My grade level held a Native American Parent night last night. Our students made Native American projects and we displayed them for the parents to come and see. My school district has Parent Conferences in a couple of weeks and I was talking to my teacher/partner/friend about how I planned to lay out a clip board with a Parent Conference sign-up sheet on it and I was going to have the parents choose a conference day and time during the Native American night.
Well, my BRILLIANT partner came up with the idea of putting up some chart paper with Post-Its all over it. On the Post-Its, he said I should write down the individual conference dates and times and simply have parents pull off a post-it, write their name on it and give it to me. I have to admit...at first it sounded like MUCH more work than just laying out a clip board with a schedule on it and lay out a couple of pens.
Well, my BRILLIANT partner came up with the idea of putting up some chart paper with Post-Its all over it. On the Post-Its, he said I should write down the individual conference dates and times and simply have parents pull off a post-it, write their name on it and give it to me. I have to admit...at first it sounded like MUCH more work than just laying out a clip board with a schedule on it and lay out a couple of pens.
The chart and the Post-Its took less than 10 minutes to put together! I used different color Post-Its for each day. Purple was for Monday, Pink was for Tuesday, etc. Each Post-Its was for a separate time slot during conference week. | Oh my! It worked beautifully! I made one announcement at the beginning when parents first arrived to look at the projects and then I told a few other parents who wandered in later in the evening! I didn't hover near the chart and NO ONE was confused about what to do...not even my Spanish speaking parents! |
I had 20 (out of 30) parents choose a conference day/time last night! All I have to do now is send home reminders and track down the remaining 10 parents.
I LOVE my teacher partner/friend! Thanks for your brilliant idea!
I LOVE my teacher partner/friend! Thanks for your brilliant idea!