How Teachers Prepare Parents

I am a recent graduate of Auburn University, and I went straight into getting my masters. I am very excited to start teaching soon, but I want to be prepared. Not only do parents and students have to be prepared, so do the teachers. If the teacher is prepared for the first day of school, students will feel a lot more comfortable beginning school. The teacher also needs to prepare the parent.

I would love to teach kindergarten, so I would have to deal with students that had never been to school. I wanted to look up some helpful ideas for being prepared for school. I want students and parents in my classroom to feel like they already know me before meeting me. I want them to feel comfortable. I figured I would share some of my ideas for helping a parent feel better about leaving their child at school for kindergarten.

Of course, the teacher will be busy preparing the lessons and the classroom. Parents should be prepared to possibly receive a welcome letter. This is something I would definitely like to do in my classroom. The teacher will want to introduce themselves to the parents. Hopefully the letters will contain supplies your student will need and their class schedule. Parents will love to have their students’ schedule, so that they will know where their student is during the day. The teacher should also list visiting policies that the school has created. The teacher should also include their discipline policy, so that the parent can go over this with the student before school starts.

For the first day, the teacher wants to help the students learn the routine. Some students might not have followed a schedule, so the teacher will want to help the students see how the days will go. Many teachers have a website that will also list the schedule, which will be easy for a parent to look up. The teachers website could also include the welcome letter. The website is a great way for teachers and parents to stay in touch. The teacher can list topics that the students are discussing, and post pictures of the students learning.

The parent needs to realize that it is okay to stay in touch with the teacher. The parents might even have opportunities to help around the classroom. In one classroom I was in, they had a weekly reader. The students were so excited to see who was coming to read to them. Some parents would surprise their kids. 

This website has some great ways to prepare students for kindergarten.

Many are things teachers want to tell their students’ parents: http://www.scholastic.com/resources/article/what-kindergarten-teachers-wish-parents-knew