Back to School

August and September bring much excitement with “Back to School”. Teachers, parents, and students are all gearing up for the start of a new school year and getting back to routines. For many, “Back to School” night at schools are the first opportunity to make impressions - for students, teachers, and parents. These nights can really set the tone for the upcoming school year. Darri Stephens, Senior Director of Education Content for Common Sense Education, writes of “three tried-and-true tenets for a successful Back-to-School Night”. In her recent article, “Back-to-School Night: The Ultimate Conversation Starter for a Successful School Year”, Stephens encourages teachers to do three things: 

• Be transparent - Have a common language and explain your thinking
• Be direct - Invite parents into the classroom and set expectations for students
• Be consistent - Stay true to your rules and keep parents informed

Back to School Night provides a great opportunity to establish parent partnerships that will ultimately lead to student success throughout the year.

You can get more from Common Sense Education by visiting Graphite in Pepper’s Resource Library. To read more about this awesome resource, you can also check out this recent blog post from July 25, Graphite: Tools for the Digital Classroom.

Be sure to check out all our Pepper course offerings.

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Better Parent-Teacher Conferences--Strategies for Being Effective!

Though this set of resources and strategies is specifically geared toward middle school educators, many of the ideas and issues that this blog post discusses can easily be adapted for all grades.

Here, you can find everything from a checklist for productive conferences, to a tutorial video showing good communication techniques, to suggestions from other teachers who have shared their best practices. Start thinking ahead this summer so that you can be ready for the fall!

CLICK HERE to check out this parent-teacher conference resource roundup on Middleweb.com, a website dedicated to all things middle school!

Reaching Out to Parents--How to Talk About Common Core

As every educator knows, having active, involved, supportive parents can make an enormous difference for students. No doubt you have heard questions or concerns from the parents of your students about what Common Core State Standards will mean for their children, and how CCSS will impact students.

These resources from the National PTA are a great place to help begin the conversation with parents. There is a brochure with parent FAQs about student success, plus longer booklets geared toward parents of K-8 students. The focus is on math and ELA standards, and the parent guides offer suggested methods and activities for extending learning beyond the classroom into the home, and key things to know about CCSS. There are even tips for parents of high schoolers about college and career planning.

Knowing and understanding parent concerns, and getting ideas about how to address them better will help you partner with parents as you implement CCSS instruction and assessment in your classroom! Let them know about these great resources, and TAKE A LOOK at them yourself so you can be prepared for conversations and collaboration!