I am a first year teacher and I am asked to call all the students before the first day of school. We have a "Meet the Teacher" get together the day before school starts, for an hour, so I am not sure what to say when I call the students' homes. I don't want long conversations because with at least 20 students, that really takes a lot of time. Anyone have experience with this?
I have never heard of teachers being required to call their students! I'm glad I don't have to! Have you talked to other teachers in your school? What to they say to the students when they call? I guess you could just say that you are looking forward to getting to know them. This would also be a good opportunity to find out if they go by a shortened version of their name or a nickname. That way, you won't write the wrong thing on everything. Good luck to you!!
We have to call each of our students' parents to invite them (remind them, really) to our back to school night. You keep it very short and sweet, say you are ___'s teacher and you are looking forward to meeting them on _____ date at back to school night. That's it.
I'm not required to call students, but I do anyway. Guarantees a positive first contact with parents! I start out by saying, "Hi, I'm Mrs. ________ and I teach K at _____ Elem. School. Your child, ____________, is on my class roster." (I put it that way because we often have students on our roster that are planning to go to another school so that allows parents to inform me of that.) I ask what name their child would like to be called in school (I can then go ahead and put names on cubbies, nametags, coathooks, etc. and know I'm not going to have to change them when I find out Micheal goes by David, etc.) and if they are planning on attending our back to school social. Often they don't know about it, so I give them the date and time. Then I ask them if they have any questions. Sometimes I ask to speak to the child. I end with the fact that I am looking forward to meeting them. Usually the phone calls are very short and sweet. Sometimes they have a lot of questions. I'd rather take the time to answer them then than on the first morning of school! Even for those who aren't required to call parents before school, I highly recommend it. Some parents are so impressed that they make it a point to tell my principal about it. It is just a very positive way to start the relationship.
Also, my daughter's Kindy teacher called last year. In addition to the "I'm looking forward to a wonderful year" spiel, she also confirmed that Julia was a bus student and her bus number. Even though I KNOW she had the info, it was reassuring to know that she was on top of it.!
We have to do a positive phone call home within two weeks after school has started to get the good rapport should you have to make the negative phone call home later in the year. I always feel a little silly just calling to say Johnny is a great asset to the class. Most parents just kind of say OK and then that is the end of the conversation.
That's why it makes sense to call before class begins if you can. Your reason for calling then is to introduce yourself. Perhaps if the year has already started you could just ask the parent for their perspective on how things are going and if they have any questions about anything so far. And, of course, include the part about Johnny being a great asset!
