Welcome your new students before you ever meet them!
As an elementary school teacher, I found that new students
(and their parents!) were often nervous about their (or their child’s) new
teacher. I wanted to allay those fears as soon as possible, but how?
Class lists were a closely guarded secret until the Friday
before the start of a new school year. At 5:00 p.m., the office staff would
lock the doors, post the class lists, draw the shades, and escape out the back
door. Anyone remaining inside the office could hear the angry buzz as parents
realized that the ONE teacher (out of five or six at the grade level) whom they
had carefully vetted and chosen as their child’s teacher, was not the one to
whom their child had been assigned for the upcoming school year!
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| Class Lists Taped Inside the Windows at 5:00 Friday |
The office phone began an incessant ringing, as a long
series of furious parents demanded immediate meetings with the principal, in
order to get their babies the “RIGHT” teacher. All the teachers knew from
experience that our principal would make NO class changes for at least two
weeks, in order to allow the dust to settle.
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| Parents Try to Move Their Children to the "RIGHT" teacher's Class |
In the meantime, every teacher on campus knew that they
would have at least a handful (often more) of parents who DID NOT want their
children in that particular teacher’s classroom. Instead, they wanted their
child moved IMMEDIATELY to the class of the teacher they had chosen. What were
the teachers to do?
From experience, I knew I had to be proactive in order to
improve the situation before these children (and their parents) entered my
classroom on Monday! After much trial and error over the years, I came up with
several things I could do to improve the situation, allay parents’ fears, and
welcome my new students before the school year started.
First, I sent postcards to my new students. As soon as class
lists were released to teachers, I asked the school secretary to print out
labels with the names and addresses of all my new students. I affixed these to
welcome postcards, which I had already prepared with a message from me to each
student. All I had to do was to write each child’s name in the greeting of
their card, affix the address labels and stamps, and they would be ready to
mail.
On these postcards I invited students and parents to an
informal “Meet and Greet” with me, in my classroom, over the weekend, as I
prepared my classroom for the new school year.
I encouraged them to bring their school supplies, so they could drop
them off in the classroom and have them ready for the first day. (This also
allowed me to get a quick idea of which students could not afford supplies, so
that I could arrange for school supplies to waiting for them at their desks the
first day. J)
I set specific hours on Saturday afternoon and Sunday when I
would be available in my classroom, knowing that the school would be unlocked
at this time, and the gates would be open. Many other teachers would be in
their rooms, putting the final touches on their classroom environments and
getting ready for the new school year. I put the completed postcards cards in
the mail at the post office Friday morning, so that the cards would arrive to
my new students’ homes by Saturday afternoon.
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| It's important to put the cards in the mail in time to reach your students before the "Meet and Greet." |
Many parents and students stopped by my classroom during
those hours. Many of the children held tightly to the postcard in their hands,
a shy smile on their faces. I made sure to stop whatever I was doing and greet
each child and their parents as they entered my room. I showed each child their
new desk, with their nameplate and books. I encouraged them to take a look
around, and ask any questions they might have.
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| Have student nameplates and books on their desks before the "Meet and Greet." Place a large Post-it note on the nameplate so that they can write any spelling changes they want for their nameplates. I gladly make these changes later, because I feel it is important to have preliminary nameplates ready for the "Meet and Greet." The few changes I have to make more than makes up for the positive feelings created in students when they see their names on their desks. The ones I have to change are even better, as the students come in the first day of school to the correct version of their names already on the desks. :) |
My new students often head straight to some interesting
are of the classroom (such as the classroom library) and immediately begin to
explore. Then parents are free to meet with me, ask questions, and begin to
realize that I am an experienced teacher, and that I have the best interests of
their child in mind. More than one worried parent has shared with me that the postcards I sent
were the first piece of mail their child had ever received, and that they
really appreciated the personal touch.
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| Students Curl Up with a Classroom Library Book |
You can find welcome postcards at most school supply stores.
I created my own, so that I only have to type the welcome message once. Then I handwrite
each student’s name in the greeting to personalize his or her card.
Thanks for stopping by my blog! Next time I’ll write about
the letter I send to parents at the beginning of each school year. J Until then!
Have a fabulous week!
