Tips to Simplify your Open House or Meet the Teacher Night
In MY opinion, Open House or Meet the Teacher night can be one of the most intimidating night of the school year! Surely I’m not the only one who feels that way? Parents always have a lot of questions, and I want to be sure to get to talk to all of them. In order to do this, I try to make sure the parents and students know EXACTLY what to do, that way I had more time to meet families, introduce myself, and answer any other questions they might have. Last year, I decided to change things up a little bit at Open House, and overall I was pleased with how it went! Here’s what I did differently…
I ditched the open house stations
Y’all. Every year I posted my cute little station on the board, I drew cute, little curvy arrows from one to the next, and EVERY YEAR, I had a continuous stream of parents asking what they needed to do! So, I changed it up a little bit and created a checklist for the parents and students. There was one on every students desk, along with their folder of papers. Whenever students and their families walked in, I told them where to find their seat and to follow the directions on the checklist. Like WHY did I never think of this before? Click HERE for the editable version of my Open House Checklist.
Sorting Supplies
We don’t have a ton of students bring in supplies at Open House, but some do. For the students who brought their supplies, I had buckets in the front where they were to sort them. This was only for community supplies – kleenex, glue sticks, clorox wipes, crayons, etc. This was actually one of the steps on their checklist – sort your supplies into the buckets up front, any other
supplies should go in your cubby. For the supplies I wanted students to hold on to (scissors, pencils, binders, journals, etc.), students put those in their cubby in a brown paper bag. On the first day of school, other students would do the same with their supplies. Then, sometime during the 1st day… ooooor 1st week… we went through those supplies and talked about where to keep them, how to organize them, and what the expectations were.
Student Information Google Form
Another item on the checklist was for parents to complete a google form. I included a shortened link for this, as well as a QR code. Let’s face it, parents have a TON of information to fill out at Open House – especially those with multiple children. The form was just a way to try to make their lives a little easier. Since it was included on the checklist, parents also could complete it that night at home if they needed to!
Like I said above, these are just a few ways I made my Open House night a little easier on myself – and hopefully everyone else. What do you do to simplify Open House night?
