Hey y'all!
Three days into teaching! Woo! It's...exhausting. My lower back is a mess of knots from standing, bending over small desks, or squatting to listen to a child read. I got my first spontaneous hug today, a child asked me a question I could not answer (birds...bees...you get the idea), and we spent a long time practicing going from carpet to tables and back again.
I know everyone said teaching was all about behavior management. To me, it's classroom management. I'm not a teacher - I'm a classroom manager. I manage time in a way that everyone gets to pee, eat food, move around, learn to handle petty arguments, get from Point A to Point B in one piece, and learn. Teaching in the purest sense is just a part of my job.
I'm trying to call parents to say hello, and start our relationships on a positive note. Five calls today, a few more tomorrow, and hopefully knock out the rest before our Back-to-School Night. Parental attendance is typically low, so I'd like to get a happy hook in so that they want to come to my classroom. I'm starting with the kids who I feel certain will be the recipients of less-positive calls later on, and it's amusing to hear the surprise in the parents' voices when I say "Nothing's wrong, just calling to say hello and how happy I am to have ___ in my class!". For some parents, I explicitly mention a great thing I've seen their kid doing - just to be sure they know that, despite reputations, their children have wonderful qualities, too.
How about you? What are you doing to reach out to parents?
xoxo
Miss Zee
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