4 for Friday: Parent Communication

I don't know about you but my summer is officially over! Teachers in my district report back to work on Monday. I've spent my week lounging, lesson planning for the first week of school and designing posters for my classroom.

This week I want to discuss parent communication. I would say that it's one of my strengths, though parents may not have the time to read and explore all that I send home, its there if and when they need it. 
Parent Communication 1. Parent Flipbook- Some teachers give this to parents at Back to School Night but I choose to give it to parents at Open House so that they can have a snapshot of our classroom before school officially begins. 

My parent flipbook includes our Daily Schedule, Classroom Celebrations, Homework Policy, as well as information on our Smart Tags (brag tags), 7 Habits of Happy Kids, Whole Brain Teaching and how parents can contact me. I purchased my flipbook from Learning in Wonderland and added my content. 

2. Parent Handbook- I pass our my Parent Handbook during Back to School Night (which happens 3 weeks into the school year), instead of putting this information in a slide show, I put it in a handbook for parents to refer to when needed and I spend BTS Night, discussing expectations, curriculum and classroom management. 

My Parent Handbook consists of detailed information about the above information. Like I said earlier this is generally information that would be included in your BTS Night presentation but I found that I have more time to discuss the ever so important behavioral and academic expectations as well as the curriculum and what their child is expected to master during the school year. I got this idea from Primarily Speaking. 
3. Monthly Newsletter- Last school year I switched over to a Monthly Newsletter as opposed to a Weekly Newsletter and it was the BEST decision I have every made! I didn't have to worry about getting the weekly newsletter written, printed and copied every week which freed up quite a bit of time for me.  Last year I would copy our Monthly Project on the back of each monthly newsletter. Now that I'm going back to 2nd grade, I'm copying "Family Write Night" ideas on the back of each monthly newsletter. 

4. Weekly Email Updates- Although I switched to monthly newsletters, I still wanted to keep my parents informed weekly of what was going on in the classroom. I found that sending a Weekly Update on Sunday evenings was perfect. I could "draft" the email all week if needed, so I wouldn't forget anything. 

 I always included general reminders first, then included important dates and ended with what we were learning that week. Those topics directly correlated to their Learning Handbook so they knew exactly what to study.
I'd love to hear how you communicate with parents, leave a comment here or hop on over to our Facebook page and leave a comment.