Open House

Just when you are starting to relax after the hectic back to school weeks of preplanning, setting up your classroom, and greeting all those beautiful faces on the first day of school, it’s time … for open house.

 

Even after 13 years of teaching, I still stress over open house.  The formats have changed over the years as our school administration has changed.  There are a lot of parents, grandparents, and siblings to meet for secondary teachers and typically this night comes so fast I don’t have all of my student’s names down yet.  My school is currently doing an “open, open house”.  That means there is a two hour time frame for parents to come through to meet the teachers. They can begin and end anywhere on campus they would like.  There are parts to this type of open house I like better than our old “follow your kid’s schedule” format, but there are also challenges.  I teach multiple grade levels and multiple courses.  I have different policies and rules for different classes (think 8^th graders taking high school credit vs. 6^th grade at-risk intervention students).  When they are all piled into the class at once, misunderstandings can take place.  Long lines sometimes occur using the open, open format that were not a problem for the scheduled format.  I do one night for the open, open format while I had to do multiple nights for the scheduled format, and often sat waiting for my next presentation because the grade level classes were not all in a row.  Obviously one night vs. multiple nights gets a thumbs up from me.

My students need to use their electronics wisely, because I am watching!

They just think math is going to kill them.

 

This year I tried organizing my class just for our open house to give my visitors options.  Parents signed in and then could wander the classroom looking at different displays or try out some of our activities.  I had a scavenger hunt using QR codes, task cards, triangle puzzles, examples of student work and projects, and technology based activities using TI-Nspire units.  Information on how to set up conferences, use online programs, etc. were also available at different stations around the room.  The class rules were on display using my meme area and the electronic device policies were posted in multiple areas.  If parents just wanted to see the classroom and check me out, they could do so as quickly or slowly as they wanted to.  Parents who wanted to say hello had something to occupy themselves with if there was a line.  My favorite part was watching my students explain to their family how and what we did in class.  It was really nice to see that connection being made and I hope it made open house a little nicer for my families too.

Students designed parachute systems for the Orion capsule and we tested them.

Geometry in motion.

 

One of the big draws turned out to be my tootling board.  I saw this idea on Pinterest over the summer and fell in love with the idea.  For those of you who have not heard of the concept, a tootling board replaces “tattling” in a classroom.  Students are encouraged to write kind notes about classmates who do something nice or unexpected.  We don’t sign the notes in my class and the kids love to get the notes up without the “recipient” being aware.  They are loving being able to “toot someone else’s horn” and read about themselves making someone else's day. 

 

Love the positive team-building!

 

So, have you had your open house yet?  How did it go?  I’d love to hear some ideas on what is working well for you.
 

Have a great week and happy teaching!

 

Laura