Open House or Meet the Teacher?
Posted by Sharon M. Tresino on 27 Aug 2009 | Posted in: Classroom Routines, Teachers and Teaching
As I drove to work one day last week, I passed an elementary school with a sign out front signaling that open house was scheduled for that afternoon. It caught me by surprise because school has not yet started here. I always thought of open house taking place a few weeks into the school year. It was a time for parents to visit the classroom, ask questions, and learn about routines and the curriculum for that grade. So I figured that the open house I saw advertised was probably what I would have thought of as Meet the Teacher Day—a chance for the kids to meet their teachers before school starts. I brought this up to a few of my coworkers and we all seemed to have had different experiences. That’s why I’ve decided to ask you: do you have both events at your school? And what do you call them? I’m curious!
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57 Responses to “Open House or Meet the Teacher?”
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More Comments Pages: [1] 2 3 4 5 » Show All Comments
Yes, we have both meet the parents and open house at our school. We have parent orientation two days before school starts. The orientation clarifies any questions or concerns parents have before school starts. The teacher gives a booklet stating all classroom routines and projects that will be coming up. This helps the teacher put parents faces to names the names of their students. We have open house in March. Parents looking to enroll their child in our school come to check out all the classrooms. Also, parents check out the classroom their child will be in next year to see what they have in store for the next grade. Science fair displays are shown and also student art from their art classes. The cheerleaders perform on this night to demonstrate school spirit. Open house is a fun night for parents and students.
We have a parent meeting in early August . Parents meet with the director to go over paper work and school policies.
Preschool and Kindergarten teachers visit each childs home befor school starts.
Then we have an open house and ice cream social the night befor school starts. the whole family comes and members of our sponsering congregation come to welcome the children to our Early childhood center.
We have an open house before school starts which you could say is meet the teacher time–they come in meet us and can drop off supplies. I have seen all of your great ideas in the mailbox and wish our school would do something like this once school starts. I think it would really boost the connection between school and home!
We have always had “Meet the Families Night” at our school. It takes place after registration but before the first day of school. It is a time when our families and children meet each other and also the time we go over “House Keeping Rules” for the parents. These “rules”, also known as school policies, is a time to explain all that our parents need to know about our policies and organizational methods so we can serve our families with the utmost quality. We put out a spread of finger foods for all to enjoy and we show the children where they’re seats and cubbies will be. Last but not least, we hand out a school shirt to each of our students with a surprise back to school package. This “Meet the Families Night” has always started our school year off on the best foot possible.
I have an open house, but it’s before the school year actually begins. I call it an open house, but it’s really more of a “come and meet me and some of the other kids in your class” type-of-thing.
I have taught Kindergarten for three years and we have always had an Open House just before school starts. This year I decided to try the “Meet the Teacher” approach so that my new students would have some one-on-one time with me before school started.
It went so nicely and everyone had quality time to get to know me and ask questions that they might not have asked during an Open House. We are still planning on an Open House - However, it will be in September so we can use that time to show off our work.
Also, were able during “Meet the Teacher” to get some of the dreaded paperwork filled out before school started. We are off to a great year!
Knoxville, TN
We have “open house” the night before school starts. The families are supposed to drop off all the supplies and meet the teachers.
When we had Open House a few weeks into the school year, most parents wanted to use it like a mini parent teacher conference and ask how their child was doing, but the public Open House forum was not the appropriate setting for that.
I like it with open house before school starts, I always put out permanent markers and have the parents put the child’s name on all school supplies. It also allows me to see which supplies are missing and tell the parents which special class we will have on the first day of school.
I am the Director of a large Pre-school. We begin our school year with an Open House the day before school starts. The children and their parents come in to see their classrooms, meet their teachers and classmates. The children play with the toys while we speak to the parents about some of our policies and pass out a little paperwork.
The next day the children arrive there are many fewer tears since they have been there the day before and remember some of the faces and the fun they had the day before. This seems to work out perfectly for us!
We have both events at our school. A few days before the students began school, we had meet the teacher day where the students bring their supplies, meet the teacher, and this school year,toured the new school building. This helps eliminate the students having to carry the bulky supplies with them on the first day and also keeps parents from sticking around, because they too have already met the teacher. We started the school year on August 12th, so we just had our Open House in the evening
with a PTO/PTA meeting, touring of the building (resource classes), Book Fair in the library, etc. Many students bring their grandparents to Open House, where we have art work, class samples and textbooks on display.
At the school where I intern at they have both days. The Friday before school started they had a “Meet the Teacher day” where the students and parents came to find their new classrooms and meet their teachers and classroom interns. Later in the year we will have two open houses…but they call these nights Curriculum nights - each curriculum night has a them like reading and math or science and history. The school feeds the families dinner and the families have a chance to go around to different classrooms to engage in lessons and activities connected with the theme.
We have an open house the night before school starts. This gives the families a chance to find the classroom, meet the teacher, and drop off all of those supplies that would otherwise weigh the students down the first day of school. I think this also lets the students rest a little easier that night before school, too. It also lets the teacher concentrate more on meeting the families, instead of having mini conferences at a later open house.
We have three different events that serve three different purposes. We have two open house sessions, one in the winter and one in the spring. We also have a meet the teacher session one week prior to the start of school. Additionally, we host a back to school night.
The open house sessions give parents an opportunity to view the school/classrooms in action. Parents are typically given a brief overview of the school’s mission and goals before participating in a guided tour of the building. After the tour, parents are given the opportunity to ask questions about the school.
During meet the teacher week, each family is given an individual appointment with the teacher in the child’s classroom. This allows the child, parent and teacher to get to know one another. During this time, parents also fill out a survey about their child as the teacher takes the child on a classroom tour. Back to school night is usually held mid/late September and allows parents and students an opportunity to meet all key staff, review grade level expectations, school protocols and information specific to the child’s class.