Meet the Teacher Night or Open House ( however you call it) can be a super stressful time for teachers. We are put under the microscope and want to make a good first impression on our parents. Usually this event is held at the beginning of the year and we are already overwhelmed with setting up our classrooms, learning the district’s “new shiny thing” for the year, and getting to know our students.
There are so many things to think about to get ready for this 2 hour event. So many questions invade our minds.
Will I do a PowerPoint presentation?
Will I just talk to parents informally?
What kind of topics will I cover?
Should I have forms to fill out?
What about my non-English speaking parents?
Stations seem to work really well for some teachers. Set up a welcome table with a sign in sheet and then set stations around the classroom. Before you begin your presentation, have parents walk around and fill out the appropriate forms: volunteer forms, transportation forms, getting to know your child forms, etc.
Some teachers can benefit having everything in Spanish as well. Our school’s demographicsย is about 60 percent Latino parents so this is a must for us.
Prepare a brochure with information about you. After all, it’s called “Meet the Teacher.” Parents are coming to meet YOU! They want to know the person that’s going to be teaching and caring for their little one for the next 10 months. A professional looking brochure is a sure way to impress them. You can easily make one on PowerPoint. They have a lot of templates to choose from and you can customize them. You can then translate them to another language if you wish
- Curriculum
- Homework Policy
- Attendance / Lateness Policy
- Assessments
- Classroom Rules
- Behavior Expectations
- Parent Communication
Hope you found these ideas helpful.
If you want to purchase this editable resource with all the forms included here, click on the links on each picture.
Drop me a comment below to share how you set up for Open House.
