Title: Tips for Open House and Back to School Night
Headings: Tips for Open House and Back to School Night
Tips for Open House and Back to School Night
Holding an informative, stress-free event for families
Prior to open house: creating a parent letter
What back-to-school night is and isn’t
How to organize and prepare for open house
Fun ways to make the back-to-school night special
What to include in your presentation
1) Tell a little about yourself.
2) Give an overview of the most exciting things you have planned for the year to get parents enthusiastic about what’s happening in the classroom.
3) Use your daily schedule to introduce parents to the way their children will be learning.
4) Spend no more than a minute or two discussing standardized tests.
5) Outline your approach to behavior management and class rules.
6) Close with the methods of communication you will use (newsletters, email lists, class webpage, daily agendas, and so on).
7) Explain how you will handle parent questions.
What parents REALLY want from an open house
Making a personal connection with each family
You can’t fit it all into one presentation
Angela Watson

Content: I like to also call on kids who are in attendance to explain things (“Would one of our class members tell how we use the math games?”). This gives parents a break from listening to me talk and it’s always entertaining to hear the kids’ explanations. 4) Spend no more than a minute or two discussing standardized tests. You can also mention your grading system or scale if necessary, but in the primary grades, this shouldn’t be a big deal. Do NOT get bogged down with state standards and outcomes–you can provide these in a handout and parents can read them later. If your grade level doesn’t give any standardized tests, you could even skip this altogether. Let parents know that all of your instruction and assessment is aligned with state standards, and in plain English that means you design all of your lessons to meet state requirements in order to prepare students for the tests and for the next grade level. Tell them that you will be providing handouts, conferences, benchmark tests results, workshops, etc., throughout the year to