Back to School Night
You may know it as Back to School Night and you may call it Open House. Any name you might give it, handling Back to School Night can be a very stressful time for teachers and other school professionals. Usually, BTSN is scheduled for the second or third week of school. The craziness of week one is barely behind you and BAM! you are getting ready for Back to School Night. You just spent what feels like a lifetime planning for the first week of school and now you have another huge undertaking.
Don’t stress everythign you need for BTSN is right here.
Back to School Night is a way for parents to meet teachers, become familiar with class procedures, and a way for you to outline your expectations for the school year. It takes a lot of planning and prep on your part to make this evening go smoothly. To take some pressure off of you and free up your jam-packed schedule, here is a Back to School Night checklist to get you through the chaos.
One Week Before the Event
Send an invitation – One week prior to your scheduled event, take some time to send a letter home. Doing this in an email will save you time and paper. Create a generic letter welcoming families to your classroom. Give the time the event starts and your room number. Express your enthusiasm for meeting parents and sharing your passion for teaching.
If you don’t have time to create a letter with the mayhem that is your teacher life, go ahead and have students create an invitation to give to their parents. Just know this route may not reach all of your parents depending on what type of students you have (wink, wink).
Decorate your walls – Set up your bulletin boards to show what you are teaching so parents can get an idea of what their students are learning. This helps start conversations at home. Also, make sure you put student work on the wall so parents can ooh and aww about how special and talented their student is.
Create a Presentation – Create a Powerpoint or Slides presentation of what you want to communicate to families. This will help you stay on track and focused on the important details. Include a very short introduction of yourself, an overview of the class, how you grade, and your classroom expectations and policies. Do reiterate how much you love teaching, love the school, and how excited you are about this school year. Show your passion for ASL.
Make Copies – Make any copies of handouts you will need to give to parents. If it is possible to email information out to parents (i.e., you can send an email to ALL of your students’ parents), create a digital packet and email it out after BTSN is completed. That way parents who could not make it will have access to the information as well. Copy a sign-in sheet to place out the night of the event so you know who was in attendance. You can even create a folder in Google Drive with all your infroamtion and share a Tiny URL with everyone.
Ask for advice – It doesn’t matter if you are a veteran teacher or a new teacher, we can all learn how to do things better. Ask colleagues how they run Back to School Night and what engagement strategies they use during their presentation. If you are new, ask your mentor to take a look at your slides that you have prepared.
The Day Before the Event
Rehearse Your Presentation – Practice your presentation and time yourself. You don’t want to end up with 5 spare minutes during your presentation. You really want to leave very little time for parents to ask questions. Undoubtedly, it will end up as a personal conference about their student. This is not the time for this. I also like to use a remote clicker for my presentation so I am not hovering near my desk and can walk around. Choose one like this one that will last a long time and has a laser pointer.
Grab Your Clothing – Sometimes schools are very casual and that is OK. If this is your school, you might want to step up the clothing game a notch. Choose an outfit that is appropriate for your school environment and your personal taste. You also want to make the outfit comfortable.
Check Your Classroom – Make a quick sweep of the classroom. Stash all those loose papers that have not been graded yet and clear off your desk. Make sure your shelves look neat and organized. This may be the only impression you will get to make on parents. Make it a good one.
Sleep – Go to bed. Sleep.
The Day of the Event
Getting dressed – Either wear your BTSN outfit to school or make sure you have all your clothes laid out, ironed and ready to go for after school. If you can’t go home on Back to School Night, make sure you bring an outfit to change into that includes comfortable shoes and any toiletries you may need (makeup, toothbrush). Wearing your BTSN clothes to school always runs the risk of getting dirty or wrinkled. Think about your day and the lessons you have planned.
Glance around the room – Take one more look around the room and straighten up anything out of place.
Materials – Lay out any materials that need to be out for the event. Think about pens, welcome signs, room number, contact information sheet, etc.
Sign-in sheet – Place the sign-in sheet near the door with several pens for parents to use. If you have large classes, place 2 – 3 sheets out. I place my sign in sheets out on clipboards along the entrance wall.
Temperature – Check the temperature in the room. If you can, adjust to a comfortable level. If the room is stuffy or smelly, open a door to air it out.
Eat something – Don’t forget to eat a quick, light meal or a snack. You don’t want to pass out during your presentation.
During the Event
Greet – Meet parents at the door. Shake their hands and ask for their name and who their child is.
Professionalism – Project professionalism and enthusiasm during your presentation.
Schedule – Post the schedule on the board. Stay on schedule. This is hard for me because I have 10 minutes and it is never enough time. Keep an eye on the time and move faster through information that might not be as important as other talking points.
End the Presentation – End your presentation by inviting parents with any questions or concerns to email you and you will respond as soon as possible. Don’t allow parents to hang out and ask individual questions about their child. This is not the place and you still have other presentations to get through (or get home since you have to teach the next day!).
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