9/15 Curriculum Night

Tonight was Curriculum Night. The overall attendance for the school was not very high, but there were 16 out of 22 kids represented in our room. I thought this was good. Many kids had two parents there as well. One parent spoke very little English, but still made the effort to come. I thought that sent a great message to her child that school is important. Parents have such a huge impact on student learning.

Some advice from Mrs. S: have student work up on the walls and make sure the kids clean out their desks because the parents always look. She had a very organized presentation touching on what the kids would be doing in all subject areas as well as, classroom management, communication, parent help, and field trips, but it was long. We knew some of the parents were apprehensive about the new math curriculum and having their child in a split class, but at the end they seemed pleased.

Although I was a little uncomfortable speaking in front of the parents as a group, I did like getting to meet them one-on-one.When I have my own class, I think I will do a shorter presentation and then have more time to talk to parents casually. I would also love to have some of their work, like their writing folders, out on their desks for the parents to see. I always liked seeing some of my daughter's work. I wonder if there are other models for curriculum night that would give me more ideas for how to do my own. I will have to search some out and talk to other teachers as well.