[ohthirdrocks]

This is my fourth year teaching and I have never really called parents before school starts, but some of my colleagues are and I kind of feel like I should.

If you do call parents what do you ask them or say to them?

We are having open house in a few days, so I don't want to have to explain too much before the open house.

Thanks for your time and advice:-)

[1956BD]

We have a meet the teacher event on Thursday night and school starts on Monday, so I do not feel that it is necessary.

[3rdgradequeen]

I do not call families before school starts. It sounds nice though. I do send a letter to my kids, but that's it. Is your Open House before the start of school? If yes, I don't think it's necessary. If you feel like you have to call,it might be better to do it after Open House because you can ask if they have any other questions before the first day.

[Lady Teacher]

I never call parents before school starts. They can meet me on the first day and find out more about me at curiculum night.

I do send a letter to my students once I get my class list telling them I am excited about them being in my class.

[QTpie]

I have called parents in the past. They are so surprised to hear from you before school even starts that most don't have much to say. I have gotten some VERY positive comments from doing this. I usually just remind them when Back to School night is and how much I am looking forward to meeting their child.

Hope you have a great year!

[practice]

this year. This year I sent letters. The parents are always happily surprised to get a phone call and thank me. I like doing this because I usually ask them to bring their child's supplies to Open house so that I don't have to sort through it all on the first day of school. I just never got around to calling this year.

[teachjam]

We call or send postcards at our school. We tell the parents that their child is in our room and we are looking forward to meeting them at open house on such and such date. that's all you have to say.

[Tiki]

I don't call parents before school starts. I do send out a summer letter.

However, my principal just promised a parent that I would call her before the 24th when we meet our new students. That is our first contracted day. I'm trying to decided how to respond to that. She doesn't have any right to require me to work during my vacation. (Of course I have been working on setting up the room, but that is still on my time. )

[jjwires]

I wish I could do that, however, we only got our class lists Fri. Back to School Night is Monday. I don't even have my notebook with all the phone numbers yet. Getting a class list is like pulling a tooth!

[DragonLady09]

I write a welcome letter to the student on paper with a cute border on it. I write a second letter to the parents explaining who am I and giving some more details about our Meet the Teacher night which comes before classes start. I address the letter to the student but put both letters in the envelope.

It is so cute watching those third graders proudly waving their letter when they walk in the door on Meet the Teacher night or even the first day of school.

[lizziew]

We used to call parents which was very nice! It was a short call, just to welcome them and invite them to the open house. But, in the past few years my district has had trouble with kid attending schools out of zone. We were getting so many of the new school year mailings returned that they asked us not to call so the parents who did not receive their teacher assignment would have to come to the office.

[alf21]

If your school has a "back to school" day/night where kids can drop off their supplies than I would say no you don't have to call. However, if you don't have something like that than you could call if you feel comfortable. Just to introduce yourself and say "hello." The other choice would be to write a letter to the parents and ask them to write you a note back about their child. This is a great way to get to know the child from the parents view.

[Ms.brown]

And the parents always metion how they enjoyed the phone call at Open House.