August 29, 2023 • 17 mins
Want to know the secrets to a successful Open House? Discover the 5 things you should NEVER do, along with 5 practical alternatives that guarantee a memorable Open House experience. In this episode, I bring you over 20 years of experience with Open House/Meet the Teacher/Back-to-School Night so that you can ensure that parents walk away feeling comfortable leaving their child in your capable hands while building a solid foundation for a positive working relationship with the parents.
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Still figuring out lesson planning? Grab my free Lesson Planning Guide here 👉🏼https://teachersneedteachers.com/lessonplan
I have a new YouTube channel! Join me over there and subscribe!
Got questions, feedback, or want to be on the show? You can email me at kim@teachersneedteachers.com
Connect with me
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Teachers Named Teachers Podcasts, the podcast for teachers who don't want
to just survive teaching but actually thrive. Open House, back to school Night,
Meet the Teacher, whatever it isthat it's called. At your school,
there's always a night when parents getto come in and meet teachers,
and it's just a really informive timeand it's kind of a big deal.
(00:21):
Parents and teachers get to spend sometime together and then parents can ask teachers
some questions and then they can geta feel for what the coming school year
is going to be. Like.I've definitely held many of these as a
teacher and been to quite a fewas a parent, and let me tell
you, there are some ways tomake this a really informative and helpful event
or just something that's kind of cringeyand one that kind of crushes and burns.
(00:43):
So today I'm going to be goingover five things that you should never
ever do at open house, andmore importantly, five things that you should
do. This will not only ensurethat parents feel comfortable leaving their child in
your capable hands, but it willalso set a positive foundation or a good
working relationship with the parents and besure to stay until the end because I
(01:04):
have a bonus sit for how tohold question and answer sessions so that they're
not awkward, because they can getawkward. Now, I'm not going to
go over specific activities that you shoulddo or handouts that you absolutely must give.
I mean, you can go onPinterest or teachers pay teachers and get
some fabulous ideas, and honestly,open house looks different at the elementary,
(01:27):
middle and high school level. Instead, I'm giving you general tips for a
successful open house regardless of what gradeyou teach. So the first thing that
you should never do at open houseis overload the parents with information. While
I know that this is a perfecttime for you to give them important information
that probably their child isn't sharing withyou, you definitely don't want to give
(01:49):
them too much. You have toremember that, like you, they're coming
here after work, they're probably tired, and they can only handle so much.
When it comes to things like handouts, you want to focus on things
that you know that you want tophysically give them because maybe it's not making
it home in their child's backpack,so maybe any kind of federal forms that
they're supposed to fill out or informationsheets with contact information. Maybe you want
(02:15):
them to sign up for parent conferencesright then and there, and hey,
if they showed up to open house, they get first DIBs on the times.
You can hand out your syllabus anythinglike that that you definitely want them
to have right then and there.But if you do have a lot of
information that you want to give themand you don't want to overwhelm them with
a packet of stuff, then youcan split that up through emails or other
(02:37):
types of messages or even I've createdvideos for parents and then given those out
over a period of time via emailor through our learning management system. That
way parents can get these bite sizedpieces of information that they can actually absorb
and understand. So this is definitelya time when less is more, simple
is better, and especially when itcomes to paper, because I'm going to
(02:59):
tell your right now, there havebeen many times when I've just recycled the
majority of the papers that a teacherhas given me. The next thing that
you definitely never want to do anopen house is use a lot of educational
jargon. I remember going to mydaughter's second grade open house and the teacher
seemed really competent, but I waskind of turned off by the fact that
she was using a lot of educationaljargon, like a lot of big words,
(03:23):
And mind you, I am ateacher and I understand what all of
this jargon is. But I wassitting there trying to come through the lens
of a parent, and I justknew that it was going over a lot
of people's heads. I mean,maybe you're trying to prove to them that
you know what you're doing and thatyou know what you're talking about, but
really, all you're going to dois get them to tune you out because
(03:45):
they don't get it, and theyget bored, and again they're tired.
So you want to use clear andaccessible language with them. You want to
talk in a way that even theirstudents would understand, or maybe, let's
say middle school students would understand.And it's not that we're dumb things down.
It's just that parents don't need toknow what the standards specifically are.
They don't need to know what rL seven point one is. They don't
(04:09):
need to know exactly which concepts theirstudents are going to be learning. In
math. You can give them ageneral idea, like their times tables,
they're going to be learning about dividingfractions things like that, but you don't
have to get into the nitty grittybecause they don't understand it and probably they
don't care. The third thing thatyou never want to do at open house
(04:29):
is promising unrealistic expectations. Now,you can definitely discuss goals that you have
for them and how you'd like tohelp them improve their reading and writing,
or help them improve in math,or memorizing their times tables, or have
them past the ap biology tests orsomething like that, but don't make promises
that you absolutely know that you cannotuphold. For example, you can't promise
(04:50):
that all the students in an APUshistory class will get a five on their
test. You just can't. Don'tpromise that students are going to reach a
certain reading level, that they're goingto get a certain score on a standardized
test. These are things that definitelyyou can communicate that you are going to
be working with the students towards andthat there is going to be a push
(05:11):
for that, but don't actually tellthem that you can guarantee it. Sometimes
I feel like teachers they have theselofty ideas of what they can do,
and again they feel like they havesomething to prove. But you're just going
to be setting yourself for failure andyou're going to be setting up yourself to
be attacked by parents who said,you promise this, but you didn't follow
through. The next thing that youshould absolutely never ever do at open house
(05:33):
is talk about your personal issues.So you definitely want to avoid getting too
personal with the parents and talking aboutthings that are happening in your life.
I mean, yes, you cantalk about the fact that you have a
family, maybe you have five kidsand a dog something like that, but
you don't want to go into anythingoverly personal. You don't want to talk
(05:54):
about how you're going through a divorceor a death and the family or just
anything like that. This include it'sbragging about anything that you've accomplished. I
mean, you don't necessarily need totell them about your curriculum vitae, or
you don't need to tell them aboutall the places that you've taught. You
just want to keep it brief whenit comes to the things that are about
(06:14):
you, because you are going tobe under magnifying glass anyway, and honestly,
they didn't come to hear about you. That's that's not why they're here.
If they want to know more aboutyou, they'll probably stock you on
social media. The most that Ireally like to tell them is that I've
been teaching for twenty two years andhow much I love teaching seventh grade and
I love teaching their students. That'sabout it. That's what they get out
of me. I don't tell themabout my daughter or my divorce or anything
(06:39):
like that, so just keep itto educational issues and focus on the students.
And the last thing that you definitelydon't want to do at open house
is to be negative the whole time, which is funny because this part of
the video is kind of negative.So we want to refrain from being negative
about certain students, about the school, administration, district, things like that,
(07:00):
Yes, maybe you are unhappy atthat school, maybe something is really
unfair in terms of your situation atwork, but we don't want to bring
that into open house. You don'twant to sit there and try to get
them to sympathize with you or anythinglike that. We want to keep things
positive at open house because again,the parents are here to get to know
you. They're kind of sizing youup, and they just really want to
(07:23):
know more about their child's education andwhat's going to be like for them during
the school day. So we wantto focus on the positive aspects of school
and the learning environment. Even ifa parent tries to bring up something negative,
even if they try to bring upsomething that they saw on a Facebook
group or that they saw in thenews, just redirect it to what you're
focusing on in the presentation, thatyou're focusing on the students in front of
(07:45):
you now, and that what happenedin the past is the past, but
you're looking forward to the school year. Just something like that. Now,
let's focus on the good stuff,the things that I really think that everyone,
regardless of what great you're teaching,should do at open house. So
the first thing is discuss communication channels. This is really important because parents want
to know how they can get aholdof you, whether or not you want
(08:07):
them to get ahold of you.So what is the easiest way for them
to get in touch with you.Do you want them to email you?
Do you want them to call youduring certain hours, call and leave a
message with the school with the timeto call you back. Do you want
them to reach you through your learningmanagement system? How do you want them
to get ahold of you, becausethey are going to have questions and you
want to make it easy for themso they can feel at ease and honestly,
(08:30):
having a working relationship with parents,no matter how difficult they are,
it's really going to make the schoolyear easier in general. Now, if
you are using some kind of onlinelearning management system, this is a really
good time to demonstrate it for them. I typically do that, but actually
what I do is I make avideo and I send it out to the
parents because I only have ten minuteswith them, But if you have a
(08:50):
longer amount of time, I woulddefinitely show them how to log in,
maybe even have them go through thesteps with you and just show them around
so that they know what they're lookingat once they're there. And then I
also like to be honest about howlong it takes me to get back to
them. I tell them within twentyfour hours I will return their message,
because sometimes parents want you to getback to them right away. Sometimes they're
messaging you at ten o'clock at nightand they think that you're going to apply
(09:13):
them, which, by the way, do not do that ever, But
be honest with them and they willrespect your time a lot more. Another
thing that I definitely think that youshould discuss at open house is your teaching
approach. I really think that parentswant to know what kind of a teacher
their student has. So are youa teacher that is a little more strict
or maybe you're a teacher that isa little more and bubbly and fun and
(09:35):
just sort of you like organize chaos. Maybe you like a lot of group
work. Maybe you like students takea lot of notes. You like to
have lectures and then have students breakout into groups and then do individual quizzes.
The reason why this is important isbecause again, parents want to know
what their student is kind of gettinginto, and also it allows them to
(09:56):
better support their student. So ifa parent knows that you are someone who
does not like a lot of talkingin class in general, and then their
student gets in trouble for doing thatthing, when all the parent can say,
well, you know, miss Slapridoesn't like it when kids talk out
a lot in class, So whyare you answering without raising your hand?
Do you see what I mean?You can get more support if the parents
know this about you. I wouldalso discuss how you differentiate for diverse learners.
(10:20):
So maybe you have a different wayof how you handle students that have
behavioral issues that you already know about. Maybe they have something like an IEP
or their NERD divergent. How areyou accommodating for them? And what is
the school policy in the school plan? What is the supports that are built
in? The parents are definitely goingto want to know that, and during
that time when you're talking about yourteaching approach, I'd also encourage parents to
(10:43):
email you if they do have anyknown concerns about their own students, or
if their student has some kind ofa disability that they want to discuss with
you. Invite them to message youor maybe even set up a time with
you so you can get someone onone time and get to know their student
better. In that way, youcan also support them better. Now,
the next thing that I really thinkis important for you to do at open
(11:05):
house is to give an overview ofthe curriculum. Now, in the beginning,
I said, don't tell them thespecific standards that you're teaching or use
a lot of the jargon, butyou can tell them the general things that
they're going to be learning that year. So if you have something like life
science, Well, what does thatmean? What are you teaching them in
life science? If you're teaching themseventh grade English, like I am,
(11:26):
what are some of the things thatthey are going to be doing that year?
So maybe you tell them about thenovels that you guys are going to
be reading, or what kinds ofessays or other writing projects that you're going
to be doing. Are there anyfield trips? Parents do want a general
idea of what they're going to belearning. Don't just assume that because you
teach math that they're going to knowthat it's just math. Sometimes they do
want to know. So maybe you'reteaching geometry and the parent knows that they
(11:50):
can't help their student with geometry.So some parents will find a way to
get them a tutor or just findsome way to support their student because they
know at home they're going to beout of luck if the students get stuck.
But just make sure that you keepit simple. You keep it in
terms that maybe like a sixth orseventh grader would understand, so that it's
easier to grasp again when parents aretired and when they just want the basics.
(12:11):
Now, the next thing that Idefinitely think that you should go over
at open house. Are your homeworkand grading policies? Now a lot of
elementary teachers don't necessarily use the samekind of grading system that they do in
middle and high school, but parentsstill want to know. How can they
tell if their student is progressing?How can they tell if their student needs
more help in a certain area.Sometimes the codes that are on report cards
(12:35):
and progress reports just don't make anysense. So I would definitely take time
to go over grading and homework.So definitely go over the school's policies if
there are any regarding late work orif they're absent, anything like that,
because you kind of have to gowith what the school or district policy is.
And then I would go over yourindividual policy. What's your late policy?
(12:56):
Do they lose points after it beinglate a certain number of days?
They only get a certain number ofdays to make it up if they were
absent? What are your policies?Do students have an opportunity to redo assignments
or do they only get one shot? I know that some teachers students can
only redo or revise an assignment ifthey get a certain grade like a C.
(13:16):
And then when they have the redothey can't get above a certain grade,
So let them know that. Bevery transparent and clear so that there
isn't any confusion later on when theirstudent doesn't get a score or a grade
that they were expecting. I alsolike to give them an idea of how
much homework they should expect their studentto have. That way, their student
isn't saying, oh, I haveno homework in math, when really you
(13:39):
assigned math homework every day. Sothe last thing that I definitely think that
you should cover at open house areacademic support services. So you should explain
the availability of any kind of tutoring, whether it's in person or online,
any academic interventions or special education servicesthat are offered at your school. I
mean, part of why parents areeven there at open house is to find
(14:00):
out how their students needs will bemet. And so let's say that there
is tutoring at your school, maybeeven you offer it. Give them the
schedule, let them know the hoursand the days so that they can plan
for it. Because chances are theirstudent doesn't want to have to stay extra
for tutoring and their parent is goingto have to tell them to do it.
So what's the protocol. What aretheir dates and times? Now,
my bone is to pass a douwith doing an answer and question session at
(14:24):
the end of open house. Youdefinitely want to satisize some time for this,
even if it's just a couple ofminutes. And here's why. First
of all, if you don't actuallybuild in time for it, you're going
to be bombarded with a line ofparents staying after to ask questions. And
let me tell you, you mighteven end up staying an hour after open
house is over because the parents willwait their turn if you don't get them
(14:46):
a chance to ask during a Qand A session. It also leaves a
really negative impression if you're unwilling toanswer questions, because it's like you're hiding
something and honestly, parents will havequestions if you didn't answer it during your
present. And another reason why Ilike to have these Q and A questions
is because if a lot of parentsare asking the same ones, then what
I like to do is write themdown. So I'd like to send out
(15:09):
an email or a newsletter or avideo that I send to all the parents,
regardless of whether or not they madeit, that covers those questions.
But you want to do this theright way. Don't leave too much time
for this because they will ask alot of questions. Give them maybe five
minutes. I mean, if it'stoo much time, it's going to be
never ending. Even if parents don'twant to go home because they have more
(15:31):
questions, just insist that time isup or open house, and that you've
answered a lot of questions and thatyou're more than willing to answer more questions
via email or a phone call orsome kind of a conference. Here's the
thing. If a parent starts askingyou specific questions about their student where they
go into a whole life story abouttheir student, you need to cut that
(15:52):
off. So just gently stop themin the middle and let them know that
this sounds like a sensitive topic andyou don't have time left for questions and
answers, and that you would loveto meet with them again. Open up
those communication channels and give them somededicated time at a later date, and
plus be honest that you want tobe able to give them a more detailed
(16:12):
answer rather than answering on the fly. And it also allows you to take
notes and really focus on what theparent is telling you. So basically,
be really positive about it and They'regoing to feel more reassured if you're saying,
yeah, this really is a concern. So I think this deserves something
that's more of a dedicated time ratherthan here in front of everyone. So
(16:33):
definitely redirect those types of questions,and I promise you they're going to come
up even when they come and seeyou after open house. When that line
forms, just tell them again,like now really isn't a good time because
there's a lot of people around,and also you have to get home to
whatever, your dog, your family, just you have to be there early
the next day. Things like that. Doesn't make sure that they don't hijack
(16:55):
all of the question and answer timeand they don't hijack your time after open
house. I've talked a lot aboutparents in this episode, like a lot
about parents, and I definitely thinkthat it deserves its own episode. So
be sure to subscribe to this podcastso that you don't miss out on my
next one or talk about how todeal with parents, because you guys,
(17:15):
it is a topic that is prettyrough for a lot of us, but
it could also be really really positive. I really hope that you enjoyed this
episode and gotten a lot out ofit. I would love to hear from
you about how your open house went, so be sure to email me at
Kim at teachers Need Teachers dot com. Thanks for hanging out with me today,
you guys, and I will talkto you next week.
Welcome to the Teachers Named Teachers Podcasts, the podcast for teachers who don't want
to just survive teaching but actually thrive. Open House, back to school Night,
Meet the Teacher, whatever it isthat it's called. At your school,
there's always a night when parents getto come in and meet teachers,
and it's just a really informive timeand it's kind of a big deal.
(00:21):
Parents and teachers get to spend sometime together and then parents can ask teachers
some questions and then they can geta feel for what the coming school year
is going to be. Like.I've definitely held many of these as a
teacher and been to quite a fewas a parent, and let me tell
you, there are some ways tomake this a really informative and helpful event
or just something that's kind of cringeyand one that kind of crushes and burns.
(00:43):
So today I'm going to be goingover five things that you should never
ever do at open house, andmore importantly, five things that you should
do. This will not only ensurethat parents feel comfortable leaving their child in
your capable hands, but it willalso set a positive foundation or a good
working relationship with the parents and besure to stay until the end because I
(01:04):
have a bonus sit for how tohold question and answer sessions so that they're
not awkward, because they can getawkward. Now, I'm not going to
go over specific activities that you shoulddo or handouts that you absolutely must give.
I mean, you can go onPinterest or teachers pay teachers and get
some fabulous ideas, and honestly,open house looks different at the elementary,
(01:27):
middle and high school level. Instead, I'm giving you general tips for a
successful open house regardless of what gradeyou teach. So the first thing that
you should never do at open houseis overload the parents with information. While
I know that this is a perfecttime for you to give them important information
that probably their child isn't sharing withyou, you definitely don't want to give
(01:49):
them too much. You have toremember that, like you, they're coming
here after work, they're probably tired, and they can only handle so much.
When it comes to things like handouts, you want to focus on things
that you know that you want tophysically give them because maybe it's not making
it home in their child's backpack,so maybe any kind of federal forms that
they're supposed to fill out or informationsheets with contact information. Maybe you want
(02:15):
them to sign up for parent conferencesright then and there, and hey,
if they showed up to open house, they get first DIBs on the times.
You can hand out your syllabus anythinglike that that you definitely want them
to have right then and there.But if you do have a lot of
information that you want to give themand you don't want to overwhelm them with
a packet of stuff, then youcan split that up through emails or other
(02:37):
types of messages or even I've createdvideos for parents and then given those out
over a period of time via emailor through our learning management system. That
way parents can get these bite sizedpieces of information that they can actually absorb
and understand. So this is definitelya time when less is more, simple
is better, and especially when itcomes to paper, because I'm going to
(02:59):
tell your right now, there havebeen many times when I've just recycled the
majority of the papers that a teacherhas given me. The next thing that
you definitely never want to do anopen house is use a lot of educational
jargon. I remember going to mydaughter's second grade open house and the teacher
seemed really competent, but I waskind of turned off by the fact that
she was using a lot of educationaljargon, like a lot of big words,
(03:23):
And mind you, I am ateacher and I understand what all of
this jargon is. But I wassitting there trying to come through the lens
of a parent, and I justknew that it was going over a lot
of people's heads. I mean,maybe you're trying to prove to them that
you know what you're doing and thatyou know what you're talking about, but
really, all you're going to dois get them to tune you out because
(03:45):
they don't get it, and theyget bored, and again they're tired.
So you want to use clear andaccessible language with them. You want to
talk in a way that even theirstudents would understand, or maybe, let's
say middle school students would understand.And it's not that we're dumb things down.
It's just that parents don't need toknow what the standards specifically are.
They don't need to know what rL seven point one is. They don't
(04:09):
need to know exactly which concepts theirstudents are going to be learning. In
math. You can give them ageneral idea, like their times tables,
they're going to be learning about dividingfractions things like that, but you don't
have to get into the nitty grittybecause they don't understand it and probably they
don't care. The third thing thatyou never want to do at open house
(04:29):
is promising unrealistic expectations. Now,you can definitely discuss goals that you have
for them and how you'd like tohelp them improve their reading and writing,
or help them improve in math,or memorizing their times tables, or have
them past the ap biology tests orsomething like that, but don't make promises
that you absolutely know that you cannotuphold. For example, you can't promise
(04:50):
that all the students in an APUshistory class will get a five on their
test. You just can't. Don'tpromise that students are going to reach a
certain reading level, that they're goingto get a certain score on a standardized
test. These are things that definitelyyou can communicate that you are going to
be working with the students towards andthat there is going to be a push
(05:11):
for that, but don't actually tellthem that you can guarantee it. Sometimes
I feel like teachers they have theselofty ideas of what they can do,
and again they feel like they havesomething to prove. But you're just going
to be setting yourself for failure andyou're going to be setting up yourself to
be attacked by parents who said,you promise this, but you didn't follow
through. The next thing that youshould absolutely never ever do at open house
(05:33):
is talk about your personal issues.So you definitely want to avoid getting too
personal with the parents and talking aboutthings that are happening in your life.
I mean, yes, you cantalk about the fact that you have a
family, maybe you have five kidsand a dog something like that, but
you don't want to go into anythingoverly personal. You don't want to talk
(05:54):
about how you're going through a divorceor a death and the family or just
anything like that. This include it'sbragging about anything that you've accomplished. I
mean, you don't necessarily need totell them about your curriculum vitae, or
you don't need to tell them aboutall the places that you've taught. You
just want to keep it brief whenit comes to the things that are about
(06:14):
you, because you are going tobe under magnifying glass anyway, and honestly,
they didn't come to hear about you. That's that's not why they're here.
If they want to know more aboutyou, they'll probably stock you on
social media. The most that Ireally like to tell them is that I've
been teaching for twenty two years andhow much I love teaching seventh grade and
I love teaching their students. That'sabout it. That's what they get out
of me. I don't tell themabout my daughter or my divorce or anything
(06:39):
like that, so just keep itto educational issues and focus on the students.
And the last thing that you definitelydon't want to do at open house
is to be negative the whole time, which is funny because this part of
the video is kind of negative.So we want to refrain from being negative
about certain students, about the school, administration, district, things like that,
(07:00):
Yes, maybe you are unhappy atthat school, maybe something is really
unfair in terms of your situation atwork, but we don't want to bring
that into open house. You don'twant to sit there and try to get
them to sympathize with you or anythinglike that. We want to keep things
positive at open house because again,the parents are here to get to know
you. They're kind of sizing youup, and they just really want to
(07:23):
know more about their child's education andwhat's going to be like for them during
the school day. So we wantto focus on the positive aspects of school
and the learning environment. Even ifa parent tries to bring up something negative,
even if they try to bring upsomething that they saw on a Facebook
group or that they saw in thenews, just redirect it to what you're
focusing on in the presentation, thatyou're focusing on the students in front of
(07:45):
you now, and that what happenedin the past is the past, but
you're looking forward to the school year. Just something like that. Now,
let's focus on the good stuff,the things that I really think that everyone,
regardless of what great you're teaching,should do at open house. So
the first thing is discuss communication channels. This is really important because parents want
to know how they can get aholdof you, whether or not you want
(08:07):
them to get ahold of you.So what is the easiest way for them
to get in touch with you.Do you want them to email you?
Do you want them to call youduring certain hours, call and leave a
message with the school with the timeto call you back. Do you want
them to reach you through your learningmanagement system? How do you want them
to get ahold of you, becausethey are going to have questions and you
want to make it easy for themso they can feel at ease and honestly,
(08:30):
having a working relationship with parents,no matter how difficult they are,
it's really going to make the schoolyear easier in general. Now, if
you are using some kind of onlinelearning management system, this is a really
good time to demonstrate it for them. I typically do that, but actually
what I do is I make avideo and I send it out to the
parents because I only have ten minuteswith them, But if you have a
(08:50):
longer amount of time, I woulddefinitely show them how to log in,
maybe even have them go through thesteps with you and just show them around
so that they know what they're lookingat once they're there. And then I
also like to be honest about howlong it takes me to get back to
them. I tell them within twentyfour hours I will return their message,
because sometimes parents want you to getback to them right away. Sometimes they're
messaging you at ten o'clock at nightand they think that you're going to apply
(09:13):
them, which, by the way, do not do that ever, But
be honest with them and they willrespect your time a lot more. Another
thing that I definitely think that youshould discuss at open house is your teaching
approach. I really think that parentswant to know what kind of a teacher
their student has. So are youa teacher that is a little more strict
or maybe you're a teacher that isa little more and bubbly and fun and
(09:35):
just sort of you like organize chaos. Maybe you like a lot of group
work. Maybe you like students takea lot of notes. You like to
have lectures and then have students breakout into groups and then do individual quizzes.
The reason why this is important isbecause again, parents want to know
what their student is kind of gettinginto, and also it allows them to
(09:56):
better support their student. So ifa parent knows that you are someone who
does not like a lot of talkingin class in general, and then their
student gets in trouble for doing thatthing, when all the parent can say,
well, you know, miss Slapridoesn't like it when kids talk out
a lot in class, So whyare you answering without raising your hand?
Do you see what I mean?You can get more support if the parents
know this about you. I wouldalso discuss how you differentiate for diverse learners.
(10:20):
So maybe you have a different wayof how you handle students that have
behavioral issues that you already know about. Maybe they have something like an IEP
or their NERD divergent. How areyou accommodating for them? And what is
the school policy in the school plan? What is the supports that are built
in? The parents are definitely goingto want to know that, and during
that time when you're talking about yourteaching approach, I'd also encourage parents to
(10:43):
email you if they do have anyknown concerns about their own students, or
if their student has some kind ofa disability that they want to discuss with
you. Invite them to message youor maybe even set up a time with
you so you can get someone onone time and get to know their student
better. In that way, youcan also support them better. Now,
the next thing that I really thinkis important for you to do at open
(11:05):
house is to give an overview ofthe curriculum. Now, in the beginning,
I said, don't tell them thespecific standards that you're teaching or use
a lot of the jargon, butyou can tell them the general things that
they're going to be learning that year. So if you have something like life
science, Well, what does thatmean? What are you teaching them in
life science? If you're teaching themseventh grade English, like I am,
(11:26):
what are some of the things thatthey are going to be doing that year?
So maybe you tell them about thenovels that you guys are going to
be reading, or what kinds ofessays or other writing projects that you're going
to be doing. Are there anyfield trips? Parents do want a general
idea of what they're going to belearning. Don't just assume that because you
teach math that they're going to knowthat it's just math. Sometimes they do
want to know. So maybe you'reteaching geometry and the parent knows that they
(11:50):
can't help their student with geometry.So some parents will find a way to
get them a tutor or just findsome way to support their student because they
know at home they're going to beout of luck if the students get stuck.
But just make sure that you keepit simple. You keep it in
terms that maybe like a sixth orseventh grader would understand, so that it's
easier to grasp again when parents aretired and when they just want the basics.
(12:11):
Now, the next thing that Idefinitely think that you should go over
at open house. Are your homeworkand grading policies? Now a lot of
elementary teachers don't necessarily use the samekind of grading system that they do in
middle and high school, but parentsstill want to know. How can they
tell if their student is progressing?How can they tell if their student needs
more help in a certain area.Sometimes the codes that are on report cards
(12:35):
and progress reports just don't make anysense. So I would definitely take time
to go over grading and homework.So definitely go over the school's policies if
there are any regarding late work orif they're absent, anything like that,
because you kind of have to gowith what the school or district policy is.
And then I would go over yourindividual policy. What's your late policy?
(12:56):
Do they lose points after it beinglate a certain number of days?
They only get a certain number ofdays to make it up if they were
absent? What are your policies?Do students have an opportunity to redo assignments
or do they only get one shot? I know that some teachers students can
only redo or revise an assignment ifthey get a certain grade like a C.
(13:16):
And then when they have the redothey can't get above a certain grade,
So let them know that. Bevery transparent and clear so that there
isn't any confusion later on when theirstudent doesn't get a score or a grade
that they were expecting. I alsolike to give them an idea of how
much homework they should expect their studentto have. That way, their student
isn't saying, oh, I haveno homework in math, when really you
(13:39):
assigned math homework every day. Sothe last thing that I definitely think that
you should cover at open house areacademic support services. So you should explain
the availability of any kind of tutoring, whether it's in person or online,
any academic interventions or special education servicesthat are offered at your school. I
mean, part of why parents areeven there at open house is to find
(14:00):
out how their students needs will bemet. And so let's say that there
is tutoring at your school, maybeeven you offer it. Give them the
schedule, let them know the hoursand the days so that they can plan
for it. Because chances are theirstudent doesn't want to have to stay extra
for tutoring and their parent is goingto have to tell them to do it.
So what's the protocol. What aretheir dates and times? Now,
my bone is to pass a douwith doing an answer and question session at
(14:24):
the end of open house. Youdefinitely want to satisize some time for this,
even if it's just a couple ofminutes. And here's why. First
of all, if you don't actuallybuild in time for it, you're going
to be bombarded with a line ofparents staying after to ask questions. And
let me tell you, you mighteven end up staying an hour after open
house is over because the parents willwait their turn if you don't get them
(14:46):
a chance to ask during a Qand A session. It also leaves a
really negative impression if you're unwilling toanswer questions, because it's like you're hiding
something and honestly, parents will havequestions if you didn't answer it during your
present. And another reason why Ilike to have these Q and A questions
is because if a lot of parentsare asking the same ones, then what
I like to do is write themdown. So I'd like to send out
(15:09):
an email or a newsletter or avideo that I send to all the parents,
regardless of whether or not they madeit, that covers those questions.
But you want to do this theright way. Don't leave too much time
for this because they will ask alot of questions. Give them maybe five
minutes. I mean, if it'stoo much time, it's going to be
never ending. Even if parents don'twant to go home because they have more
(15:31):
questions, just insist that time isup or open house, and that you've
answered a lot of questions and thatyou're more than willing to answer more questions
via email or a phone call orsome kind of a conference. Here's the
thing. If a parent starts askingyou specific questions about their student where they
go into a whole life story abouttheir student, you need to cut that
(15:52):
off. So just gently stop themin the middle and let them know that
this sounds like a sensitive topic andyou don't have time left for questions and
answers, and that you would loveto meet with them again. Open up
those communication channels and give them somededicated time at a later date, and
plus be honest that you want tobe able to give them a more detailed
(16:12):
answer rather than answering on the fly. And it also allows you to take
notes and really focus on what theparent is telling you. So basically,
be really positive about it and They'regoing to feel more reassured if you're saying,
yeah, this really is a concern. So I think this deserves something
that's more of a dedicated time ratherthan here in front of everyone. So
(16:33):
definitely redirect those types of questions,and I promise you they're going to come
up even when they come and seeyou after open house. When that line
forms, just tell them again,like now really isn't a good time because
there's a lot of people around,and also you have to get home to
whatever, your dog, your family, just you have to be there early
the next day. Things like that. Doesn't make sure that they don't hijack
(16:55):
all of the question and answer timeand they don't hijack your time after open
house. I've talked a lot aboutparents in this episode, like a lot
about parents, and I definitely thinkthat it deserves its own episode. So
be sure to subscribe to this podcastso that you don't miss out on my
next one or talk about how todeal with parents, because you guys,
(17:15):
it is a topic that is prettyrough for a lot of us, but
it could also be really really positive. I really hope that you enjoyed this
episode and gotten a lot out ofit. I would love to hear from
you about how your open house went, so be sure to email me at
Kim at teachers Need Teachers dot com. Thanks for hanging out with me today,
you guys, and I will talkto you next week.
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