4 Meet the Teacher Tips

The back to school season is busy long before your students enter your classroom and you are in need of meet the teacher tips.  I think we can all just giggle when people say that teachers only work 9 months out of the year! Even if we aren’t physically working, our brains never stop thinking about our classrooms and kids. During the back to school season, there are so many things to prepare for and meet the teacher is one of them. I want to help you prepare with these simple meet the teacher tips.

Here are a few things that I have learned throughout my years in the classroom to help have a smooth Meet the Teacher Night!

1. Get Family’s Contact Information

Get a current phone number and email address from every parent. Years ago, there wasn’t a nice organized online portal. And even then, I’d much rather have a quick list I could look at than have to log in to a system to make a phone call. Have parents share their contact information through google docs or a google form so that you don’t have to input the information later. This will absolutely save you some time and we both know that there is very little time to be wasted during this busy season!

2. Give Your Contact Information to Families

Families want to know how to best get in touch with you. Is it an app? Is it a text? Is it email? Is it a phone call? Whatever you prefer, let them know!

Give families something to take home so that they can easily contact you. A magnet, business card, or just a piece of paper for them to put on their refrigerator so that they can easily find your contact info. I made these quickly and printed them on card stock then used my favorite magnetic tape to put a strip on the back. So simple and quick!

I know today there are several communication tools, but having a simple magnet that told parents how to contact me was helpful!

3. Have Parents Help You Sort Supplies

One of my favorite meet the teacher tips is to do stations on that night! Have the students and parents work together to sort their supplies. Allow the parents to check off on the school supply list everything they brought and leave the list with you. Some teachers I have worked with like to help remind parents of needed supplies.  This is a fabulous meet the teacher tip and parents love being able to help their little one settle in!

Simply grab tubs, open cabinets, or extra boxes from the workroom and label them! The closer I could get the supplies to their permanent location, the better!

You can get this set of labels HERE in my TpT Store.

4. Share Your Expectations.

Communicating with parents is important for success! About 5 years ago a sweet teacher on my team introduced me to “The ABCs of 1st Grade/Kindergarten”. Hands down, it was one of the best Meet the Teacher tips ever!  Since then I have used it every year.  It was very informative and helped me remember everything! Some years we shared this on curriculum night, and other years we would share this during Meet the Teacher Night. My last year in the classroom I made it “Mrs. Richardson’s ABCs of Information”. 

You can grab the EDITABLE freebie below and make it your own! My text is there to help guide you! This is one of my favorite meet the teacher tips, especially on the parent side of things now!

You can create your very own!

Join my email list and grab your FREE EDITABLE ABCs of School document!

Simply click and type away! This is great for you to send home with parents, send it digitally, post on your online learning platform, to send it snail mail style to parents.

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How do you handle Meet the Teacher? What are your favorite meet the teacher tips or tricks? I’d love to hear in the comments below!