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Saturday, October 27, 2012

Super Conferences & Newsletters

Really Good Stuff


To increase parent involvement this year, we're even more encouraged to up our communication with our kids' parents.

Last year I bought Parent Communication Journals from Really Good Stuff. My parents loved this last year, but budgetary issues prevented me from getting these again. Next year our admin says we'll probably get planners again like we used too, so excited!!! I miss those.

This year I got 2 pocket folders with brads (HERO Folders), I put a behavior calendar with loose leaf paper inside. My kids color in which color they landed on at the end of the day. Of course they also have the pockets for "papers to be signed & returned" & "papers to keep at home."

For the past 2 years our district has gotten rid of designated parent conference days. They used to have 2 early out days every semester specifically for teachers to schedule parent conferences with each child's parent(s). Well they still haven't designated those days, but our school has required us to have conferences this year. I created some notices & reminders for my conferences this year. Of course in keeping with my superhero theme I used a still from The Incredibles :)

As I'm doing conferences I had most of my parents say they love my newsletter. Well I have Mrs. Magee over at Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT) to thank for that. I bought/downloaded her Superhero Newsletter template & with the comic book fonts I got from 1001 Free Fonts I'm digging my communication files & apparently so are my parents. I used pretty her same section titles, but added my own twist. I do a Superhero of the Week, the kids can't wait to see who it's going to be each week. I kept her "What We're Learning" & that's what my parents love the most, they can always ask their kids about their day/week & they know what's being taught, so no surprises :)

I blogged about my data binder last time, since I'm only ankle deep in guided reading, intervention & math groups I'll be posting more on that later.

Keep sane everyone, the kids are getting frisky with the cooler weather & they know Halloween's-a-brewin' right around the corner :)