A successful Back-to-School Night is an awesome opportunity to connect with your students’ families and share your plans and exceptions for the school year. Although Back-to-School Night is a exciting time, it can also feel a little overwhelming. But don’t worry I am here to help, after 15 years of teaching I have learned a lot about what makes a good Back-to-School Night experience! Here are my top seven tips for a successful Back-to-School Night.
1. Set the Mood by Displaying Work Student
A room filled with student work can be inviting and welcoming to parents. It also shows them that you value what your students create and that the classroom is learning focused. So how do you get a room full of students art? I plan to do a student get-to-know-you or review visual activity the first week of school, so that I have something to display on Back-to-School Night. I even have students hang their own work in an area that I have designated in the classroom to help get the room ready for Back-to-School Night.
One important thing to remember is to make sure you display work from EVERY student and make sure the work that you display has a clear has a learning focus. I like to display an art piece from each student that also correlates with my ELA curriculum. Two of my favorite display pieces I do with my students are a preposition pet comic strip and a collective noun pun cartoon.
2. Put Out a Sign-In Sheets
Have a sign-in sheet for parents on a clipboard when they enter your room with a coloum for their name, their student’s name, and their best contact information. Parent Night can be a busy night of meet-and-greet, a sign-in sheet can come in handy when reflecting back on your night. It can also help you know what parents where not able to come and so you can reachout to them or send home Back-to-School Night materials with their student.
3. Have an Agenda for the Evening
Come up with a simple agenda to follow while parents are in your room and stick to it to make shure you cover all the important information parents need to know.
4. Measure Parent Expectations
You want to have something for parents to do when they enter the room and are waiting for your presentation or session to start. One easy thing you can do is to put out a stack of notecards, pens, and a sign asking parents to share a goal they would like their child to achieve this year. This is a great way to get a measure of parents’ expectations and desires for their child’s learning.
5. Tell Them Who Are You
Parents come to Back-to-School Night to meet YOU. So take a few minutes to tell them about yourself. Okay, I know what your thinking…stand in front of a room full of parents and talk about myself YIKES! One way I get around this feeling of awkwardness is by creating a slide with a few pictures of me with my family traveling & of course a picture of my cute Cavapoo, Jingle!
I list my credentials on the slide as well. I have this on the projector when parents come in so they have a few minutes to read it before I start my presentation talking about the course outline & class expectations.
6. Have Something Parents Can Take Home
Parents often are just as overwhelmed as you are at Back-to-School night. There is a lot of information to take in about the new school year, so make sure you have a handout of the course outline, expectations you would like them to be aware of, and of homework policy.
Sometimes it can be difficult to know what to go over with parents at Back-to-School make sure you go over homework expectations and any other information that they will NEED to support their student at home! If you have a course outline of the material you will cover and the text or online resource you will use, just briefly go over them, because parents can read about them on the handout later.
7. Have a Clear Wrap-Up
Keep our presentation or talk about the class or course (depending on your grade-level) to about 10 minutes to give you a little time to answer questions. Have a clear ending point, thank parents for coming and give them the best way to get in contact with you. If you have time in your day to support or tutor students, also give them that information. If you created a slide show for your talk, this would make a nice page to create as your last slide.
It can also be a good idea to follow up the next day with an email to parents, thanking them for coming and attaching any material you handed out to the email for parents who could not make Back-to-School night. This way you can ensure all your parents/guardians have access to the same material to support their student.
SUCCESSFUL Back-to-School Night Recap
- Have student work displayed
- Have something for parents to do while waiting for your presentation or session to begin
- Have a slide that introduces you & your credentials
- Have a syllabus or course outline to handout
- Have a clear ending to your presentation or session, thank people for coming & remind them of the best way to contact you in the future
THANKS FOR READING!
Happy Teaching
Sincerely,
Jenny
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