Marcie McDowell

The Natchez Democrat

FERRIDAY &8212; Ferriday Lower Elementary offered parents a new learning opportunity Monday evening.

The school opened its doors to parents to attend a series of half hour workshops about improving their study skills during Parent Study Night. The event was the first of its kind.

&8220;We try to get the parents to do the homework with them,&8221; Assistant Principal Shelia Allwood said. &8220;These sessions prompt the parents on how to think critically.&8221;

Patricia Sherbia&8217;s grandson Calvin Sherbia does his homework as soon as he gets home. She usually just checks it over to see if he has the correct answers. Calvin Sherbia said he likes it when his grandmother helps him with homework because she doesn&8217;t yell at him. Patricia Sherbia worked closely with first-grade teacher Sebrina Stuckey to pick-up new learning techniques she can share with her grandson.

Parent Mary Williams will help her first-grade son Marquell Price, but she doesn&8217;t believe in just giving him the answers. Williams said the workshops taught her different structures on how to help him more with homework. She plans putting her new skills to use.

While many parents showed up to Parent Study Night, many others were not present. Kindergarten teacher Brooke Terry said she knows which parents will work hard to make sure their kids succeed because they are the ones that show up at the school.

&8220;It&8217;s hard sometimes to get some parents to come out and they are the ones we really need to see,&8221; said kindergarten teacher Brooke Terry. &8220;Of course, we&8217;re always happy to see all of them.&8221;

Some of Stuckey&8217;s students will come to her class without having done any of their homework. She said this happens because the students do not have any parental involvement.

&8220;They need help at home and constant reinforcement,&8221; Stuckey said.

&8220;You can tell which parents do and which ones don&8217;t.&8221;

According to Principal Loretta Blankenstein, Parent Study Night was created after they received the results of this year&8217;s second-grade state testing scores.

Blankenstien said the children scored significantly higher this year. However, the separate areas of general studies did not come out even.

For instance, overall spelling scores were higher than math scores. She would like to see the parents learn more about different areas of study in order to improve the students test scores across the board.

&8220;We will work with our parents as a team to learn a variety of techniques to help their children succeed,&8221; Blankenstien said.