A New Way To Look At Meet The Teacher

​Every new school year brings about excitement, anticipation, and worry for our students and families. The first day of school this year was no different. Rochester students filled the halls of our many classrooms and were greeted by their friends and school staff. When we think about the first day of school, many of us think about how exciting a new year will be. We often think about our hopes and dreams. We start to plan on how we want our students to make great gains academically and create lasting relationships with their peers and teachers.

​However, for many of our students and their families, the first day of school brings about anxiety, fear and uncertainty for what a new school year will bring. When our students leave us in the spring for a fun filled summer, often times they go home to uncertain circumstances. Family situations can change and unexpected life events occur which can create hidden challenges for our students. As we get to know our students and families each year it can take weeks and even months to understand the complicated lives of our students and the impact it is having on them every day at school.

​Typically schools hold a Meet the Teacher event the week before school starts, where the halls of our schools are packed full of excited and anxious families and students. This is the first opportunity families have to reach out to educators to start communicating about the needs of their child. As a classroom teacher, we have five minutes to say hello, hand parents a packet of information, share a few important tid-bits and move on to the next family. Due to the lack of privacy, our families have little chance to share meaningful personal information with the classroom teacher.

Fast forward to the first week of school and our classroom teachers are faced with the challenge of learning about each student, academically and socially. The challenge of a teacher the first few weeks is to understand a child as a learner. However, with twenty to thirty other students in the room, it can take weeks to determine their exact needs. So in our typical fashion, we as educators like to ask, “How can we be better?” Is there a way we can better service our families and meet the needs of our students more swiftly at the start of the year? Bishop Elementary School is a great example of teachers coming together to try a new approach in meeting the needs of their students.

​This year the staff at Bishop Elementary School piloted a new way to start the school year in an effort to not only meet the social/emotional needs but the academic needs of their students. Rather than holding a large Meet the Teacher event in the school, Bishop teachers, after a year of research and planning, held conferences on the first two days of school. Each family was given a 30 minute conference time with their classroom teacher. Generally, the first part of that conference was an opportunity for families to share meaningful information with the teacher about their dreams for the child in the coming year. After gaining information from the parents, the teacher was able to meet one-on-one in the quiet of the room to assess the student academically. Fast forward to the first day of school and our teachers had more of the information they needed to start the year. 

​They now know the challenges and joys that the children face at home, they hold a clearer picture of who the child is academically and they have already started the important journey of forming a relationship with the family and student.
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                                                                                                            This post brought to you by Kate Palmquist, Elementary Principal on Special Assignment