Open House and Curriculum Night

Today is our Open House.  My teammate and I have been prepping for several days to meet the 50 parents we have this year.  In middle school, our parents come in and basically travel through their child's schedule.  We run about a two hour program, beginning with our ELA classes.  Then we put our parents together and show them a Powerpoint Presentation about our day, the curriculum and standards.  The powerpoint to me is the best part of our presentation.  I love it because we take pictures of our students and our parents love to see what their kids are doing during the day.  We try during our presentation to be lighthearted and upbeat.  Many of our parents are nervous about their babies coming to middle school, and we want to make the transition as smooth as possible for everyone.
Here are a few of the slides we like to use... We always get  a few chuckles as we go.

This summer I read Teach Like a Pirate by Dave Burgess.  I know I've mentioned that in a few blog posts, and I've really loved starting to implement some of that philosophy into my teaching.  I asked my fabulous teammate to read TLAP also.  She LOVED it, and I think it has been great to have a colleague to toss around ideas with.  We are sharing our PIRATE philosophy with our parents at Open House as well.

I think it is important for them to know that we have a passion for teaching, and that as much as it is our job to share our grading policy and curriculum, THAT is NOT what we are about.

If you don't do a powerpoint presentation at Open House, I would still like to recommend that you set up some sort of slide show with your students pictures.  They love to mug for the camera, and parents love to see their smarties smiling faces!

Enjoy your week!