Get involved. That’s the message echoed by these five parents. At this year’s UFT parent conferences, held this fall in each of the five boroughs, they — along with hundreds of other parents — attended workshops on everything from grant-writing to study habits. They were there not just to learn how to support their own children, but to strengthen their ability to advocate for quality public education for all.

T. Elzora Cleveland serves on her local Community Education Council, a body of parents elected by PTAs in elementary schools. She has a 14-year-old daughter in high school in Manhattan.

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Jonathan Fickies

As important as it is for my daughter to come out on top, I’ve never been selfish enough to believe I shouldn’t move forward every child I possibly can. I ran for the Community Education Council with the hope that I could help raise performance at many other schools, with a primary focus on struggling schools. I’m a very passionate parent about helping all children in our city — these are our future leaders.

I’ve been working on the Manhattan Parent Conference for four years, and I have seen quite a boost in parent involvement. The year before I started working on the conference, there were 150 parents in attendance. This year, we had almost 600 parents. It’s absolutely encouraging and motivating.

One of the things we realized about the conference is that face-to-face communication is still the best method of getting parents involved and engaged. It’s also mandatory that our presenters have physical materials for our parents to walk away with, especially for those who don’t have computers at home.

When I attend the UFT parent conference, I attend as two people: a public school advocate and a parent. My daughter just started high school, so I went to the Succeeding in High School workshop. It was amazing. At parent-teacher conferences, you don’t have enough time for teachers to list — this is what she’s going to need for 9th to 12th grade, these are the Regents skills she’s going to need to have. The workshop bullet-pointed so many things I didn’t even think to ask in parent-teacher conferences. Here I’m being handed the tools to make my child successful. You’ve just empowered me to move my child forward.

I also went to the Parent and Community Power workshop, where the Alliance for Quality Education talked about other organizations that are focusing on shaping public education. I think parents need to hear that there are so many parent groups with similar focuses and that being a part of any one of them is helping shape our city. Increasing the number of involved parents is how we will make changes.

See photos from the Manhattan parent conference

Lynnette Bradshaw is the parent coordinator at PS 245 in Prospect Park South. She has two sons, ages 13 and 17, in public school.

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Jonathan Fickies

From the moment I put my oldest in school, I’ve always been a strong supporter of the Parent Association. It’s important for my kids to see that I’m there to support them in school. Once kids see you involved, they become involved. When you are supportive of your children in school, they do much better.

In most schools, Parent Associations are struggling to get people to come on board. Parents sometimes shy away from getting involved because they think it’s going to be a lot of work and they have to dedicate a lot of time. But at these meetings, parents realize the joy of volunteering. I’ve been going to the UFT parent conferences for years, and it’s a joy to see new faces. Parents can really become involved and enjoy helping out in their child’s school.

One of the things that helped bring the parents out to this year’s conference is that we had workshops on the Common Core. Parents want to know what they’re dealing with and how they can better help their children. This way, when it comes to meeting the teacher, it won’t sound like a foreign language; they’ll have a better idea of what the teacher is talking about. They’re not at a loss.

I also went with my school’s PA president to a grant-writing workshop at the conference. PS 245 is a small school, and we want to know how to do more for the school. Today with all these budget cuts, schools lose a lot of money. Parent Associations should know how to write grants to bring more money into their schools. Once they learn how to write grants, they’ll be able to help fill that gap.

Over the years, I’ve seen more and more parents become involved in the Brooklyn Parent Conference, and that’s a really great feeling. Just being there and asking, what can I do as a parent? How can I help as a parent? Because schools need the parents. Really and truly, without the parents and students, you have no school.

See photos from the Brooklyn parent conference

Marcia White-Feliciano is a former PTA president at PS 206 in Rego Park, Queens. Her son, now a college graduate, and her daughter, a freshman in high school, both attended elementary school there.

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Jonathan Fickies

When my daughter was in elementary school, I discovered that I had a lot of choices and options about how to get involved. I’ve been attending UFT parent workshops for about 10 years, and they’re very helpful. In the past, I’ve been to workshops on how to find the best camp, or how to relieve stress, or how to help with homework. I make it my business to refer other people to the UFT and share information with other parents.

At this year’s Queens Parent Conference, I met a lady with a child in kindergarten, and it was her first time attending. The Common Core curriculum goes from kindergarten all the way up through high school, so I said to her, “Everything starts now.” It’s all about learning and being able to think.

The first workshop I attended at this year’s conference was about stimulating your child’s study habits. The speaker was explaining how we must know our children — not to say, “This is the only way you have to learn it.” Every child is different and learns differently. My daughter is one who learns hands-on, and I support her that way.

We are the first teachers. I know classrooms are large, but if we as parents work with our kids at home, it makes it easier for teachers in the classroom. It’s very important that we give those teachers 100 percent. How can we do that? We help, we get involved, we make our kids aware of their responsibilities to make it easier for teachers. Giving respect to teachers is the bottom line — we need to support our teachers a lot more.

See photos from the Queens parent conference

Rebecca Maldonado is a member of the UFT’s Bronx community outreach committee and serves on the board of Uniting Communities and Neighborhoods (UCAN), which brings together UFT members and local parents for community service. Her children, ages 22 and 11, have both attended public schools.

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Jonathan Fickies

I’m a very involved parent. I’m there in my daughter’s school at 7 in the morning every day, helping out wherever I’m needed. I have 1,433 kids at my school, and they’re all my children. You don’t need to have a title, as long as you want to help and you believe in the children.

As a member of the community outreach committee, I helped with organizing the UFT Bronx Parent Conference. We brainstorm: What would parents like to see? What are the most important things right now? Of course, a big focus this year was workshops on the Common Core. Especially now with the new changes, parents need to be taught, just like teachers are being taught how to teach the new curriculum.

Parents need to know what teachers are doing. Teachers have the child from 8 to 3, but when they get home, who helps them with their homework? Who motivates them? We have to. At the high school workshops, we saw a lot of kids coming with their parents and participating and asking questions. When children see their parents involved, they’re going to get more involved. One of our obligations as parents is to find out what’s going on and how we can help. It would be a better world if we the parents reached out to teachers.

It’s hard for parents to get involved because they work, or there’s a language barrier. I tell parents that language is not a problem because we’ll find someone who speaks your language to translate for you. We will help with workshops, GED programs, English classes, computer classes — anything they need to get ahead, if they come and ask. It’s about the children first, of course, but we have to help the parents, too.

See photos from the Bronx parent conference

Victoria Anderson is the PTA president at PS 65 in Staten Island. Her three children are ages 2, 7 and 11.

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Jonathan Fickies

At the UFT parent conference, I focused on the workshops centered on communication between parents, children and their school. Lots of parents were focused on going to the Common Core workshops, but parents at my school are already adjusted to the Common Core curriculum. But we have a lot of working parents, and we’re not always at dismissal seeing the teachers, so it’s important to learn strategies for showing teachers that we’re involved parents and we want to be informed. For me, I had difficulty figuring out how to stay involved with my middle schooler’s teachers. This is new for me, that it’s November and I haven’t met his teachers yet.

It’s important to find that way that’s best for you to reach out and let the school know that you’re interested. Schools may feel that parents are already overloaded with information, but there are those of us who want that contact.

I also attended the workshop on learning how to communicate with your child. Now that I have a middle school child, I thought it was important to learn the most effective ways to work with my son. The two gentlemen who ran the workshop, Susan Wagner HS teacher George Anthony and former teacher Lindy Criscitelli, were amazing — I could listen to them for an entire weekend. They did a great role-play between parent and child, but a lot of it could be used in other facets of life and in dealing with different people. A lot of it was about making sure our children actually hear what we say.

I left very motivated to go home and tell people about what I learned. I think I’ll be able to turnkey the information; at our next PTA meeting, I’ll be giving parents handouts with the strategies I learned.

We have a School Leadership Team meeting coming up, and I’d like to inquire about getting the workshop presenters to come speak at our school. I walked away feeling like I gained something not only personally for my family but professionally for my role as a PTA president.

See photos from the Staten Island parent conference