Choice Lit Topic: Family Relations
Families come in many forms. A good rapport with parents, siblings, and grandparents can make all the difference in building a classroom and school community. Here are some creative suggestions for reaching out to families through conferences, special events, and volunteer opportunities. Our contributors also share the challenges of communicating with parents, and what they’ve learned when they’ve failed to connect.
Results
Teacher Resume
In a TED talk, Rita Pierson, a 40 year classroom veteran, spoke to the importance of building relationships with students. She described a colleague who once stated that she was...
Recommendations for Summer Reading Fun: Comics and Graphic Novels for Early Readers
Kids LOVE graphic novels! What’s not to love? Pictures, details, and interesting stories to pore over, and now there are so many that have the added attraction of good stories...
Reflecting All Year Long
Reflection is important to me, especially at the end of another school year. I am gathering stacks of professional books –- some to read, some to reread, as I plan...
Recommendations for Summer Reading Fun: Classic Books for Early Readers
For book lovers, summer is a an idyllic time for reading, a chance to dip into those books we’ve been itching to crack open, or revisit special books from our...
Staying Connected with Students All Summer Long
To say the last days of school are my favorite days would be a bit of a stretch. It's not the crazy end of year events, the incredible buzz of...
Do You Have Any Questions? Conferring with Families
“Do you have any questions?” I asked. “Yeah,” Logan's mom replied. “So, how is Logan doing?” What?! This is what I thought I had been explaining for the past 20...
Tips for Effective Family Communication from “The Mouse”
As a mother of a now five-and-a-half-year old, I’ve had many firsts with my son, Jordan. The calendar of his first year chronicles his first bath, his first word, his...
Family Literacy Night
The pursuit of home-school connections never ends for educators. As a principal, I make mention of literacy in virtually every monthly newsletter I send home. In fact, this is a...
A Literary Taste of Home (Home is Where the Books Are Series)
It shocks me that my kids are Californians. Such a big part of my identity is being a New Englander (hard worker, slower to make friends but keep them for...
Supporting the Transition to Middle School: An Elementary Teacher’s Perspective
As the month of May rolls around and our state testing is completed, my focus shifts to our district’s required database for my fifth graders as they transition to three...
What Information Is Good Information? Smooth and Effective Transitions to Middle School
With each passing year, I accumulate larger piles of data about my incoming middle schoolers: spelling inventory scores, Developmental Reading Assessment scores, state test scores, and district diagnostic scores. Yet...
Inscribe It! (Home is Where the Books Are Series)
When my daughter Molly turned three, her favorite book was Where the Wild Things Are. Every time she would get the book out and open it up, she would say...
Comic Books and Mini Caped Crusaders for the Youngest Readers (Home is Where the Books Are Series)
I’m not a big comic book reader. Both of my brothers are, so I’ve tried to get into the sweeping and gorgeous graphic novels they periodically recommend, but they just...
Two Teachers and One Kindergartner
Little Joey was a bit young when his parents enrolled him in kindergarten. Despite the teacher’s best efforts, he struggled to master basic concepts. The teacher developed a wonderful relationship...
I Have Two Pictures of Cindy. . .
I have two pictures of Cindy. Both are taken on her birthday at school. In each, she stands beside a lovely array of cupcakes, looking straight at the camera. In...
Ten Classic Ideas That Still Work
I am not one to use the same activities and materials over and over just because they've worked in the past. I don't keep a file cabinet of things I...
Good News: Your Teacher is Calling
Talking with parents about their children’s first weeks of school quickly divides the group into “very happy” and “not happy at all” camps. It’s usually not disappointment with curriculum or...
Opening Doors to Parents in Middle School
The email starts, “What a fun day we have had!” I smile, take another bite of my sandwich, and reach across my lunch to start scrolling. “After a snack...
Book Memories
When I taught middle school language arts, my favorite lessons of the year were the ones in which the students shared book memories. I have so many strong memories related...
One Book, One School: Building Community with Shared Text
Some time ago I had the opportunity to read an early copy of R.J. Palacio’s debut novel, Wonder. I’d heard about it through friends and eagerly anticipated reading it. The...
Don’t Be a Sneetch
When the Star-Belly children went out to play ball, Could a Plain-Belly get in the game? Not at all. You only could play if your bellies had stars, And the...
