Family participation is just as crucial to establishing a conducive and collaborative relationship with the student and their parents/ family as a welcome home letter or parent-teacher conferences. It is important as teachers and educators to establish this type of relationship because it will help the student succeed, and that's what teaching is really all about. This artifact offers a take home sheet to receive family information, a weekly progress report, and various suggestions to offer family and parent involvement. This is an important artifact to establish a positive and professional relationship with parents and families of your students. What I learned from the research on this topic in EDU 410 is that students are family members first, and students second; to create a truly collaborative school environment it is necessary to get students and families on board. AS quoted in the Johnson reading under home-school partnerships the author quoted "Families are going to have the most lasting and powerful influence on the development of the students with whom we work. Consequently, to be able to lay the groundwork for effective collaborative relationships, we must understand families". The research suggested using a variety of methods to involve families in their students education such as weekly progress reports, routine contact by e-mail or telephone, conferences, open houses, projects involving family history, and many more options. The underlying theme from the research on this topic is that family participation is crucial and finding a way to involve them in the students learning is pertinent to student success. What I learned from this artifact is the importance of family involvement in the students academics. Family involvement is crucial because students spend the majority of their lives with their families outside of school; valuable time that can be used to aid struggling students. Involving families can also increase motivation, promote positive peer pressure, and give parents transparency. This artifact and topic is also important because it shows parents that you care for the success of their child. Caring goes a long way in the teaching profession. I also learned that the interceding event to establish family participation are two artifacts already available on this website; a welcome letter, and parent teacher conferences. These two strategies for family involvement are equivalent to a first impression, and continual check-ups and progress monitoring. This artifact was extremely helpful in allowing me to see and learn about the ways to involve families in the learning process.