Communicating with Parents

How often do you communicate with the parents of your students? Is there something that is hindering the communication? Often it is language barriers or lack of parent involvement that hinder the home-to-school communication. As teachers we need to overlook these things and do our best to ensure that we are making every effort to reach the families of our students. Weekly newsletters can be emailed or printed and sent home. Videos and pictures can be uploaded to a class website for parents to view.

In my classroom I have a lot of similar barriers as other teachers. Many of my students go home each afternoon and speak languages that I do not know. I have parents who do not initiate or respond to communication. I cannot let this bother me. I send home a detailed newsletter every Friday. This newsletter always includes photos and/or videos of our classroom learning in action. I ask for parent volunteers to come in and use www.signupgenius.com to keep track of who and when. This is a great resource for parents to use as well. When I will have parent volunteers I put together a visual of what their job will be and send this to them. This video always includes my classroom, what they will be doing, and what they can expect to see. I want for them to feel confident when they walk into our room and so I provide them with as much information about our routine as I can.

What about THOSE students. The ones where you feel like the communication is always negative. I have those too. The ones you spend 50% of your time redirecting and teaching them how to behave. 9 times out of 10 the parents think their child is perfection and you are wrong. The other doesn't care that their child is acting inappropriately. This is my struggle. How to keep these parents informed, but without it being negative all the time.

How do you communicate with your parents? What is your struggle with communication?

Finding Learning in Nature

Sometimes a simple walk outside can lead you to something that will become lengthy or robust learning opportunities within your classroom. This happened to me one day while the lawn was being mowed. A large green caterpillar was crawling slowly along the mulch around my Red Maple tree. Being such a lover of learning I caught the caterpillar and put my oldest son to work researching what type of caterpillar it was. He quickly determined that it was a Luna Moth Caterpillar and we set up a habitat for the caterpillar so that we could watch the upcoming transformation. I brought the caterpillar into my classroom and incorporated it into my students' activities for the next week. It was a great learning experience and we  learned so much about the Luna Moth!

Interested in incorporating this beautiful creature into your classroom activities? Click HERE to go to my Luna Moth Integrated Unit!

Becoming an Education Blogger

I have contemplated blogging for a while now. I am incredibly passionate about education and my students, but always convince myself that I simply do not have the time to devote to blogging. Now, the more I see other educators who are confused, discouraged, or feeling unsure I realize that for a few minutes of my time I can provide some solace and examples that may help them. At the very least, I hope to provide a place to find great ideas, resources, and some educator humor that inevitably arises throughout the days.

I am by no means an expert in education. In fact, I am a fairly new teacher. Perhaps it is my lack of experience that has me as positive about education as I feel that I am. If that is what it is, I hope to always have the mentality of the "new teacher". I hope that I do not get caught up in any future curriculum changes and that I maintain the positive belief that I can change the lives of my students and impact their brains, their future, and their attitudes.

I love to create materials and activities for my classroom. I will post links to my Teachers Pay Teachers store and provide FREEBIES at times. All activities that I create are geared toward the 5th grade Common Core Standards and/or the Georgia Performance Standards. I have a great time creating these things and usually my students enjoy completing them. I say usually because I do teach 5th grade after all. They can be a fickle bunch!