I am a first year teacher this year and I am so nervous. My school has Opening Day for parents to come and meet the teacher before school starts. I am so nervous and I want to make a good impression. Does anyone have any ideas about what to talk about and the types of papers to hand out (packets, rules, etc.). Thank you all for your help ahead of time.
We have ours the day before school starts. The kids come in and bring their stuff, meet the teacher, look around the room, etc. We don't have a formal presentation for the parents. It's just a "Meet and Greet". On the students' desks I have paper for them to fill out with name, address, email address, bus number of they ride a bus, etc. There is also a short booklet with info about second grade, done by our grade team, a magnet with my school phone # and email address, and my home phone and email address. I don't mind giving them out. I rarely have parents who call me at home. There is also a goodie bag for the kids with a pencil, bookmark, eraser, and Smarties. There is usually something from the office that also needs to go home, too. Last year I had a bowl of Hershey hugs and kisses. I asked each kid if they wanted a hug or a kiss! They always thought I meant a real hug and kiss because they couldn't see the bowl! The looks on their faces made me laugh! I did get some hugs, but definitely no kisses! Then I reached behind and pulled my bowl out and they could get a hug and a kiss! I'll probably do that again this year!
It can be nerve-wracking, but you just have to remember that the parents just want to meet you and be involved. They're people, just like you, and their goal is not to make you nervous.
For a meet and greet thing like you described, I would just introduce myself and let them look around the room. Maybe show the students where their seats are. The school will probably have some papers that will have to go home, and I also provide a little packet that describes my rules/expectations, an outline of each subject, and a questionnaire for parents to fill out.
Some parents will stay and chat more than others. Most people just want to see where the room is and see what you look like.
I have an information card I run on cardstock (front and back) which I have the parents fill out. Then I hole punch it in the corner, put a binder ring through the holes and I have an instant information center I can take with me on fieldtrips, to make phonecalls etc. You don't know how convenient it is and what better time than open house to have all the parents fill it out. I ask questions like address, phone number, nickname, siblings, allergies etc. Important things I might need to know about each child.
Do you have to do a formal presentation or can you just let parents look around and ask questions at random? I would recommend the second if you have an option that way there's less pressure.
I am not one who likes to stand up and talk so last year each teacher made a powerpoint presentation. It was a big hit! I felt it gave them something else to look at instead of me. There is one I believe found with the Microsoft tools. It is already made up, all you have to do is change it around to add your info. If I can find the link, I will post it.
Good luck!
Hi! We do our Open House the same way. I do a classroom scavenger hunt where students find different spots like where we put our lunch boxes, computers, lockers, STAR books (organizational notebooks), etc. It keeps everyone moving. I also include me in there so everyone meets me. The kids fill in their charts with a sticker as they figure out each spot. Parents have information cards to fill out and other things required by the schools, so it keeps the kids busy.
I also set up my estimation station. I put some sort of candy in a jar and have the kids and parents estimate together. I let the kids who don't show up (I usually have two-three) make their predictions before we count. The winner gets the jar of candy, shares with the class, and takes the rest home. That student is also the keeper of the jar for the next week, which means he stuffs it and brings it in for us to guess. From then on I draw popsicle sticks to see who gets to take the jar home. It doesn't always have to be candy which I explain to the kids. They can stuff it with whatever and get their contents back.
I have also done locker tags where the kids decorate a 4x6 index card with their name written on it for placement on their lockers. This didn't work so well as I have had students added, taken away, and not show up during Open House. Better to do that first thing in the morning on the first day. I also don't write names on desk tags, behavior chart, etc. until after the first day since we have so many changes.
Hope that gives you a couple of fun ideas. I also have out textbooks for kids and parents to look at. I am trying to do an ABC's of 2nd Grade powerpoint, but having trouble getting it together. I will be handing out magnets with my business card on it and have my website up and running.
For the last two years I have compiled all the information for my parents onto a CD and handed it out at back to school night. This saved me a lot of printing and paper costs. I put all the documents that I would have put into a parent/classroom handbook onto a CD and printed out a table of contents to put in the CD case. I did make a few copies in case a parent would prefer/need the paper version, however, I only had one parent take the paper version last year. I got a lot of positive feedback from parents on the CD as I was able to include a lot of information that I may not of in the paper format. Also, they were able to easily skip around to the information that they wanted to look at as well.
I usually create a powerpoint presentation every year that goes over my classroom rules and procedures, introduces some of the topics we will be learning that year, and lists suggestions for parents about helping their children become successful students.
Another thing I do that the parents absolutely love is make magnets with my contact info on them and pass them out at open house. I go to Michael's or JoAnn Fabrics and get the little apple shaped wood cutouts (Michael's has them on sale 5 for $1 throughout the year) and I spray paint them all red. Then I use a thin paint pen to write my name, email address and school phone number on them. Next, I glue a clothes pin on the back and stick a magnet on the back of the clothes pin. This way parents can put it on the fridge AND use it to clip school papers to as well. It takes a bit of time to write on them all, but if you do a few a day, it's not so bad.
07-03-2006, 07:57 AM
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