Teacher Rockstar Academy

What will you need for your first meeting with parents and students?

Make a list of all the materials and supplies you will need to greet your students on the first day or at a Meet the Teacher Night. Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Does my school require any forms to go home with parents?
2. Do I have a small welcoming treat for my students? (Pinterest has great ideas for these.)
3. What can I do to make parents and students feel welcome?
4. Do I have enough clipboards and writing utensils for the number of people that will attend?
5. What can be used to visually welcome and direct students and parents if you are busy greeting someone else.

Regardless of whether you have a Meet the Teacher night or parents are permitted to walk their children to class the first day, you will need a sign in sheet to gather parent information and determine how the student goes home at dismissal.

Create a sign in sheet for your first day using a table in a word document, or a spreadsheet. Include the following fields:

• Parent Name
• Student Name
• Contact Phone Number
• Contact Email
• How students go home*
• Parent signature

* Students may go home in a multitude of different ways depending on the school. Check with your school to find out how your students are to be dismissed.

Parent Volunteers

Parent volunteers can contribute a great deal to the classroom community and make a teacher’s life easier. They are a tremendous source of support and should be recruited early and treated with gratitude and appreciation.

In addition to having the initial sign in sheet, you can create a second sign in sheet to recruit parent volunteers to help out in the classroom, provide supplies, and chaperone field trips. If parents are reluctant to sign up, a follow up letter requesting volunteers can be sent out after school starts.

Once you have parent volunteers, make sure you take care of them. Make sure you send thank you notes, coffee gift cards, or some gesture of appreciation for the time they contribute to your classroom.

Depending on your school, there may be some background check requirements for parent volunteers, make sure you are familiar with these requirements. The needs of each classroom and school are unique.

Create a list of tasks or activities for parent volunteers to help out with. Some ideas include but are not limited to:

• Room Parent (parent that can coordinate other parents to help with various activities)
• Decorating the classroom and bulletin boards for holidays
• Chaperoning field trips
• Contributing or gathering supplies needed for school activities
• Parent read-aloud buddy

Create a signup sheet for volunteers that you can use at your Meet the Teacher night or on the first day of class. Consider the following fields:

• Parent Name
• Contact Information
• Availability Times/Days
• Are you willing to volunteer in the classroom? (Y/N)
• Are you willing to chaperone field trips? (Y/N)
• Are you willing to contribute supplies to the classroom?

Take a look at the following links:

TeachThought, Scholastic, Pinterest, & TeacherVision

Thinking about the grade level of your students, select 5 activities that you can use the first days of school.

Choose 1 to practice with a friend or relative.

In these links you can find additional icebreakers by using these search terms:

Icebreakers,  Icebreakers K-2,  Icebreakers 3-5, First Day of School Activities

Now that you are familiar with icebreakers, it is time to create your own icebreaker. Thinking about the grade level, the capabilities of your students, and the goal of creating a classroom community, create an icebreaker that you will use in the first week of school.

Include in your plan a list of materials you will need for the icebreaker as well as an estimate of how long it will take. Consider the following questions:

• Will the students be working individually during this activity or in collaborative groups/pairs?
• What is your icebreaker teaching?
• How will you incorporate your classroom expectations into this activity?

The end of the day nears and the bell is about to ring. The teacher reviews the homework assignment and models how students are to get their backpacks, push in chairs and line up quietly for dismissal.

Just before the bell rings the teacher gives the class the signal to begin their dismissal procedure. In their excitement, several students rush to the door to line up while others approach the teacher to tell him/her a story. Some students are chatting at their desks.

The teacher reminds the running students to walk, talks with the story-telling students, and asks the other students to line up. The class then dismisses.

What did the teacher do wrong? What should they have done instead? Was dismissal perfect?

Create a plan for the first two weeks of school. Use documents you created during this lesson and lessons 1 and 2 to inform your plan.

Things to consider:

• How much time will you spend on each activity? Block out the day by time period.
• If your school has a schedule that all grades need to follow, make sure to get a copy of that.
  For example, some schools have certain times of the day when math and reading need to be taught.
• What ice breakers will you use?
• How will you build community?
• What activities will you teach for each time period?
• How will they support student’s understanding of the rules, procedures and expectations?
• How much practice time will students get?
• What backup or extension activities will you have available in case students finish early?
• What materials do you need?

Some activities you may want to include:

• Icebreakers
• First Day read alouds
• Civics related activities
• All About Me books
  Student Selfies (self-portraits)
• Time Capsules
• Hopes and Dreams galleries