Yesterday evening was our Meet the Teacher evening. Last year's experience of 4 parents showing up, led me to expect a low turnout. Getting parents involved is difficult at our school, and initially it seemed that this would be repeated.
I decided to give the parents a sample of our class life by putting a laptop on each desk. Parents of four students came in and took seats. I had my own list of talking points on the whiteboard which were: Rights and Responsibilities, Expectations, Digital Learning, Homework and Reading, Assessments.
I then took them through a brief explanation of our class wiki and blog.
Here comes my sneaky parent / child blog engagement trick! After a fast hard sell of the magnificence of blogging and learning, I asked the parents and whanau to use the classroom laptops to leave comments on their child's group post. Naturally their children took charge and drove the process, bonus.Actually I didn't plan that trick of engaging the the parents, it just happened.
In the past I have tried chocolate fish bribery!
As I moved around the classroom chatting to parents, I noticed that another three families had arrived, and a few more would turn up later. All the parents were really interested in their child's behaviour and learning. They were friendly and eager to participate in the future. I wonder if the fun, high energy whole brain teaching and the co-operative learning programme that I have implemented this year has contributed? Most parents said their children love coming to school and seem more focused this year. Perhaps it is that the school whanau have gotten to know me over the past year, the passing smiles and greetings now paying their dues?
A successful evening making connections with parents and whanau.
Photo by oooh.oooh
