It is almost that time again- Meet the Teacher Night. If you are a beginning teacher, just the thought of first time meeting your new parents and students might fill you with anxiety. I am here to tell you if you plan and prepare, this night can be a great way to start off on the right foot with your new parents and students. So read on to learn some of my best tips to make this night a success.
1. Decide How to Handle the Paperwork and Forms
One thing that will always exist at the beginning of the years is the ton of paperwork that parents are asked to fill out. There are Health forms, forms to update contact information, and the list goes on and on. I remember when my 3 boys were still in school and we would come home with all those papers to fill out after open house. I would normally come home, sit down at the kitchen table, and go ahead and get it done and out of the way.
One thing I always do is take all those papers that parents can fill out at a later time, and place them in a large brown envelope. When parents come in, I may quickly go over what is inside the envelope, but let them know they can fill these out and return the whole envelope back to me when complete.
But there are 2 very important things that I want to make sure I know before parents leave my classroom. The first is transportation. This is one of the most important things I know I need to know on that first day so that is one of my main priorities. There is nothing worse than not knowing how a child is getting home at the end of the day. The image below is my example of my transportation list form. It is part of my Sloth Theme Classroom Decor Resource in my TPT store. Take a look if you love sloths as much as I do.
I also want to make sure I have some type of contact information that is up to date on that first day. That way if there is a question about end of the day transportation, I know I can reach someone to find out the answer. I want to check and make sure is accurate before parents leave my room and also an emergency contact just in case a parent cannot be reached. Our school supplies contact cards we have parents fill out each year with all this info. I ask parents to fill these contacts cards out, if possible, before they leave my classroom. Both of these things are on my clipboard that I keep right by me on open house night so I can be sure those two things are taken care of.
2. Set Up Stations to Share and Collect Important Information
Setting up stations that parents can go to while you are talking with other parents, is another good idea. I normally have a school supply station where parents can pick up a supply list for their students. In this area, I also fix a way to share with parents ways or items that can donate to our classroom if they would like. This year I decided to keep with my sloth theme and create something to go with this theme. Click the link below for this free resource if you would like to use it.
Another important station is one in which parents can learn and sign up for our communication app. There are many of these apps out there such as Remind and Class Dojo. I personally prefer Classtag. It has a great messaging app within it and that is the way most of my parents tend to communicate with me each year. I like to share the sign up informaton with my parents at open house and encourage them to go ahead and sign up through the QR code link before they leave.
Another way I share and communicate with my parents is through our private class Facebook page. I have found many of my parents love to see photos and videos of what is happening within our classroom on our page. I always share how to sign up for this as well.
3. Prepare an Introduction Letter
It is always a good idea to have an introduction letter prepared as well. I put a copy of this in the envelope I mentioned in #1, but I also have a copy of this on my smartboard as well so students and parents can see it as well as they are walking around the classroom. This year I found a great free resource for this from The Average Teacher. Click the image below to see this resource.
4. Be Ready for Student Supplies
Normally only a few students will bring in supplies on that first night. Make sure you are prepared for this. I normally have the students place them in their cubbies. Since I assign numbers to my students as soon as I get my classlist, by Meet the Teacher night, I already know what each students number will be so I know which cubbies will belong to them. Make sure you do have sticky notes or markers available to write students name or number on the bags their supplies are in or have students write this on these supplies. It is good to do this so there is no confusion later on on who the supplies belong to.
5. Make Your Students And Parents Feel Welcome
Last, but definitely not least, make sure your students feel welcome. Welcome them with a smile and a hand shake. Let them know you are glad to be their teacher. I normally give a small gift to my students each year. This year I plan to use this label attached to a small bag of cookies from The Impactful Teacher. You can get the free label for this by clicking on the link below. There is also a link to a simple poem I attach to a bowl of mints to share with my parents to welcome them to my classroom.
Once the night is over, you will no doubt be exhausted. But if you have prepared, and appoached this night with a positive attitude, you will be able breathe a little sigh of relief. And then get busy preparing for that first full day with your new students.
Until next time….
