Tips for Parent Nights

Is anyone an expert regarding Parent Nights?  I have presented to parents each year for thirty-one years.  Despite experience, despite my high-school background in public speaking, despite my passion for teaching, despite the opportunity to be well-prepared, I just never know if I've shared too little or too much.

So, I'm inviting my readers to share their thoughts and ideas about Parent Nights.  If you are a teacher, let's collaborate.  If you are a parent, offer us some feedback, please.

To get us started, here are some of my contributions:

STEP ONE:  INVITATIONS

• This year, at our kindergarten orientation day event, I shared a flipchart that looked like this:
  

          Both the principal and I planned to share important information with the parents.  We 
          divided the information but made sure that Curriculum Night was on both of our lists. 
          I pointed this out to the parents in my classroom, hoping that they would realize how 
          very much we wanted them to return for this event.  I included a reminder of the date
          and time in the orientation day packet.

• The day before the event, the children signed their names to a Parent Curriculum Night invitation which went home in the Take Home folders.  We completed a bulletin board together and I hoped the kids would go home and tell their parents what to look for when they visited our classroom that night.  And, perhaps most enticing, we created our first video for the SeeSaw app that the parents would learn how to use at Parent Curriculum Night. The kids were really excited to share the video with their parents!

• Finally, the day of our Parent Curriculum Night, I sent home one more invitation with the promise of a little breakfast treat for parents to take home for the children to enjoy the next morning.

STEP TWO: PRESENTATION

• I have always started my presentation by telling a little bit about myself and my vision for kindergarten education.  That vision has always remained the same: I want to get children off to the best start possible in their education.
• Over the years, my presentation has changed from displaying various teachers' manuals and workbooks to a PowerPoint presentation.  When I wasn't at all tech savvy, a colleague was kind enough to share her PowerPoint with me.  With time and experience, I've made some changes in the original.  I believe that parents are most interested in knowing how they can help support the curriculum.  So, my PowerPoint suggests ways to help at home.
• I provide the parents with a single page summary of my suggestions on how to support our goals for behavior, reading, writing, and math at home.
• I make a heartfelt plea for classroom volunteers for my literacy and math centers.
• I put the heartfelt plea and the how to support at home pages in a sturdy two pocket folder for each parent.  On the cover of each folder, I glue a photo of the child.  I suggest that parents use this folder to store their child's favorite work from kindergarten.  I advise them to start now to limit the memorabilia to not end up with a baker's dozen of Banker's boxes of school projects from grades kindergarten through 12 ("Do as I say, not as I did!")
• I give each parent who attends a small sandwich baggie of Rice Krispies along with a little slip of paper reminding them of the importance of taking time to listen with their child and to their child.

So, these are my tips for Parent Night at school.  I hope they are helpful and would love to know what you do and like at your schools!

You can grab my "Take the Time to Listen" note here.