a meeting in school doesn't mean that you're not engaged, that you're not involved.
Ernesto Mejia:But it currently looks a little bit like a once a month meeting where the same eight to 12 parents are showing up, and they're showing up regularly and on occasions we get one or two more families. It looks like we're doing the same thing we did fifteen, twenty years ago with worse results, I wouldn't even say similar results, and expecting different outcomes. Yeah. And that's, I think, where we're failing our parents. And, again, one of the things that I say during my trainings, you have to look at what you're putting out there, the product, meaning the meetings, the engagement, the interaction.
Ernesto Mejia:And if it's poor and something you don't even wanna be a part of, why would our families wanna be a part of it?
Jordan Bassett:I think that's yeah. I I've heard you say that before, and I think that I mean, I'm not hosting PTA meetings or anything like that. But, like, what we do we wanna go to the things that we're planning? I think is a a really good way to think about things Yeah. And as stuff is going.
Jordan Bassett:And I think that's what that kinda keeps me involved in my kid's school. They I I think but from talking with you and hearing other things, I think my kids are kinda blessed with what the school what Mhmm. The my kids go to two different school. One is public and one is private Mhmm. Only because we don't have preschool in our Yeah.
Jordan Bassett:As a public school. So my son goes to a private school. Both of them do a pretty good job, I would I would say, of the the involvement Mhmm. Or or engaging with us as I've made the joke about, you know, talking about the 17 apps, and it is kinda confusing sometimes. But they do my daughter's school, the public school, they do all these little things throughout the year, and they really hype the kids up.
Ernesto Mejia:Mhmm.
Jordan Bassett:And so my daughter gets FOMO. Like, if we don't go, we have to go, dad. Like Yeah. This is what we're doing. And she like at some of these things, they're still like teaching, which is really interesting.
Jordan Bassett:She's like, we have to go to this mathathon, and I'm gonna do math, and you're gonna be there, and we're gonna do things together. I
Will Anthony:love And I'm like, you're gonna hate
Jordan Bassett:doing math. Yeah. But if I'm there after hours, all of a sudden, it's great. But anyway, just I think my my kids' school are doing a good job.
Ernesto Mejia:And they and they probably are. And and the one thing that I would say to you in particular, we got to keep that same energy Mhmm. In the latter years. The earlier years, it's easier and your children do get a little bit more excited. It is fun.
Ernesto Mejia:Yeah. Come high school, kids are not excited about, mom, dad, can you come to school with me? It's the last thing that they're thinking. It's the last thing that's exciting them unless we're doing something to make them feel that way.
Jordan Bassett:Yeah. Yeah. I the other thing I've heard you talk about, and I want you to talk a little bit more about
Ernesto Mejia:this Mhmm.
Jordan Bassett:Or I think about is I was just thinking about this as you asked what it was like for me in school. Yeah. I would say in high school, pretty much if my parents got a call from the school, their response was, what'd you do?
Ernesto Mejia:Mhmm. Yeah.
Jordan Bassett:And that was the extent of the engagement. Like Yeah. They're calling. They must be calling for a bad reason.
Ernesto Mejia:Right. Yeah. Parents even answer that way. So one of the things that I've been teaching recently, we need to create a culture of positive phone calls. That helps with our relationship building.
Ernesto Mejia:When the school calls and says, hey. You know what? Jordan had a good day today. Even the parents like, I'm sorry. My Jordan?
Ernesto Mejia:Is there a but? Jordan, like, there's something more
Jordan Bassett:to this. Right? You had a good day. But.
Ernesto Mejia:Yeah. Exactly. The reason this is important is because it helps build a relationship. It keeps us connected to one another. And the part that I don't like saying out loud too much, when you see the school calling, you may wanna answer from now on.
Ernesto Mejia:Nowadays, if you see the school calling, it's just gonna be a voice message anyway, or it's gonna be a recording just sending it to voice mail. Mhmm. But when you miss out on a call, wait. They had something good to say about my child. I can you call me back to let me know again?
Ernesto Mejia:Like, you want Wait. Let me
Jordan Bassett:get the record. Can I record this?
Ernesto Mejia:Right. Yeah. So then what ends up happening is if you can do that at least, like, once every other month Mhmm. I'm not saying it's a lot, but it's a start. Then that fourth, fifth month, if there is a call of something that's not so positive, both parties can talk about it so much easier.
Ernesto Mejia:Yeah. And they're not threatened, and they don't get defensive right away. Like, well, you did call to tell me some good things about my kid. I mean, I was expecting this call anyway. I'm glad it came now, but I'm glad the other ones came first.
Ernesto Mejia:But now you have a relationship. Now there's some trust, and I think that it makes a big difference. And those are little things that we can do to make big changes. Like, that that phone call is everything. And if you can have a relationship where you can have a three, four minute phone call and speak openly, it's gonna help everybody.
Will Anthony:Yeah. I kinda like what you said earlier, Jordan. You were you kinda used them interchangeably, but I wonder if Ernesto sees it totally differently. Is like, what's the difference between maybe family involvement and family engagement?
Jordan Bassett:Oh, sorry. Have I been switching those around? One are we talking about today? Right.
Will Anthony:To Engagement. Engagement. To me
Ernesto Mejia:personally, involvement means I'm showing up whenever asked. You know? Engagement means I'm engaged not just in that in person meeting, not just via that email, that phone call, but I'm reaching out.
Will Anthony:Yeah.
Ernesto Mejia:I'm trying to support. I'm trying to volunteer. I'm giving ideas. That's me being engaged. But also even like, you know, some of the activities that I try to do to help our educators, like a family history quiz, for example, where we create questions to ask one another as a family.
Ernesto Mejia:And it becomes interesting because one of the questions can be, What were you like when you were my age, mom and dad? And like, Oh, is there another question? Like, how did I switch it up? To find
Jordan Bassett:out. Right.
Ernesto Mejia:But even to find out, like, for example, which I see often, like, your dad didn't even go to college, but not because he didn't want to. He just didn't have the opportunity, the funds, the knowledge, whatever it might be. But when you find out as a child that that's the case, like, oh, wow, I thought you just didn't like school. Like, no, I loved it, but I couldn't go. Yeah.
Ernesto Mejia:When you find out, you know, mom wanted to be an accountant, and then you all of a sudden want to be an accountant, but for the wrong reasons to fulfill your mom's dreams, I'd rather you discover that at a younger age than when you're in college or finish and realize, I do not like this job. Was trying to make my mom happy, but I'm miserable. That's not the route to go. Typically, mom and dad, caregivers, they want you doing something that you like, something that makes you happy. But through that family history quiz, we can ask some of those questions and they can start discovering that.
Ernesto Mejia:And also, the research shows us that those of us that are in tune with our family history and understand it tend to get more involved in school, more engaged, graduate on time, better grades, lesser attrition. So back to your question, sorry, in terms of engagement and involvement, I think that there is a difference. And unfortunately, I think many of our schools don't see it, and they see involvement as engagement. Yeah. But one of the things that I say often, if your parent is like this over the course of He's your fifteen scrolling on minutes my phone.
Ernesto Mejia:Scrolling Throughout the fifty, sixty minutes of your meeting, don't get upset at them. You're not engaging them. You're involving them, but they're not even involved really. They're just showing up.
Jordan Bassett:What is something I I wanna make, like, a kinda line in the sand. Mhmm. I guess. What is something you've seen a school do that you say this is clearly involvement and something you've seen a school do that is clearly engagement.
Ernesto Mejia:Yeah. So involvement could be something like, you know, the meet the teachers when they do, like, you're coming and it's almost like obligatory. Like, you feel like, well, I have to meet my child's teacher and they want me to go. I guess
Jordan Bassett:I should see who's gonna be with my kid for like six hours a day.
Ernesto Mejia:Yeah. Just going through the motions really. Yeah. Engagement to me could be that same event, but we're creating time and space for that teacher and that parent to create some sort of relationship. Not just going through the motions of, hi, I'm missus Johnson.
Ernesto Mejia:I'll be teaching this and this will be okay. Bye. Next. Yeah. Because it makes you gives you that doctor's office vibe.
Ernesto Mejia:Yeah. And that is involvement. Well, I was involved. I went to what they asked for.
Jordan Bassett:And I brought the surprise supplies they asked me to bring. There you go. I got the two boxes of crayons and the chalk and the rulers.
Ernesto Mejia:And the tattoo and the crayons. And the engagement allows me to build the relationship, get you more involved, and continue the engagement. And I think that's where the difference would stand.
Will Anthony:Got it. I like that line in the sand there.
Ernesto Mejia:Exactly. Yeah.
Will Anthony:What would you say is definitely not working about family engagement right now?
Ernesto Mejia:Unfortunately, I think just create I mean, doing the same thing over and over again, that whole definition of insanity. You know, we're using the same PowerPoint templates. We're using the same meeting topics, you know. And in some cases, they're just, like, extremely outdated.
Jordan Bassett:Sometimes they forget to change the date.
Ernesto Mejia:I mean yeah. Well, not just school year '23 to '20
Jordan Bassett:oh, shoot.
Ernesto Mejia:I mean one one But even, like, the topics, like yeah. I'll give you an example. I had a mom tell me recently, like, I don't really need to do this. This is my fifth child in this school. I already know how this works.
Ernesto Mejia:My reply being me. Oh, I understand. I mean, things are probably exactly the same they were technology wise, teacher wise, staffing wise in the school than they were with your first child. Yeah. Well, obviously not.
Ernesto Mejia:Like, well, I mean, I don't see the need to to. I get it. Okay. Things are different. I'm like, they are.
Ernesto Mejia:Things change. So that's why you need to be involved. And here's the difference too. The way you get involved with one child doesn't always translate to your other ones. And every kid's different.
Ernesto Mejia:Absolutely.
Jordan Bassett:We say that about kids in the classroom, but like the parents need Yeah. And we know as parents, we know every Yeah. Kid's
Ernesto Mejia:And there's there's children that'll be like, mom, dad, let's go to the meeting. And the other one's like, oh, we had a meeting? I didn't even know. Like, some want you there and some don't. And and it's funny because to to highlight this, there's another activity that I do where I ask parents and caregivers.
Ernesto Mejia:And for the audience, I use both those words because there are a lot of children right now being raised by grandma, grandpa, aunt, uncle, friend. They're caregivers, and they deserve not just a title or a label, but the recognition because they're raising their Absolutely. Absolutely. So I did an activity where I said, okay. I want you to write a letter to your children telling them how much you love them.
Ernesto Mejia:This dad puts his hand up right away like, yeah. I have five. Can I just write one letter just for the sake of time? I said, absolutely. Here's one piece of paper and one pencil.
Ernesto Mejia:Because you love them all the same and treat them all exactly the same, one paper will do. I get it. Give me five pieces of paper. I'll use one pencil. It's fine.
Ernesto Mejia:But it's cool. But it's true. And, you know, it's a joke, but it isn't. We love to say, like, you know which one you love more? And the parents, I love you all the same.
Ernesto Mejia:If you ask the kids, I guarantee you, you ain't getting that same answer. They all you. They'll be like, no. This one gets everything. That one gets you.
Will Anthony:You know.
Ernesto Mejia:Right. Absolutely. So times change. Sorry, Bob. Of that because of that, we need to change, and our programming needs to change, our approach needs to change, where we're delivering.
Ernesto Mejia:You know, that's a session that I'm doing for Innovative. It's not just on campus anymore. We do a meeting in the park, a meeting in the community, a meeting at the game, a meeting in the church, different places, virtual, in person. We need to switch things up because what's not working is we're trying to host the same meetings that worked thirty years ago, and they're not working currently. Mhmm.
Ernesto Mejia:And we need to switch that up.
Will Anthony:Mhmm. If you were to, I guess, kinda move in in that kinda same direction, If you were to speak to maybe a family who's had a negative experience in family engagement, what's something you would say to them to maybe try to encourage them?
Ernesto Mejia:It's just like going to a bad dentist to a bad doctor. It doesn't mean you're like, you know what? I think I'm just gonna stop going to the doctor now because my last experience was bad. You still need to address your health. You still need to address your teeth per se.
Ernesto Mejia:The same thing goes with school. And I think one of the things that I like to let our families know is everybody has a boss. So if the teacher's not responding, not helping, then maybe it's the instructional person or it's the assistant principal, the principal. If they're not responding, there's board meetings. You can show up and say, I have something I'd like to share.
Ernesto Mejia:Once you show up to a board meeting, all of a sudden, you get a quicker reply and it becomes a little bit more urgent. Yeah. I'm not saying that's where I want it to go, but there's always someone to talk to, and teachers are going to be different. Yeah. The the simple for instance.
Ernesto Mejia:If I talk to the listeners right now and say, think of that one teacher. A teacher came to mind for the majority of us. The one that helped you, supported you, encouraged you, in some cases was really tough on you. Doesn't mean that all your teachers were like that. And it's the same thing with family engagement.
Ernesto Mejia:There's years where it's gonna be better. There's a family liaison person that does an outstanding job. There's one that's just kind of going through the motions. But and it's something that I teach to our our parents and caregivers that are going through divorce or separations. Your children never ask for any of this to happen.
Ernesto Mejia:Mhmm. They should never be the ones that pay the price for what's happening between you.
Jordan Bassett:Yeah.
Ernesto Mejia:The same thing goes for us as parents and caregivers with our children. It's not our fault that there is or isn't good family engagement. Our children need us involved to support them, to encourage them, and to better understand what to do and how to support them and encourage them. You know? We were talking about this earlier.
Ernesto Mejia:College isn't the only option for everybody anymore. But when you tell families that come from a foreign country for their children to get a better education, like, wait a minute. It's one of the reasons we're here.
Will Anthony:Yeah.
Ernesto Mejia:But then when you explain, you could go into the trades, maybe learn something and get paid within two years. Like, oh, wait a minute. Tell me more about that. I didn't know that that was an option for me. Money understanding that.
Will Anthony:Yeah.
Ernesto Mejia:And, ultimately, what do you want for your child? Do you want them to do something that they love, that they're passionate about, so that they're happy? So we need to figure out all the options, and getting involved is one, not the only way, but one of the best ways to do it.
Will Anthony:I guess I've never really thought about it in that way, thinking of the perspective of foreign parents and the things like that. That's really interesting. Well, don't go anywhere. We're gonna take a quick break. And when we come back, we're gonna talk more with Ernesto.
Will Anthony:See you in a minute.
Jordan Bassett:Everybody, welcome back to this episode of the Innovative Schools podcast. We have Ernesto Mejia. How did
Ernesto Mejia:I do?
Jordan Bassett:Uh-oh. Did I hit it?
Ernesto Mejia:There we go.
Jordan Bassett:Did I do it well? Since I called you out earlier, I had to do it myself. I could've just anyway, we're talking about family, not just involvement, but engagement is what we're talking about. Where where are we going now? Well You told me the question, then I forgot.
Jordan Bassett:So I'm throwing
Ernesto Mejia:it back
Jordan Bassett:to you. It's okay. I got so caught up in rolling my r's on his name.
Will Anthony:Too caught up on that moment.
Ernesto Mejia:Yeah. Was focused. He was focused.
Jordan Bassett:I mean,
Will Anthony:it was special. You know?
Jordan Bassett:It was Yeah.
Will Anthony:It was cute. Ernesto, how can we come in and well, you know, educators come in and change the typical approach to family engagement?
Ernesto Mejia:Yeah. I think step number one is definitely evaluate what you're doing. Yeah. Because sometimes we just keep on going through the same motions, hoping that the next year is better. Eight years later, they realize it's not getting better.
Ernesto Mejia:And we need to evaluate what we're doing first. Secondly, we need to talk to the population that we're serving. We fail to do that. And we think that we do because we send out a survey to 500 parents and we got 18 replies like, Oh, we have their input. No, we don't.
Ernesto Mejia:That's 18 parents out of or caregivers out of 500. So having those conversations with them to find out what some of their needs are, like a needs assessment, and understanding how I can marry that with the content that I need to deliver to you. Because if not, that's why we're not showing up. We're talking about topics and subjects that I'm not even aware of. And in education, you know we're great about throwing out all kinds of acronyms and letters.
Ernesto Mejia:We have FAFSA night. We have SEL night. We have parents are like, what are you selling? What sells? What's the credit?
Ernesto Mejia:What's selling?
Jordan Bassett:With the pedagogy what on the are you saying?
Ernesto Mejia:They're lost. If I don't know, excuse me, what you're gonna talk about, then I can just stay home and be lost. Why do I need to show up?
Will Anthony:Yeah.
Ernesto Mejia:And it's something where we need to be aware of. We need to change it. So one of the things that I say often is we promote FAFSA night, and we assume everybody understands what FAFSA means. I'm saying that a good portion of us do, but not everybody. I had a dad tell me when I asked him directly, you're to that FAFSA night?
Ernesto Mejia:No. I'm good. I have a mortgage. Nothing to do with FAFSA. If And that's what you think it is, why am I gonna do
Jordan Bassett:need to be there.
Ernesto Mejia:So we need a few more things. Change the title Yeah. For me to consider being there. Yeah. No more FAFSA night.
Ernesto Mejia:Are you worried about how to pay for college? Yes. What time and where? I'll stay extra if I need to. Been staying up late wondering about this.
Ernesto Mejia:Now you're drawing me in because it's something of importance.
Jordan Bassett:You talked about this a little bit earlier or, like, have it like, I don't well, increasing in family engagement, I fear many teachers or administrators will just see dollar signs. Mhmm. So does it always I feel like I'm leading a little bit. But does it always cost money to increase your family engagement?
Ernesto Mejia:No. No.
Jordan Bassett:It doesn't. I knew the answer to that, but I just wanted to talk about that.
Ernesto Mejia:Yeah. Good job. That's a great example of what I tell people not to do with their family engagement. Let me ask a question so that I can answer it myself. Yes.
Ernesto Mejia:No. And I think that one of the things so I'm gonna give you a for instance. A lot of schools will give out, like, backpacks per se to their students or, you know, whatever it is that they have that they're going to give away anyway. And I tell them, we'll try to make our families earn it a little bit more. If you showed up to an event, if you sign up to volunteer, if you attend three events, you get first bids, you're still gonna get it, but it's just a difference of when you get it.
Ernesto Mejia:First, second, last. Changing things like that will make a difference. And families will see, and it's changing the culture of what you're doing. But it doesn't need to be costly at all. And I think sometimes we tend to think that.
Ernesto Mejia:And one of the activities that I do and I I challenge our listeners to do, sit down with your team and say, okay. Let's revamp our family engagement. But there's two things that I want us to take into consideration. Time and money are not an issue. Of course, we go wild.
Ernesto Mejia:It never fails.
Jordan Bassett:So you ask them to to say, don't think about how much this would cost
Ernesto Mejia:Exactly.
Jordan Bassett:Or how much time it would take up. Right. Just shoot for the moon biggest ideas. Because obstacles that we
Ernesto Mejia:Yeah. You know, put forth besides the attendance, obviously. And the reason that I do it is because it becomes the root of other ideas, strategies. I'm gonna give you an example. I did this once in PD, and one of the family said, so you said time and money weren't an issue.
Ernesto Mejia:We're putting all our parents on planes, we're going to Hawaii, and we're gonna spend two days there just cooking, two days on the beach, two days this. I'm like, alright.
Jordan Bassett:It was great. That sounds awesome. I would definitely be involved. Absolutely. No.
Jordan Bassett:I'm sorry. I'm engaged. I'd be engaged. There you go. Heavily engaged.
Ernesto Mejia:But again, so I went back to that idea, like, alright. So we're probably not gonna be able to pay for those plane tickets. Well, you said cooking. Why cooking? Well, diet is here.
Ernesto Mejia:We're in a food desert. Okay. Why don't we have a cooking event here then? Yeah. Okay.
Ernesto Mejia:Okay. So you said travel. Okay? We're not gonna be able to travel. Why don't we find out where they'd like to go and start doing a family project where they research what that trip might be like?
Ernesto Mejia:So they may want to do it in the future. They can start saving for it. But it gets you out of that thought process, that frame of mind that, unfortunately, many of us are in. And it goes back to what you're saying earlier, why we're not changing because we just talk about the obstacles and the challenges. Well, they're not gonna show up.
Ernesto Mejia:Well, it costs too much money. Well, this and that. I literally just shared this a minute ago, and I used to do this in my college teen years. Students weren't allowed to come to my office with a problem unless they had two potential solutions. If you can create that culture with your family engagement team, you'll be amazed at the amount of solutions you're gonna start coming up with.
Ernesto Mejia:Well, parents aren't coming. You're right. What are two possible solutions? Oh, I hadn't thought about that. Right.
Ernesto Mejia:Because we just like to complain. Yeah. Instead of just complaining, come up with some possible solutions. Let's test that theory and see if it works. And if it doesn't, we come up with another one.
Ernesto Mejia:And that, I think, is the part that many of our schools are scared of. What I I don't wanna fail if we try something different.
Will Anthony:Yeah.
Ernesto Mejia:Breaking news. You're failing at what you're currently doing. Let's try to fail at doing something else
Jordan Bassett:Yeah.
Ernesto Mejia:Test it out, and keep on testing until we get to something better.
Jordan Bassett:Alright. So now I have another another complication. Uh-oh. Alright. Fine.
Jordan Bassett:You convinced me that we can do this for not a lot of money Okay. If anything. But I have to get this information out. I can't just do fun things.
Ernesto Mejia:Actually, I would disagree with you.
Jordan Bassett:So No. They have to know if we do fun, they're not gonna pay attention Oh, no. To the information.
Ernesto Mejia:We can do both, and here's how. And this is the problem, I think, with family engagement and or, you know, involvement. We want to lecture them. Here's the first meeting. Welcome back.
Ernesto Mejia:Here's the app. Here's the website. Here's our problem with attrition. Here's the new curriculum and 18 other things. Any questions?
Ernesto Mejia:You lost me, like, in the first minute.
Jordan Bassett:After you said hello, I checked out.
Ernesto Mejia:So Yeah. Why don't we create a game out of some of these things, allow our families to talk? So for instance, you can create, like, a bingo card, if you will, with all these, you know, different topic subjects, and you have to talk to somebody about them to understand what it means. Instead of just talking about the app, we're gonna have you over here at this side, register for it, sign up for it, get your login, and send us one message to know that you actually know how to use it. When you put a big group of parents together, caregivers, they're the same as students.
Ernesto Mejia:Alright. We understand how to use the app. Right? Uh-huh. Hey.
Ernesto Mejia:What was the name of the app again? Like, you don't even know. Yeah. But when I make you go through the motions, that's engagement. I'm engaging you.
Ernesto Mejia:That's involvement. I'm involving you. And now I'm actually teaching you how to use the resources. And one of the my favorite lines with all my PD is, I don't know who lied to adults, but we too like to have fun. It
Jordan Bassett:is true.
Ernesto Mejia:We like to laugh. We like to be engaged. We like to interact. And whenever I have, you know, professionals get in teams, like, oh, it's gonna be one of these. And, like, I'm gonna have to talk.
Ernesto Mejia:I let them talk for, like, five, ten minutes even though I told them it's gonna be two or three minutes, and they could have gone on for another fifteen minutes. They want to talk. They have ideas. They have suggestions, But we're not creating the space for them to share those ideas and thoughts.
Jordan Bassett:A lot of what I'm sorry. I'm totally, like, just stealing from you.
Ernesto Mejia:I see how it is here. I understand. Amber. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
Jordan Bassett:No. I just I I do find I think, as a parent, I find it interesting. But a lot of what I hear you say, I feel like it this is how it feels. And I'd to know if this is what you're trying to get across is that running a meeting or gathering or something of parents doesn't seem that much different than just teaching in a classroom. A lot of the same things that you're saying, I've heard other educators and and people talk about of the engagement structures of having them discover how an app works is not that much different than students discovering For sure.
Jordan Bassett:Some other piece of knowledge or information Mhmm. And getting them to do the work for them for them to be engaged. So I don't know. I was just thinking about that a lot through your responses is how similar Mhmm. But we think about them differently.
Ernesto Mejia:Oh, absolutely.
Jordan Bassett:But you're saying, oh, grown ups don't wanna have fun. But we do wanna have fun. It might look a little different. But as you know, we wanted to have fun. But Yeah.
Jordan Bassett:The way we're engaged, the way I feel of what you're saying is not that different from the the students to the Absolutely.
Ernesto Mejia:And again, it's a different way that I feel most schools aren't using right now. And unfortunately, going back to what's not working, we're just lecturing them, talking to them. If it's a sixty minute meeting, we're talking fifty eight of those sixty minutes. And we're wondering why they're bored, why they don't want to come back. Hello?
Ernesto Mejia:You're talking the entire time. Yeah. Who signs up for a workshop or a class where it says, come and be quiet and just listen to me for an hour? Oh, oh, let me be a part of that one. Well, if that's what we're doing with our quote unquote family engagement, that's why it's not engaging.
Ernesto Mejia:And I hate to say it, but it's true. Then just call it family because there's no engagement.
Jordan Bassett:There's no engagement. Right.
Will Anthony:That really got me. The little what is it? Riding a horse, feeling a little lasso around you. Sign me up. Really
Ernesto Mejia:got me up.
Will Anthony:Really got me. I think this is great. I think what you're saying is, I mean, obviously immensely important, but I think too, we want to give our listeners something they can definitely use. So I know you use the term golden triangle.
Ernesto Mejia:I do.
Will Anthony:Can you like talk about that and maybe what that kind of looks like in action?
Ernesto Mejia:For sure. So the golden triangle of success, if you will, CoolSpeak means this. Your school team, that means everybody. Cafeteria, staff, janitorial staff, security administrators, teachers, everybody. That's the school.
Ernesto Mejia:That's one tip of the triangle. The other one is parents and caregivers. And the other one is students. When we can get all three of those working in conjunction, we increase the odds of success. So one of the ways that you could see that in action is we'll call it a family night event, but that means my family is coming, my siblings, my mom, dad, caregivers.
Ernesto Mejia:That means we have some school personnel involved, not just the parent family liaison person, and we're doing something together, all of us. And it can be very simple. We have a client in New Mexico that does a family bonfire night, but they also do it as their informational night to learn about what's going on in the school, what activities are available, but it's part of the bonfire. That's getting everybody involved to increase the odds of them being engaged, to increase the odds of them signing up for activities, clubs, to increase the odds of their parents understanding what to do, to improve the relationships between all three of those golden triangle team members to help their success.
Will Anthony:I like that bonfire. I kinda like that.
Jordan Bassett:And that I I did like that. It made me think, though. I don't know why in that one moment, I was like, let me see if you agree with this. If it could have been in the email, it's not family engagement.
Ernesto Mejia:They say that often. You know what's funny that you say that? Before I start professional development, I say, alright. What's really on our minds here, people? This could have been in an email.
Ernesto Mejia:Yeah. I didn't need to give up this much time. I'm not in the classroom. This is the state or the district trying to force feed us something. And unfortunately, I can't totally disagree with them at all times.
Ernesto Mejia:I can when I'm there, but not at all times. So I'll deliver. And then at the end, I'm like, alright. Let's go back to what we had said. Oh, yeah.
Ernesto Mejia:No. This definitely couldn't have been an email. This would no. This was not in an email. And that's something that we need to focus on to ensure that we're improving our family engagement because if it could have been a two minute video, if it could have been an email, you didn't need to call a sixty or ninety minute meeting.
Ernesto Mejia:It wasn't But if you wanna make sure that they're understanding something, if you wanna get their input, if you want to improve their relationships, you know, I think that there's a combination that we need to do of teaching some actual parenting tips and techniques, as well as teaching me how to be more involved and engaged And in my if we can marry those and do those regularly, I'm gonna wanna come back. Because if I can go to a meeting and my son opens up in a way that he typically doesn't because the space was created there for him to tell me how to improve as a dad, I might want to go back because it was beneficial for my Hey, dad.
Jordan Bassett:They're doing a parenting improvement night? I really think you should go.
Ernesto Mejia:You definitely need to sign
Jordan Bassett:up Yeah. For this
Will Anthony:again Also, love you.
Ernesto Mejia:Followed up followed up with that one, you talk about a mental health session the school might be offering. Mhmm. Followed up with, you know, there's a career night. So if you combine them, it makes us more prone to want to attend, to want to be involved, and to want to learn more. But if you're making it, this is when the app was created.
Ernesto Mejia:This is where it was created. This is how long we have it. This is how it works. This is how you
Jordan Bassett:sign They're making us use this app. I don't really like it, but you have to. Okay? Everyone understands. Just download it.
Ernesto Mejia:Forty five minutes in. Any questions? I don't even know the app at this point. I'm confused. I got open
Will Anthony:Netflix on exit.
Ernesto Mejia:But that's why and that's why, you know, a lot of us don't want to get involved, don't wanna engage because it's not engaging. It's just asking and, it's what you said. It could have been in an email. It could have been in a memo. And if that's the case, keep it as such.
Ernesto Mejia:But even that, you can make it entertaining and fun. Why aren't you using our students to create a TikTok video to inform us about x, y, or z topic? Yeah. We'll watch. And trust me, parents will be like, let me forward this video because my son is featured in this one.
Ernesto Mejia:Send it on
Jordan Bassett:the family group
Ernesto Mejia:chat to the grade. You're gonna send it left to right.
Jordan Bassett:And guess
Ernesto Mejia:what? How many of your memos, emails, or voice messages are being forwarded by anybody?
Jordan Bassett:When they have a mistake? Zero. Zero. When something's misspelled, when there's a comma not in the wrong
Ernesto Mejia:place, wrong That's Is that the promoting what you're trying to promote?
Jordan Bassett:Not at all. Yeah. You said video in that and just something that you've talked about before and I wanna bring this in as a practical thing for people to do is, you've talked to that those, like, meetings like, there's information that needs to get out. But those meetings don't have to always be in person.
Will Anthony:Right.
Jordan Bassett:They can be either a short video or or virtual. Some Yeah. Some of the schools have parents working like your parents. We were talking before the podcast about your parents and or I guess during. I don't know.
Jordan Bassett:We've been hanging out for a while, so it's all blurring together. At some point, I have heard that your parents Mhmm. Right.
Ernesto Mejia:You're right.
Jordan Bassett:They're working lots of hours. Mhmm. Lots of jobs. And while the meeting could only be thirty minutes or an hour, it's okay. Thirty minutes to drive out there Right.
Jordan Bassett:Have the meeting, get the kids, where am I gonna eat, what you know, whatever. All those different things. And virtual having a virtual option for a lot of these things helps keep them connected.
Ernesto Mejia:For sure. I'm not
Jordan Bassett:gonna go as far as saying that it's as good. But it
Will Anthony:Or a permanent replacement.
Jordan Bassett:Or a permanent replacement, but it's helpful.
Ernesto Mejia:Absolutely. So I would recommend a hybrid version. And we did this during the COVID days Yes. Where we did virtual, and here's how we started it. We said, we're gonna do thirty minutes, and that's it.
Ernesto Mejia:Then the parents are like, we want more. Thirty minutes is enough. We went to an hour. And then they're like, we could still do more. And I'm gonna tell you one of the reasons that we got to that point.
Ernesto Mejia:The very first session that we did, we said, okay, I said, I wanna see you cooking. I wanna see you at the game. I wanna see you at work. I wanna see you working out. I don't care where you're at.
Ernesto Mejia:If you can listen, then you're good. If you can turn your camera on, even better, but it's not a requirement.
Jordan Bassett:Yeah.
Ernesto Mejia:It became to where by, like, session three or four, like, what are we making today? I'm making enchiladas over here. I'm gonna make some soup over here. Where we at? Oh, we're at my son's game, and they were proud to let us know.
Ernesto Mejia:And that's important to highlight because Mhmm. In most cases, they're ashamed and they're hiding. They don't want you to see that because they're be like, oh, they're not paying attention. Yeah. They wanted to be a part of So that half hour meeting went to an hour, then transitioned to an hour and a half, and then that transitioned from the families.
Ernesto Mejia:When are we gonna do an in person live? We want a big day with Ernesto. We wanna do a big conference. And we did. And that's what we need to do because it can still be engaging even if it's virtual.
Ernesto Mejia:And it doesn't need to be a virtual meeting sometimes. It goes back to the memo or or the notice. It can be a two, three minute video that you do that's an informational and that they can share and forward. But if you make it funny, engaging, interactive, guess what? It's shared more.
Ernesto Mejia:It's watched more. It's used more. When you do the same old, like, stiff, in today's meeting, I'd like to talk to you. Tuning out right away.
Jordan Bassett:From the previous Right.
Ernesto Mejia:Absolutely. Like, you're tuning out. So it's important for us to realize the different options that are available, but also the different approaches and also the different people available to us on our own campus to make it happen. Parents, students, educators. You got podcasters on campus.
Ernesto Mejia:You got videographers on campus. You have a ton of social media experts on campus. They're called teenagers.
Jordan Bassett:You know what? I'm not gonna lie. You that's a great idea, the podcast. I would listen to a ten minute podcast from my kid's school about what's going on
Ernesto Mejia:Absolutely.
Jordan Bassett:On the way to work. Yeah. There's a free one. That's not even from the expert. Why do we have you?
Jordan Bassett:Why do you I'm killing it over here.
Ernesto Mejia:I'm killing it over here.
Jordan Bassett:Seriously, I would. I would listen to just a quick little thing that's like, hey. Here's what's going on, what's happening, even if the kids did it.
Ernesto Mejia:Yeah. Absolutely. Even more so. So we just did an event in New Mexico again where the school is going to interview and the students are going to be giving tips on how their families can improve their engagement in school.
Will Anthony:Oh, that's really cool.
Ernesto Mejia:Because it's coming from the student. When you keep them short and sweet thank you for proving my point, by the way you can do different things.
Jordan Bassett:Yeah.
Ernesto Mejia:It doesn't have to be the same old tired routine. I think that that's a great idea in a short drive, ten, fifteen minute, you know, and it's super cute when you hear it from students. You know, the younger, the better. Like, Today, we're going to talk about how you can help me with my homework. Mom, not you.
Ernesto Mejia:Okay. Now I'm gonna make it makes it so that you wanna listen because it's genuine and it's real
Jordan Bassett:Yeah.
Ernesto Mejia:And it's not something that's scripted. It's not something where, you know, I have to get these five points across to you in the next, you know, thirty minutes.
Jordan Bassett:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Ernesto Mejia:Yeah. We're just gonna talk about this and here's a real life
Will Anthony:I like that. I like that. I I think kinda keeping in the realm of the practical ideas
Ernesto Mejia:Mhmm.
Will Anthony:I don't I don't think there's an educator out there that's at least listening to things like this that doesn't wanna get involved with families and create these relationships like you were talking about. So do you have some, I guess, pretty beginner steps that educators can take to kinda enhance their family engagement?
Ernesto Mejia:Yeah. I think, again, I'm gonna go back to the same thing that you hear me say over and over again. What are you doing to build a relationship with that parent or that caregiver? Knowing something about them, and maybe even figuring out how to get them involved. You know, I use the examples because I work with this population often of newcomers to the country.
Ernesto Mejia:You may see the mom and dad working in a factory, doing lawns, not knowing that they were doctors, attorneys, teachers in their home countries, and they just couldn't transfer their credentials over here. And they're just trying to survive. Well, what if they could get involved and teach us something about whatever it is they used to do? And even if it's just teaching about a different culture, different food, different music, but getting them involved. And I think for our educators, one of the things that they can do, and this is a cool one too, what if you just sent one video a week talking about a student, and the video is, like, forty, fifty seconds?
Ernesto Mejia:But if you do that over the course of the school year, you're gonna cover all of your students. But then you ask the student to record the video.
Will Anthony:Yeah.
Ernesto Mejia:Take it home and say, Hey, can you have them reply in a video too? And you record them too. You ask whatever you want. That's, again, building engagement, involvement. And for them, it's a way to start building that relationship.
Ernesto Mejia:And ultimately, why is that important? If I have a relationship with you, I can talk to you about the good stuff and the not so good stuff. Yeah. We're struggling here. Hey.
Ernesto Mejia:Here are some ideas to help improve little Billy's reading, you know, little Mary's math issues that we're struggling with right now. But when you start off with those things, we tend to get a little bit defensive. Like, well, I don't okay. Got it. Thank you very much.
Ernesto Mejia:But when there's a relationship, they're much more receptive to it.
Will Anthony:So you're so you're kinda saying that, really, if this is maybe their first time really trying to enhance their engagement or if they've been doing it a long time
Jordan Bassett:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Will Anthony:It's just always be creative. Always be innovating it. Always be kinda upgrading it. Always try to be whatever you can do to kinda up the up the ante of whatever's going on.
Ernesto Mejia:Make And it even again, we we all know this because they're students just like our own children. What works for one isn't gonna work for all. Mhmm. And I think that's the biggest fear. Well, I don't have time to come up with, you know, 30 customized fair and family engagement, you know Yeah.
Ernesto Mejia:Approaches. And we're not saying that. But we have to understand that some work better with others and some don't. But ultimately, what we wanna see is an effort. Something there where like, you know what?
Ernesto Mejia:I'm gonna go to your house. I'm gonna go to your game. I'm gonna go to your church. I'm gonna go to your event. I'm gonna go to your play and sit with your family to show them how much you mean to
Will Anthony:me. Yeah.
Ernesto Mejia:To show them that I really do care about your family. Even though I don't understand you, I'm going to use this new earpiece that translates, my Google translate, just whatever you can. That effort says everything. But when you don't show up for anything, you don't call except when it's bad, what kind of relationship is there?
Will Anthony:Yeah. I think before we go, I I wanna ask you, what do you think are some of the biggest challenges that educators are gonna run into?
Ernesto Mejia:Mhmm.
Will Anthony:And then maybe some solutions for those for like we mentioned before, you can't just complain about it. What's what do think they can do to solve those things?
Jordan Bassett:You you you know, you did offer some solutions, but let's put you in the seat. Yeah. You've done a little Not really complaining. It's helpful criticism. Yeah.
Jordan Bassett:Yeah. But let's get a, you know, a couple solutions.
Ernesto Mejia:Yeah. Yeah. So the one that I hear all the time is like, they're they just don't show up. Okay. First, why aren't they showing up?
Ernesto Mejia:And two, how can you show up for them then? And I always say, don't ask of them without giving first. So how can I show up? Like I said, a video, a text message, a positive phone call, an email specifically to you, even if it's snail mail, a memo specifically to you, stating something that I've learned, that I've seen, that I appreciate. You know, as parents, we like getting a little bit of praise.
Ernesto Mejia:Who doesn't? So when you send me a memo that says, You know what? Little Jimmy did great the other day and helped his team in a way that I haven't seen before. And he said, it's okay. I want everybody from my team to eat pizza before me.
Ernesto Mejia:And if there's none left, I'm okay. You send that message home, it makes everybody proud. It makes them all feel good. Mhmm. And because of it, guess what?
Ernesto Mejia:I may reply. I may then start talking with you some more. And these are things that we can do to try to improve. But we have to get over they're not going to show because we've been saying it for years, and they're still right. So what are you doing differently?
Ernesto Mejia:You have to go. You have to do something different, be it video, be it social media, be it showing up at their house. So that's one. I think another one that a big challenge that we have is like, well, I'm not engaging like you. Nobody's asking you to be like you.
Will Anthony:Nobody is.
Ernesto Mejia:Nobody. Nobody's getting you. A point too. But no. No.
Ernesto Mejia:But there's this crazy resource out there. I don't know if anybody's ever heard of it. It's called Google. There's another one called YouTube. Google.
Ernesto Mejia:Yeah. Double o.
Jordan Bassett:Yeah. Double o. Okay. Never heard. What is that?
Ernesto Mejia:You can look for activities to do, icebreakers, energizers, activities. And there's a bunch of resources out there that teach you how to do these things, and sometimes you don't have to be the person. So I did a professional development once where I said, okay. Who would be a different person that we could put up here to welcome the families at the beginning? Like, half the room pointed at one person.
Ernesto Mejia:I was like, alright. What's up with you, dude? Oh, well, I don't know. I do the local broadcasting for the baseball game. I was like, okay.
Ernesto Mejia:Hello. Alright. Alright. The one that needs to be up here right away.
Will Anthony:Yeah.
Ernesto Mejia:But I don't think that we're using all of our resources that we have internally enough. There are people there are educators, administrators that love social media, love marketing, are great on Canva, great public speakers, but their title doesn't put them in that position. Mhmm. It doesn't mean that they can't take on that role to help our school succeed. But if nobody's asking them, nobody knows that talent, why bother?
Will Anthony:I I really liked what you said earlier about what what are you doing differently. I really like that phrase. That's awesome.
Ernesto Mejia:No. It's important. It's important for us to take a look at. And again, we have to not we have to make sure that we're not scared to fail. Mhmm.
Ernesto Mejia:I mean, our most innovative teachers failed before they got to that. Mhmm. Our most innovative family engagement, what I do, I had to mess up a few times before I figured out, okay. These 13 ways didn't work, but this one did.
Jordan Bassett:Yeah.
Ernesto Mejia:Yeah. And you have to be comfortable with that. I think that once we become professionals at failing, we'll become excellent at succeeding.
Will Anthony:I like that. I've always heard that well, not always, but I really like that phrase that when you try something new, the professional has failed way more than you have. Absolutely. And but look at them now. You know?
Will Anthony:I just that's really powerful. Learn from the failures. Right? And and
Ernesto Mejia:I always say this in in my sessions, like, it can be 20 people or 200 people. I have ideas, strategies. I'm not the sole provider of all these ideas and strategies. And the more we allow our audiences to interact and talk, the more ideas, the more strategies that we're all going to be able to share. And we need to do the same with our family engagement.
Ernesto Mejia:Why aren't we showing up to the meetings, parents and caregivers? You're gonna get plenty of answers. Some you may not have even considered. Some you may have thought, okay. I know you're gonna talk about transportation and food and day care.
Ernesto Mejia:Okay. Those those are issues too. But you didn't think about all these other ones because you've never asked the population that you're serving.
Will Anthony:Well,
Jordan Bassett:thank you, Ernesto.
Ernesto Mejia:My pleasure.
Jordan Bassett:I didn't even try that time.
Will Anthony:I just went
Ernesto Mejia:straight. He's like, I'm gonna stop earlier. Thank you. My pleasure. Thank you for having me, and I hope that some of these ideas and strategies can be implemented because our families deserve good quality programming.
Ernesto Mejia:Yeah. And I know that it's challenging and it's not easy, but neither is succeeding or getting all of our students to pass every grade. Mhmm. But it doesn't mean we give up. It doesn't mean we stop trying.
Ernesto Mejia:So I want us to keep trying, become more innovative, and challenge ourselves to do better.
Jordan Bassett:Mhmm. Yeah.
Ernesto Mejia:For sure.
Jordan Bassett:I kinda
Will Anthony:wanna put that on like a t shirt. It doesn't mean we give up.
Ernesto Mejia:It's kinda
Jordan Bassett:That is good. That's good. That's good. First innovative school podcast merch right there. That's what you give up.
Ernesto Mejia:There you go.
Will Anthony:Well, thank you, Ernesto, so much. This is honestly honestly really enlightening for me. There's been a lot of things that you said that I've kind of just totally altered my view.
Ernesto Mejia:Okay.
Will Anthony:So that's thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Ernesto Mejia:My pleasure. Thanks for having me. Of course.
Jordan Bassett:Do you wanna close out right now or you want me to? Who's closing?
Will Anthony:You got it. You got it?
Jordan Bassett:Alright. Cool. Hey. We wanna thank everybody for being a part of this episode, specifically Ernesto. We're gonna put some different links in the show notes of how to connect with you if they wanna maybe bring you to help with some family engagement in their school or just I'm sure they could Instagram stuff too, There
Ernesto Mejia:is one thing, if you don't mind.
Jordan Bassett:Oh, sure.
Ernesto Mejia:I do a Facebook live for free
Jordan Bassett:Oh, perfect.
Ernesto Mejia:Once a month. Educators can sign up and just go to the CoolSpeak page and they can find us there. No sales, no pitching, no nothing.
Jordan Bassett:Just help.
Ernesto Mejia:Just trying to help.
Jordan Bassett:Just help. That's great. We'll put all that in the show notes. Wanna thank you guys for joining us on this journey today. If you liked this episode, if you learned something, we wanna ask that you share it with your your colleagues or from other teachers to help just encourage them, specifically in family engagement.
Jordan Bassett:But, also, we recognize how difficult it can be to be an educator, and we just wanna help more people at at just help more. Mhmm. We don't we're not trying to just, you know, become a big school podcast thing. We just wanna help more people. So help us out by sharing that with someone that you know that might need it.
Jordan Bassett:But thanks for joining on this one. We'll see you on the next episode. See you.