Back to School Night Set-Up for the Secondary Classroom

Open House, Back to School Night… no matter what you call it, the goal is usually for parents to meet the teachers.

Often Open House focuses on the student – and it’s a chance for parents to come and see student work.

Back to School Night is usually just for parents to meet teachers. At some schools, it even takes place before school starts. These events are often referred to as “Ice Cream Socials” at the elementary schools in my area.

​Sometimes these events are organized by the school, and provide a structure, other times it is up to the teacher to figure out what to do with the time.

At the elementary level, I would usually use my Open House/Back to School Night to talk to parents about what they can expect from me for the year. I always made sure I covered the basics: Homework Policy, Discipline Policy, what curriculum I will be teaching, big projects that will happen, how I will communicate with parents and in turn, how they can communicate with me.

Let’s face it, that is fairly easy to manage when you have one class of students.
​

​At the middle school level, in the past, students take their parents through their daily schedule where the administration rings the bell, like they would on a regular school day. Only, there is 10 minutes for parents to spend with each teacher. This method has it’s benefits, as the teacher can address large groups of parents for each class they teach. The challenge arises when parents have multiple children.

The other option for Back to School Night at the middle school level is to just have teachers in their rooms and parents show up whenever they can. This works great for parents – but let’s face it, there is definitely some awkwardness happening.
Master the 6th-grade transition with the exact systems
​I use to build independent scholars.

For my middle school, Back to School Night takes place the eve of the 5th day of school. Yup, the 5th. At this point, I have not learned my 132 student names yet…   and there is an hour and a half of unstructured time. The question becomes, what can I do with this time? How do I get information to parents efficiently?

​My answer: STATIONS
I set up stations around my classroom for parents to gather important information. Their final station was to meet me, and then I could easily answer their questions and thank them for coming.
What do students need for class?

​I added post-it notes to items provided by me and/or the school.
Always a good idea to have out the texts you will be using.
​And to note if they are adopted by the district curriculum department.
Do you have a classroom website? 
​ I also had mine projecting on my screen during Back to School Night
​so parents could see it!
Are you using Remind?  If not, you should! 
​It's made just for parents, teachers, and students. 
​It's FREE and it's safe!
Have you sent home your syllabus? What about your first newsletter? 
​Have extra copies of these important items for parents to pick up if needed.
One of our fist assignments is for students to learn how to make a sensory figure. The concept is students draw a self portrait and describe themselves using their senses.  It's a great way for kids to introduce themselves.  I put mine together in a booklet for each class.  Even though it's only day 5, students still have some of their own work to show parents!
I must admit - this is an idea I saw on Pinterest!  It was my first time asking for donations from parents.  Consumable items like glue, markers, colored pencils, and highlighters.  I simply used a reproducible from a teacher book and wrote down items I was requesting.  Parents could pick up a slip to take with them.  It helps to put YOUR name on it so the student knows who to give it to! Every little bit helps!
Even when my room was packed with parents, they were engaged while they were waiting.

It’s in my nature to provide structure where there is none. Having stations completely saved my sanity and definitely helped alleviate some unnecessary stress on Back to School Night.
​When is your Back to School Night?  How do you handle getting efficient information to parents?


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Teaching with Textbooks | Teach Like Midgley

​I’m Hillary Midgley, and I help teachers move from classroom chaos to streamlined success with no-frills systems that make managing student work easy. New here? Start with the Manage Student Work ebook.