Reeling in Parents, Part 1

Howdy, y'all

It feels so weird to not be planning for back to school this year.  I'm not going back to school this fall; I'm going to spend at least half the school year home with our tiny nuggets.  But just because I'm not going back myself doesn't mean I don't have lots of ideas and feelings for you.  Last night, I shared my gigantic parent contact form that I always send home the first day of school.  If you missed the post last night, you can find the forms here in my TpT store for a paltry $2.  Basically, I'm going to blog about how I used these forms to hit the ground running with parent communication and track said communication throughout the year.  Even though I'm focusing on how I use one specific product, I anticipate that this will be kind of a long post.  You might want to grab some coffee/Diet Coke/wine now and settle in.  Whatever floats your boat.

The first thing you should know about me is that I love to organize.  Specifically, I love to organize in binders.  Few things make me happier than putting projects into binders with post-it tabs.  I'm feeling happy just thinking about it.  So after I get these forms back throughout the first week of school, I put them into a parent contact binder that will stay close to my teacher table for the entire school year.  Generally, I print out some type of cover sheet to look something like this.

Don't you worry, my pretties.  There's a page like this in the pack of forms on TpT, so that you too can obsessively label your binders.  Okay, so once I label the outside of my binder, I get to work on the inside.  Something else you should know about me (and something I'll talk more about later) is that I number my students every year.  They use this number all the time; it's in their cubby, on their folders, pencils, erasers, and it's also how they line up.  They get a number on the first day of school and it stays the same until they leave my classroom.  So the next thing I do with this binder is put forms in by number.  As students return their form, I hole punch them and stick a post-it label with their number on it at the edge, so that when all the forms have been turned in my binder looks something like this--full of returned parent forms, and numbered tabs.

What you can also see in this picture is the pages I use to track communication I have with parents.  Unfortunately, that's not something I made so I don't have that available yet, but I can make something to share.  Before I had this handy tracker, I used to just put a few blank pages of printer paper behind each parent communication form to track our interactions.  I kept really close track of parent interaction for several reasons.  First, I like to make sure I have a balance of positive communication and constructive communication.  Tracking parent communication can also help me notice trends in behavior that I might not have noticed otherwise.  It's a little hard to see, but basically the way I tracked communication was by tracking the date, the way I talked to the parent (in person, via phone or text, sending a note home, etc.), and what we discussed.  If we were discussing a particular behavior, I tried to note our outcome so that I could follow up with them again.  It sounds a little aggressive, but it probably took me about 2 minutes to track, and I could do most of it while waiting for parents to answer the phone.

The last thing I keep in my parent communication binder is this schedule/calendar that I keep at the front.  It's just a quick overview of parents who are willing to come in and volunteer in our classroom.  I split it by AM and PM, and just put in parents who are willing to come in on each day and what they're willing to do.  Some parents say they'll do anything I need, so I don't mark tasks for them.  I only note if there are parents who have said they'll do specific things, like prep work stations or make copies.  I also make sure to put their phone number on the schedule so that I can quickly contact them without having to go back into the whole binder.  After I make it, I slide it into a page protector and keep it at the front of my binder for the year.  

Okay, friends.  Thanks for sticking with me to the end!  I'll be back 3 more times over the next week or so with more parent communication ideas.  

xoxo

The Best Laid Plans

Friends.  I'm shaking my head at myself.  On Monday, when I was home getting myself organized I really thought to myself "Heck yes!  I am going to blog EVERY day this week as part of this Bloghoppin' linky party".  Spoiler alert:  I failed.  :(  But, I ended up being surprisingly busy outside of school this week and I didn't realize that was happening ahead of time.  Like, Wednesday one of my super besties was last minute in town for just one night and I couldn't really say "No, I can't meet you for drinks tonight because I have to blog".  I mean, I guess I could have done that, but I just never see that Libb and I really wanted to hang out with her.  So I'm sorry that I was a minor fail, but I'm going to link back up today, get back on the wagon, and share some new(ish) ideas.

This is 100% a recycled ideas, but it's one of the best ideas I've ever heard of.  Give your children numbers.  I'm going to say it again because it's so awesome:  give your children numbers.

I like this idea for several reasons.  1) Everyone only has one number, so if even kids have the same name when you call numbers it eliminates confusion.  2)  My particular school has a lot of transience, so it makes it easy to re-use materials if one kids leaves and another comes in.  It's hard to reuse a folder or notebook labeled "David", but if your pencils and folders say "18" then it's easier to recycle that for students.  3)  It gives students a space in line and eliminates all those busting/cutting arguments.  (I suppose this isn't necessarily inherent in assigning numbers, but I always tell my students to line up in "line order", which means that they line up numerically.)  I really cannot emphasize enough how positively I feel about giving children numbers in a classroom.

This is my other "new idea" that probably also qualifies as a helpful hint.  I started this last year, and to be perfectly honest with you, it was more successful last year than this year, but I think that's because my loves this year are much more DEpendent and much needier than my group from last year.  In any case, I'm going to stick with this idea because I know it will ultimately pay off for me.  And here it is:  The Question Box.  Say, whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?  The Question Box is a large square that I tape off on the floor near my table using blue painter's tape and I label it "Question Box", and make sure to draw question marks on it.  The way the Question Box works is that if you have a question during any type of work station time and you ask your group members and they don't know you come to the question box.  The rules of the question box are that there can only be one kid in the box at a time, and that you  have to wait quietly in the box until I can pause my teaching to help you.  It works really well once you teach it...or at least it has for me.  It's really nice because it gives kids a way to get your attention quietly without distracting themselves and other kids.  Another really nice fringe benefit of the Question Box is that you can leave kids in there indefinitely.  What I mean by that is that if you have kids who come to the box all the time for silly or unnecessary reasons (or non-question reasons) you can make them stand in the box longer, and sometimes they will get bored and leave.  Last year I had one sweetheart who came to the Question Box every. single. day.  So I started making her wait longer than I would make other kids wait, which was also really helpful for me because I knew that if she waited it out that she really did need me.  It was a nice silent signal.  Honestly, it takes about 30 seconds to tape down a Question Box and it saves so much time.  I don't have a picture of my Question Box because I'm a terrible blogger and I always forget about pictures.

That's about it for me, friends.  Tomorrow is Smithsonian Teachers' Night (yessssssssssssssssssssss), so I hope to be back tomorrow with some more treats, but I can make no promises.
Happy Friday!
xoxo
Rachel