Meet the Teacher Night

I love Meet the Teacher nights. It’s second most important day to the first day of school. It’s the first time you will meet your students and parents. Their first impression of you will set the stage for the year. It’s important that leave a good impression on our parents.  the best impressions possible.

Here’s how to setup for s successful Meet the Teacher and Back to School Night!

Disclaimer: This is what worked for me. The key is making sure you are prepared.

Step 1. Make sure your room is organized and neat. It doesn’t have to be 100% completed with your decor, but it should be organized and neat. 

Step 2: Create stations around your room. This will help parents to move around without waiting to meet you.  

Step 3: Keep conversations short and simple: greet them, express your excitement, and remind them to visit each station. 

Step 4: Have a small scavenger hunt to get to know the room better and ensure they visit each station.

Step 4: SMILE...Make sure you seem eager and excited. All parents and students should leave with excitement for the new school year. 

Being Intentional

I’ve always believed in being intentional in everything I do. Everything should and do have a purpose. When you have to get your curriculum completed in a certain amount of time, make every moment count. 

As an educator it is important we are being intentional in every lesson, activity, and assessment in your classroom. Stop giving students busy work, group projects, or videos to watch with no purpose. 

In our opening meeting our principal told us that our Superintendent didn’t want to see any Getting to Know You Bingo on Day 1. Perfect, because we don’t have time for all the “fudge” activities. 

I found this awesome activity on Pinterest called Figure Me Out. What a purposeful activity, I thought. Student solve math problems for them to get to know you. I recreated the activity to help me formatively assess students on an 8th level. 

This is my Figure Me Out and Getting to Know Your Teacher Activity. 

For their first day homework assignment, each student will create one for them and provide an answer key (being intentional). The homework will force them to think critically about what problems to create to come up with their needed solution. 

I’ll share some of their work soon...

What are some of your favorite intentional activities to begin the school year?