Or maybe you have a staff party coming up in a couple of months and want a fun door prize to end the night with? 

Look no further than the video below!  I think you will like the little alternative I will show you.  Fun, inexpensive, and yes, cute.

Prefer to read the Transcript? Keep reading below!

“Hi everyone. Charity Preston here. Welcome back! It’s good to see you again. I haven’t done a video in a while, so I thought today would be a good day.

I had a question on the fan page wall from someone who was asking about a carnival and they had to come up with a gift basket for their school. Each classroom had to come up with something and I thought, “Hey, I have a really cool idea for that someone had shared with me actually years ago!”

So if you have to produce something as a class for a fundraiser or for a carnival fall festival or a Christmas event, this would be a good thing to do!

Okay. So all what you’re going to need is you’re going to need some type of little artificial tree, whether it’s this for if you had something going on in the spring, or a little pine tree that you would find around Christmas time. You’re also going to need a hole puncher. Now we’ll need string as well. Okay.

And as a side note, I saw this on Pinterest, and I know you guys will appreciate this. Take your yarn, put it in a baggie, put a little tiny hole in there and -check this out – you just pull the yarn and that string never gets tangled up on the inside of it. Genius! Who thinks of this kind of stuff? I’m just passing it along. Fantastic idea.

If you don’t have yarn, you can use basic pipe cleaners, which are 99 cents at the dollar store. I actually used some sparkly ones for mine today.

And then the next thing you will need are some type of gift cards. Now you can go about this, a couple of different ways.

You can either have every family donate a $5 gift card for one location, maybe a grocery store.

Or leave it up to the family to go out and get a $5 gift card to any place. So you could have a bunch of different ones. You could have a movie theater, one, a gas station, one, the grocery store, target Walmart, different restaurants, phone cards, iTunes gift cards, wherever that you prefer.

Or one last option in leui of a monetary gift card is they could donate some time. Maybe instead they make a cute little gift card that says we will come over to wash your car or bake a plate of cookies. I don’t know. However, you want to do it.

If you want to donate something as a classroom, you need to have either a bunch of little prizes or one big prize. So really $5 for a family, depending on where your district is, some families may not be able afford that. So instead go with something that they can trade in value their time.

So then you’re going to take your gift cards, your big monster hole punch, and punch a hole in one of the corners of it, (not where the strip is where obviously people need to run that through the register), but someplace else on the card where it’s not going to matter.

Attach the cards to your tree with your pipe cleaners or yarn.

Here’s my little cute little example here. And you would have a whole bunch of gift cards all over the place.

I’m sure the super crafty people could put a little bird in here or really make it cute with a little tree topper. I’m not that crafty, but I thought that was a fantastic idea that someone super crafty would be able to make it look amazing and festive for whatever the event.

So now you can actually call it a gifting tree, or if you want to go with the theme of a giving tree, you could put the book “The Giving Tree” next to it. That would be something awesome to discuss with your class as well.

So as a group classroom project, I think that the gifting tree is a really fun idea. It doesn’t really cost you a lot of money out of pocket other than the supplies. Andthe tree and the pipe cleaners are pretty inexpensive. Then have the families donate $5 gift cards.

So it’s not a big expense on their part, but it really comes together. If you 20 students in your classroom, that’s a hundred dollars on your tree that someone will win, and maybe they’re for all different places which makes it even more fun to visit local places maybe they have never thought to visit before.

Or if it’s all from one place, like a grocery store, a hundred dollars at the grocery store could really help out any family.

This would be a fantastic idea too, for a staff party! If everyone on the staff donates a $5 or $10 gift card, and you raffle it off, you could really have a nice prize there as well.

I hope you have enjoyed my little gifting tree. Feel free to gift me one whenever you want. Ha! I’ll talk to you again soon. Bye.“

Need a quick template for a parent request form for the gift cards?

You can grab the editable template below. I included my version from above, but all the text can be edited in either Powerpoint or Google Slides.

Click here to email your freebie

How would you be able to use this idea in your classroom (or even not in the classroom)?  I would love to hear your thoughts below.

~Charity

The post The Gifting Tree appeared first on Organized Classroom.

Field trips, having parents listen to students read, and running the annual class party are all traditional volunteer opportunities. But, if you would like to really up your parent involvement this school year, use those parents for things “outside of the box.” You’ll have so many parents, you’ll end up instead looking for parent volunteer gift ideas.

Even if you are a high school teacher, items like putting up a hallway bulletin board, prepping center materials, or even running learning centers will give the volunteer in your classroom something different than just showing up once or twice a year for the required parent teacher conferences.

Imagine:   They want to come into your classroom and you have a system in place, but all your grading is caught up, you’re not allowed to touch the copy machines so they can’t do that, and you don’t know what to do with them now, right? In the past, I’ve had parent volunteers that I have had to turn away at times because I didn’t know what they could do.  True Story.

Now you may be watching this and screaming at the computer right now because you say, “I can’t even get a parent to answer the phone when I call, let alone come in to help out in the classroom.” That’s okay too. I’ve been on both of those ends of the spectrum as well.  I’ve had other years in other school districts where I couldn’t get a parent to come in to save my life.

The good news?  I have some ideas for you, EVEN if the parents can’t come in!  Maybe it will be a way to transition them to come in to your classroom someday. Or if they truly cannot get there.   I get it.  Everybody’s working. Mom is working two jobs.  Dad’s working two jobs.  Maybe the student stays with a grandparent most of the time or at a babysitter or at a daycare.   Transportation to get to the school just might not be an option.  They just don’t have time to come into the classroom. I’ve been on that road too.

I have been that parent too in the past.  There were lots of times when I have wanted to go to my daughter’s class when she was little and there’s no way that I could have because I had to work. I was a single parent and it just wasn’t going to happen.

BUT if I had had some things to do from home where I could have helped I might have been more apt to want to contribute my time to her classroom in that way and help her teacher.

I don’t think it’s that parents don’t want to help.  They just either don’t know what to do, they can’t get to the school, or school makes them nervous because maybe they had a bad experience while they were growing up. I don’t think someone inherently just has no interest in their child’s education. Most parents really want their child to succeed and they want to help be part of that. If they can do it from home, then that’s a fabulous option.

The great news?  I have some ideas for all of that!   WOOOOO HOOOOOO!  I am even going to put this freebie classroom volunteer form right in this blog post below so you can grab it for FREE!   Read FIRST though and then grab it.

You might want to check out:

Need some new ideas for Back to School?  This 114 page digital book has you covered!

Includes 14 ad-free articles from Organized Classroom, including topics such as:

• Easy Bulletin Board Ideas
• Quick Classroom Decor
• Fundraising Hacks
• Getting Parents On Your Side Right Away

…and even more!

Now available in our Shop!  And the second copy to share with a friend is half price!

See it HERE.

What is Something Parents Can Do To Encourage Volunteering?

I like to set it out and send it home at the very beginning at the school year or during Open House/Meet the Teacher Night, but you know what?  It’s never too late to get started. If it’s the last month of school, that’s okay too! 

Send it home and see who might like to help you wrap up the year. The end of the year is kind of crazy for most people, so why not get some extra help if you need it. I’m just going to go through the list of options on this form.  There are 11 different positions that parents can do throughout the school year to help in the classroom. 

Some can be done only at school, while others can be done at school or even at home!

Of course at the very top is a spot where they need to put down their name, their phone number and their email, so that way I can contact them. Even if I cannot get them on the phone I could probably do it via email.

The first one can be done at school or at home, it’s called a Book Candy Striper.   It’s assisting and repairing damaged books in the classroom library. It’s as easy as sending home 5 or 6 books a week, and sending home the materials to fix it. Whether it’s packing tape, so you send home the roll of packing tape so they can do that.

If you want them to level the books, if they need to write anything on the inside cover, if they need to add labels with your name on the back. Just send home the supplies even if it would only take you 20 minutes to do it just yourself, that’s okay.

Toss all the supplies in a little canvas handled bag that you got at the local craft store for 99 cents and send it home with that child if the parent agrees to do it at home along with the written directions. I would actually type out the directions exactly how you want it done, laminate it on hard card stock and that always lives in the Book Candy Striper bag.

Whenever you see 5 or 6 books that need a little TLC, put them together in the bag, send them home with the student, and place a sticky note that says, “Hey, can I have these back by the end of the week fixed up? That would be great!  Thanks for your help.” Pop it in the bag and go.

That’s 20 minutes you get back of your own time and that’s one of the biggest complaints that I hear from teachers that they don’t have a life outside of school. Take back that 20 minutes.

The next one is Project Surgeon, where you’re cutting, stapling, prepping copies or teacher materials. Again that can be done at school or at home. If you have the copies run and you know you’re going to make some little books, send it home with the directions.

Language Listener, I love this one because it can be done at school or at home. If you have a parent that wants to come in, or even over Skype. Use the technology. They’re listening to students simply read aloud.

I know a ton of students that would love for Grandma who lives across the country in Florida and you live in California to dial in and listen to students read for 15 minutes once a week during center time. How fun is that? You can get people from all over the world, relatives that can log in, call in and visit with your classroom during that time, it will encourage so much reading.  Even if “Fido” is listening.

Okay the next one, Homework Helper. This one probably can only be done in the classroom, but the classroom volunteer is checking in that students have brought their homework back.  Maybe not necessarily grading it because you may have some laws or regulations regarding parents grading other students’ work, but just checking it in.

They have a little check list, and can go down through the list:  Billy brought his, Jenny brought hers, etc.  They are simply checking it off so you know right away in the first 10 minutes of the day, who brought their homework back and who didn’t, and you didn’t have to take time out of your day to do it yourself.

Classroom Library Curator:   This one is in the classroom only, but they’re going to organize the classroom library for you – score!  They can level the books.  Or even better, could suggest great titles for students based on their reading levels. 

If the student has a little card with their reading levels on it or punched out on it someplace, the Classroom Library Curator can help the student pick out a great book based on their reading level.

I love this one in the classroom:  Picture Perfect Photographer. If you have a parent who is actually a professional photographer, it’s even better right? They take pictures of the approved students {make sure they know who’s been allowed to get their pictures taken during various activities throughout the year}.

Then you could even have them upload them to the class website if that isn’t already being done by another parent, or they drop them in a dropbox file for you – or another parent to use for the website, or at the end of the year they make a huge slide show with all of the pictures and send a copy to every student’s family. That would be a really, really fun thing to do.

Guest Speakers are always welcome, of course!  I always ALWAYS have that on my classroom volunteer sign up form. Talking to the students about what their real life job is and how the curriculum ties into it is amazing for broadening minds of “why do we have to learn that?”  Or be a guest reader and read a book aloud.

Again this can be done in person or over Skype, so you know George has an Uncle Billy works at NASA and you are doing a space unit. Get Uncle Billy on Skype from his job at NASA to say hello to the students and explain a little bit of what he does and how that ties in with the unit that you’re doing. It would take 10 minutes and it would be wonderful to connect real-world to the classroom learning.

I’d be excited to be called the Ultimate Party Planner over being a “Room Mom” for sure. They plan out the agendas for all of the classroom celebrations. They can co-plan it with the teacher, during the school day in the classroom, telephone, or even just through email. “Hey let’s plan this party what games do you have?” She sends you some links that you could do.

Send home the ideas, have her put together the craft, she sends it back, and it’s ready to go. It doesn’t HAVE to be done in the classroom.  She (or he) could also be contacting the other parents, and asking for food, drink, and party supply donations.  Easy peasy!

The Taste Caterer makes sure that students have enough treats for daily use or special events through out the year. They could assist in asking fellow parents to donate if the classroom is running low. Again that can be done at school or that can be done at home. 

This is an activity that parents can do from their own house and they don’t have to come to school for. If they work the night shift and they need to sleep during the day, they could either call in the morning or in the afternoon and get those things taken care of while still feeling a part of their children’s classroom experience.

Two more left:  The Pencil Proctor is where the volunteer actually does sharpening of all the pencils in the morning.

I have always kept a cup of pencils in the middle of each students’ pods of desks, and all the pencils in that cup were sharpened at the start of the day. If a student broke a pencil during the day, he or she put that one back in the cup, and grabbed a new pencil out.

You could have a parent helper, or a grandparent or another relative, arrive in the morning and sharpen all those cups of pencils so the day starts with completely sharpened pencils and you don’t have students getting up to sharpen pencils, up and down, all day long.

The last one is the Tech Guru. This role can maintain your classroom website, adding the regular newsletter file for the week, adding classroom photos, or maybe scanning in any student work that you want to showcase.

Again – this one can be done at home or at school. If they have a scanner and computer at home, send documents home in a folder with the student and the volunteer can do that right from home to update it. 

Another optional item for that role could be a school only option but to assist students with computer log in. If you have littles who are still learning how to log in to certain websites during computer time, they can come in during that particular time, if they’re available, and help the students log in and update anything else you need them updating while he or she is there.

Parent Volunteer Form

As you can see, lots and lots and lots of things on our classroom volunteer form!   I hope this was helpful in getting some ideas on what to do with those parent helpers.

I have had some parent helpers in the past that were so amazing and so organized, and as organized as I was, she organized even more. We honestly ran out of things for her to do because she was so amazing.

If I had had some of these ideas that were on this list I could have definitely had her do even more without even thinking. It’s kind of handy to have it at your fingertips and the part I love the most is that you will get a lot of parents that can help from home as well as in the school. Even if they can’t help during the school day, they might be able to help at home and participate that way.

Remember to download your freebie form below and if you found it to be helpful, don’t keep me a secret.  Please share this page with other teacher friends on Facebook, email, or Instagram now so that I can spread the love to even more teachers everywhere.

Have a great rest of the week all!

~Charity

The post What to do With Parent Helpers in the Classroom appeared first on Organized Classroom.

Some teachers use a checklist to get set up. Others make sure to send parents a specific flyer or invitation letting them know about the event.

And even others might be doing a virtual open house that involves invites and information that is sent electronically before hand. On the night of the event, they might be “zooming” in from their classroom or even their own home.

Open House certainly does not look the same for everyone, but with the tips below, you can adapt your night to be the most successful and stress-free than ever!

Making ALL Parents Feel Welcome – Even When They Don’t Show Up

I realize that not all parents will typically show up for Open House Night at school and the reasons why can also vary greatly. Works schedules can sometimes get in the way, especially if it is a single parent household. It could also be a lack of communication from the school district as to when it is being held especially if the parent is not readily connected to technology.

Whether I have a packed classroom or a handful of families in the room, I still want to make sure that my students’ caregivers understand the expectations and policies for the school year.

This really helps to let them know how your policies work – and there is little room for discussion when a situation arises later.

Plus, I personally like to give something for those families to take home that doesn’t involve connecting to a network, giving me their cell phone numbers or emails, or donating a pint of blood. Haha.

I even have an extra copy sitting in my file on the desk just in case I ever need it.

Creating Your Own Classroom Parent Handbook for Open House Night

I make sure to place a Classroom Parent Handbook on every desk before Open House starts. This also helps me in seeing very quickly at the end of the time who was not present so I can send the Handbook home with the student on their first day of school.

Here are the contents of my Classroom Parent Handbook. Of course, some of the information within is not accurate, but I think you’ll get the gist from looking through the sample pages.

After the cover page, I like to include some personal information about myself. Parents, in particular, appreciate knowing you are a regular person like them and having some personal information (without giving them your address or social security number) is great for creating that first bond.

Next up: the Classroom Schedule page.

You could even include specific times for arrival, tardy bells, and such.

I always think it’s nice when parents see this list and are trying to choose upcoming doctor’s appointment times, they just might take a look and choose a time closer to the end of the day or the beginning, depending on what the academic learning schedule looks like. Or maybe that’s just me when I’m making the choices for my own children. lol.

It’s great to have a Fun Stuff page that lets parents know the birthday treats policy, snacks, water bottles, etc. All those little things are addressed in the document, so you don’t need to answer those emails later down the road.

Of course Curriculum should be mentioned.

While the parent might not care what textbook company you use, they most likely WILL care how often their child has a spelling test…

…or what the grading scale looks like.

An extra page for Other Academics which may not be covered in the last 2 pages.

Kids also get really excited when they know ahead of time they are learning something they might look forward to, such as specific computer games or even cursive handwriting.

You can’t have a Parent Handbook without including the super important Homework policy page. On my page, I also included a little tip about how we will be communicating daily via an agenda book. Your policies may be different, but you can adapt your Handbook to match your specific routines.

Parent Involvement page!

This page is wonderful if you are looking for parent helpers too. You could even include a list of ongoing things you might need help with in the classroom – or even things parents can do at home wot help out, such as cutting, glueing, or stapling items and sending them back when finished.

If you have standardized testing or even benchmark testing, you could include a little about that process, when it is, and maybe how to best prepare their child for those days.

Another VIP: Very Important Page – Behavior Expectations.

You want to make sure you expectations and consequences are there in black and white so there is truly no question later about how your classroom rules work. This one page has seen me through some very trying times.

Last up is a finishing page where you can include your contact information again and a little message.

That’s it!

I usually print the handbook one-sided just so it’s easier to flip through and read, but depending on your paper usage allowance you might want to print double-sided.

If printing in color isn’t an option, they print great in grayscale as well.

Finally I thrive hole punch and pop into the brads of a plain folder or report cover and place on student desks.

What do you DO on Open House Night?

This is one of the best things for me: I actually create a quick Power Point presentation using these same document templates and put it on loop in the classroom.

Parents can then come in at their leisure during the time frame, find their child’s desk, take a look at the slideshow, and grab their Handbook and any other documents I might have for them before they leave.

While they are streaming in and out of the room, I am able to float and meet everyone individually which is the best part!

No timed presentations that start before everyone arrives. No worries about parents who might need to be in 2 different classrooms at once having multiple children in the building.

Instead, just a light and breezy evening of getting to meet my new families with no stress attached.

Open house really is an enjoyable evening for me and I hope for the students’ families who attend.

For those families that cannot be in attendance, at the end of the night I make sure to pack up the items on the student desks and label them with their name to be given to take home on the first day of school.

However I would normally contact the caregiver, whether that is a note in the agenda book or an email, etc., I let them know the Parent Handbook that was given out at Open House is in their child’s things for them to review and let me know if they have any additional questions.

That way, the caregiver gets the same information and does not feel as though they are “penalized” for not being able to make the school event on that particular evening.

Do you do something similar? We would love to hear about your ideas in the comments below too!

Need an Open House Night checklist so you feel more prepared before families start rushing through the door? Here is a quick 1-page template to use. Enjoy!

~Charity

The post Parent Handbooks for Open House Night appeared first on Organized Classroom.

PowerPoint is a wonderful program to prepare digital portfolios, but I also love really how easy it is to use pre-made templates at Canva.

Creating a Presentation from a Student Data Template

I know making 30 or more slideshow presentations for all students in you class sounds overwhelming, but if you use the same template for each, then it really is a matter of swapping out the data in each.

In fact, students can even do it for you!

First, I like to begin by grabbing this handy Parent Conference Slideshow Planning Page.

I fill one out for each student, which gets used each quarter, so you aren’t starting over from scratch each time!

Next, head to Canva and find a presentation template you like in their template library.

*Note: Canva is free to use, but there are also premium templates for paying customers. You will see those with a little crown in the corner. If you already have a paid account, you can use anything. If you prefer to stick to the free choices (which there are oodles), then steer clear of the crowns.

You might also be interested in:

This program is 62 pages, and includes 26 templates that are completely editable so you can personalize your conferences to your liking! Also includes forms for having ongoing Data Folders – recommended for grades 2-12! Parent Conference Night has never been so easy! Discover for yourself!

See more pages here.

I quickly found a template by typing “parent conference” in the search bar and then selecting presentations in the left column. So easy!

I quickly make a mockup of a sample conference slideshow that could be used with the data from your planning page from above.

Title Slide:

Final Grades for Each Quarter – You can always edit the chart to reflect all your subjects and/or different marking periods:

An easy way to show benchmarks in either reading, math, or both:

Having a Daily Class Schedule slide helps the caregiver see exactly what the student is doing when throughout the day:

A Specials page helps to get the specials teachers involved in the conference as well since they are not typically capable of attending each and every student conference:

I love that this slide can be customized where the student picks his or her own accomplishments from the last marking period:

A handy chart for parents to see some data about reading to children at home (or this could be a checklist of ways to incorporate math into daily life, etc.):

Some extra help resources online:

Student and Teacher Goals for the next grading period – This is a wonderful way to have meaningful conversations one-on-one with students and talk about setting goals that aren’t too easy OR too hard:

Wrap up with a Thank You page

Fancying Up Your Parent Teacher Conference Slideshow

Now that you have the basic template, you just need to have the data input into the slides.

If you have littles, this is probably best done by you and any assistants you may have.

But if your students are old enough, you could knock this out in an hour all at once by having the students pull up the slides themselves in the computer lab and one by one you go through each slide as a class and change the relevant info.

And then the hard part is done!

If you want to take it a step further, students could even change the colors in their slideshow and or add transitions. And Canva makes that part super easy too!

You can quickly go from a typical boring static presentation to one that stands out with animated words and pictures just by click a few extra buttons.

Now you can proudly host those parent conferences quickly and without a hundred papers to sift and sort through each time. In fact – the students could even be hosting their own conference by using the presentation.

You can even have the parent email the presentation to their own email if they want a copy too.

How do you conduct “parent conferences out of the box”?  We would love to hear your great ideas in the comments below as well!

Would you like the Planning Page mentioned above? Grab it below.

Happy Conferencing!

~Charity

The post Presenting Parent Conferences with a Technology Twist appeared first on Organized Classroom.

Today’s topic is how to create a classroom website using Shutterfly.

I have heard of Shutterfly, but had no idea you could actually create a private website that you could customize for a classroom!

Parents have to be invited and have the link in order to be able to view the content, so you won’t have any low-caliber people just randomly checking out your kids.

Would you like premade posters to inspire your students?

This pack of 25 colorful watercolor posters includes quotes from famous athletes.

Click HERE to grab them and save yourself time!

You can add lots of different pages to the website, which will then show up on the top tab menu bar, including pictures and videos, forums, forms, class rosters, calendars, and message boards!

Parents can also subscribe to the RSS Feed at the bottom and be notified whenever you update the sections – even cooler! I love that you are able to tag photos.

As a parent myself, I would love for there to be a place where I could see all my child’s pictures and then be able to order them right from my own computer, without having to track down the teacher to have her find the photo, download it, and send it to me in an email.  That gets to be a lot!

If you use digital portfolios, you could even tag students in on their work so that you have a portfolio collection right at your fingertips!

Ok – enough with the words, watch the video below to check it out for yourself.  Pretty cool!

Prefer to read the transcript? I’ve got you covered there too!

“Hi! It’s great to see you today.

I am bringing back a really cool feature that I started at the end of the last school year, which is called “Classroom Tech in Three Minutes or Less.”

I’m going to show you something really cool today and I’m only going to have three minutes to show it to you. So I have my handy little timer right next to me. Whenever you hear this sound, then you know that my three minutes is up. And for those of you who know me, I tend to be long-winded, so this should be interesting.

Let’s get started. Let me start my timer. Okay.

Today I want to show you a really cool way to set up a free website for your classroom that is so easy and so simple and so cool. And I had no idea until a fan from the Organized Classroom’s Facebook page mentioned it.

Head to shutterfly.com, which for the record, I always thought this was just for pictures to share pictures amongst family members who don’t live next to each other.

All you do is go in and set up a free account. Took me about three seconds to give them my email address, set up a password in my name, and then go to share, and you can get a free site.

You could choose the kind of site that you want first up.

So let’s do a classroom site – and we’re going to manage our classroom site website that is going to come up with you could actually even pick the school if you want your school code in there, all that, all the other good stuff.

And only the people that you choose will be able to have to sign in and able to get into your site. Perfect for keeping everything private for your students and families.

So once you do all that, you come over to your site and this is what it looks like for you. It’s pretty cool. I love this.

You Might Like This:

Student Encouragement Pack

4 teacher helpers that will engage students and help to keep them making great choices!

See it HERE.

It has spots where you can put pictures in. These are obviously not pictures of my classroom. They’re just pictures that I threw together from my big back to school event from some of my sponsors.

But you could add class and news updates, upcoming events, key contacts, how they can get ahold of you.

You can add links, Organized Classroom, of course is going to be in there as well. Ha!

You could add files. So I added in my spelling menu right in there. Parents can download it and they can use it for homework.

You can actually tag in students on any of the pictures or videos.

Let’s say you want to make a cool screencast like I am right now. You can upload one about how to do something in your classroom, so that’s super handy for parents and/or students to see how something works in the physical space.

There’s a calendar on here so you can put your upcoming events.

I also really like the volunteer list. So if you need volunteers for something, put a wishlist down, parents can see it.

Class lists and contact info is always a good thing.

For discussions, it’s like an inline message board. I posted a topic that I could do once a week. For example: “What is your favorite family meal to eat at dinner, blah, blah, blah.”

Anyway, so it’s really cool guys. And it’s free.

You give the parents your specific URL and only then they can come in and see it and interact with it and interact with you.

They are able to send an email right to you right from this site as well.

So if you have a question about something, they can answer via the same interface.

All right, there we go. We’re all done. {Gotta love that timer.}

They do even have a free room parent guide that you can download as well. It’s kind of cool.

So anyway, hope you have enjoyed taking a look at this classroom website brought to you by Shutterfly. You can edit all kinds of things in here and get fancy. But if you just want something simple you can do that too. Whatever that you like.

If you don’t have a classroom website program that you guys use in your specific school, go with Shutterfly.

Fantastic. I hope you have enjoyed Classroom Tech in Three Minutes or Less.

All right, we’ll see you later. Thanks so much. Bye.”

How would you utilize Shutterfly in your classroom?

I would love if you left a comment below!

Enjoy!

~Charity

The post Create Your Class Website for FREE! appeared first on Organized Classroom.

While there is much debate about whether homework is even beneficial, if you are required to assign it, I suggest encouraging parents to set up a designated spot for homework assignment work at home.  Keep reading for some tips to pass along.

My own children are both two very different creatures.  My oldest daughter, who is now a college graduate, was always really good about being self-motivated to come home after school, sit down, and get her homework finished before she did anything else.  The only late nights spent studying were the ones where she had an after school extra curricular or a job which kept her from completing it earlier.

Somehow I lucked out in the high school teenager lottery for school motivation.

Now, let’s talk about the opposite end of the spectrum:  my 10-year son.  He comes home after school, tosses his backpack (filled with crumpled up papers that never made it into his folder), tosses his coat on the floor, and immediately grabs a snack.  If I’m not watching, he attempts to sneak upstairs and grab his video games.  This would continue until either the world actually freezes over or I have to be the bad mom who needs him to put them away until homework is finished.

When this happens, it would appear that the world has ended and I’m the meanest person in the world.

Can anyone else relate?  That is what happens to parents at home when their kids don’t have motivation to do school work once they come home from school.  {Is it summer break, yet?}

How do you get students motivated to do their homework?

While teachers have a toolbox for increasing school motivation during the school day, perhaps parents are able to help the process along at home too.

Having a dedicated homework station in the home is a good start.  Even if it’s not a desk or a separate room, children will be able to focus more, stop procrastinating as much, and get their homework done faster if they have a safe place with a specific purpose.

Options for homework completion locations:

• At a dedicated desk just for the child – obvious, but not always available to most
• Kitchen table – also obvious, but not as “exclusive” if there are tons of other distractions atop the table
• An unused bunk bed – a “mini office” for completing the work
• Secret homework tent under a table – I love this one!  Place sheets on top of the table to create a homework fort.  Child can use a chair as a makeshift desk
• Cardboard box – No extra furniture?  No problem.  Find any box and have the student decorate it.  It can be a large refrigerator box that can be used as a separate homework office, or even a small box that can be flipped over to be used as a writing surface.

Things to have prepared in this spot:

• Small snack prepped on the “desk”
• Coffee mug filled with pencils, scissors, glue, pencil sharpener, or any other school supply the child typically uses for his or her assigned homework
• A child friendly playlist ready to go if the child prefers to work with background noise – the best music to have is instrumental because students aren’t listening to the words (Gary Lamb is perfect)
• Inviting decor:  motivational posters, their favorite stuffed animal, fresh flowers, etc.

Routines to have set up:

When is the cue that it is time to start homework?  When the child walks through the door, after dinner, after chores, at a certain specific time of the day, etc.

When the cue begins, what does the child do first?  Eat a small snack in the homework location, take their folder out of their bookbag and get out the papers that need to be completed, make sure a pencil is sharpened, etc.

How will the child know when the homework session is complete?  Break down the papers into mini sessions, a visual timer that is set on a clock or microwave, when the worked has been looked over by a parent, work is complete/accurate/neat, etc.

The routine should be set up as a parent/child team together.  Give the student some say in this daily task and there will be less pullback.  Once the routine has been set and agreed upon, it is to be repeated exactly the same way day after day.  In the long run, it will become second nature for the student.

Find what works best for your child.  Any routine should be flexible to meet those needs otherwise you aren’t any better off than before.

One last tip:  Set goals and rewards for completing the routine.  At first, the the rewards will be given for completing the routine (or even one step of the routine) just once (today).  As time progresses, rewards will be given in wider intervals.  Eventually, rewards won’t need to be given as the behavior will be a new habit.

Motivational Quotes for Homework

Here are some great motivational quotes to share with kids as they are starting or ending their homework routine for the day.  All are from famous athletes or coaches:

-“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” – Tim Notke

-“It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.” – Babe Ruth

-“The harder the battle, the sweeter the victory.” – Les Brown

-“Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up.” – Dean Karnazes

Would you like premade posters to inspire your students?

This pack of 25 colorful watercolor posters includes quotes from famous athletes.

Click HERE to grab them and save yourself time!

-“If you aren’t going all the way, why go at all?” – Joe Namath

-“Persistence can change failure into extraordinary achievement.” – Matt Biondi

-“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky

-“Without self-discipline, success is impossible, period.” – Lou Holtz

-“It’s all about the journey, not the outcome.” – Carl Lewis

-“A champion is someone who gets up when he can’t.” – Jack Dempsey

-“To give any less than your best is to sacrifice a gift.” – Steve Prefontaine

-“Make each day your masterpiece.” – John Wooden

-“The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.” – Pele

-“It’s not the will to win that matters — everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.” – Paul “Bear” Bryant

-I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life a champion’. – Muhammad Ali

-“I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan

-“If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you.” – Fred Devito

-“Champions keep playing until they get it right.” – Billie Jean King

-“Victory is in having done your best. If you’ve done your best, you’ve won.” – Billy Bowerman

-“If you can’t outplay them, outwork them.” – Ben Hogan

-“There are only two options regarding commitment. You’re either IN or you’re OUT. There is no such thing as life in-between.” – Pat Riley

-“You’re never a loser until you quit trying.” – Mike Ditka

-“It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up.” – Vince Lombardi

-“The key is not the will to win. Everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.” – Bobby Knight

-“There may be people that have more talent than you, but there’s no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do.” – Derek Jeter

How else can you help parents to overcome issues with student homework motivation?  We would love to hear your thoughts in a comment below!

~Charity

The post Homework Motivation appeared first on Organized Classroom.

Well, I thought I would ask a few (over 90,000!) of my closest Facebook friends from The Organized Classroom Blog’s Facebook Fan Page to see how they communicate with their parents, and they have shared their tips and suggestions.

I compiled all their responses in one handy ebook for you to download and read their suggestions.

You might also be interested in:

This program is 62 pages, and includes 26 templates that are completely editable so you can personalize your conferences to your liking! Also includes forms for having ongoing Data Folders – recommended for grades 2-12! Parent Conference Night has never been so easy! Discover for yourself!

See more pages here.

Another idea: Print one copy and place in a PD library in your staff lounge for colleagues to read some of the ideas and add a blank lined page in the back for them to add their own too! It would be a wonderful teacher to teacher resource that is always in use!

Did they forget one you would like to add?  Please comment below!

Thanks so much to everyone who contributed in the Collaboration Wednesday question!  I so look forward to Wednesdays to see how much you share with others.  Kudos to you all!

~Charity

The post How Do You Communicate With Parents? appeared first on Organized Classroom.

As a parent, I am AFRAID to go to my own child’s parent teacher conference this week.

I have lost sleep over it and am seriously dreading the day that has been circled on my calendar for the last 2 weeks when I received his first quarter report card.

Perhaps a little prior knowledge can explain why I am feeling this way:

• My son is currently in 2nd grade.  I have an older daughter who is already a junior in college, so this isn’t my first rodeo.
• He still loves school.  Academics are good.  He reads well at home and math is his forte.
• He is immature for his age for sure.  And that translates to frequent talking infractions, though really nothing serious.

With that said – I assume everything at school is going pretty well, right?  Some minor behavior infractions from time to time and according to the benchmark scores at the beginning of the year, I assume he is in the right spot.

We review his papers nightly from his folder – some have scores, some are daily work and do not have anything on them.  We practice math flash cards.  We read with him every night before bed.

Then, I receive his report card and it shows that he is not performing on grade level in a couple areas and his behavior is not up to par either.  I look at it in shock.  And my husband expects me to explain to him what it means since I am a teacher and I should know.

This isn’t a doom and gloom story, nor will I point fingers and say that the teacher isn’t doing a good job or that my child is an angel (I know better).  I even already know the terminology and what to explicitly ask about during the conference, so that doesn’t make me even flinch a little.

But what I want to share is this:  If I – as a teacher myself who has done hundreds of conferences with parents – is feeling trepidation about attending this meeting, you start to realize why other parents who have no school ties at all become no-shows.

You might also be interested in:

This program is 62 pages, and includes 26 templates that are completely editable so you can personalize your conferences to your liking! Also includes forms for having ongoing Data Folders – recommended for grades 2-12! Parent Conference Night has never been so easy! Discover for yourself!

See more pages here.

I like to believe that 99.9% of the time, parents want their children to succeed.  And 99.9% of the time, teachers want that same child to succeed and believe they can.

But it’s the lack of open communication in between the 2 parties that creates the unfamiliar.  The unfamiliar makes people feel uncomfortable and afraid.  If it were a meeting with the bus driver who I see and say hello to every day at the bus stop, I would feel less anticipation than I do for the impending parent teacher conference this week.

Parents BIGGEST fear is that the teacher will question the parents’ parenting ability.  Which is silly, right?

But FEAR is “False Evidence Appearing Real.”

In my mind, I start thinking about how he is eating well, he goes to bed at a set time each night, he is clean, regularly has doctor and dentist checkups, a safe place to live, is modeled appropriate behavior on a daily basis, only plays video games on the weekend, has a family that tells him how much he is loved daily, and on and on.  

I am questioning how I played a role in his not-so-stellar report card.  Worse, I am afraid the teacher is going to look to me for those answers.

And all of this happens in the 14 days between receiving the report card – and the scheduled conference date.

What a scary place to be.

Now – as I am one to always look for solutions to help make the situation better, I have a couple ideas that I feel would have helped to keep this panic from rising up inside of me – and maybe it would help other parents from feeling the same way and increase conference night attendance rates.  

It is never too late to start implementing these suggestions even if you already had your fall conferences.

Create SOME way to communicate with parents on a weekly, if not daily manner.  It could be a newsletter that is sent home at the beginning of the week, a class website, a Facebook Group for parents (depending on school rules), a texting service, or a BCC email to the parents.  

I even love the idea of using your phone to do quick impromtu videos throughout the day and uploading to parents. It can show some things you are working on, you talking to parents about something that is coming up, or explain how a situation went down during class.  

Just you speaking on camera is a million times better than reading it in an agenda book.  Tone is really hard to convey in writing.

I know.  I have been nailed by parents for this in the past myself as my tone was not clear.  

A quick 30 second video would have made all the difference.  And taken less time to construct too!

Don’t assume that parents who are looking through those papers being sent home know what they mean, or how heavily that assignment plays into the grade.  Being transparent on how many grades are/will be taken and which “count” seem obvious to you, but parents really don’t know.  

To the point, they may not even realize what is Language Arts vs Reading materials.  I even get email notifications when his online progress book is updated and I was still taken aback.  

The report card grade should never be a surprise.

Another wonderful idea is to send home a questionnaire for the parents to fill out and return a couple days before the conference.  

The paper could have questions such as “Were you surprised about _______’s report card?  What items in particular?”  “What do you feel _______ really excels in at home:  reading, math, science, or something else?” “What do you believe could _______ work on more?”  “What other concerns do you have?”  

Those may be tough letters to have returned as you might feel you are being put on the spot with parents judging you as a teacher, BUT instead it will help to open trust.  {Remember, they are already feeling judged as parents, so it sort of evens the playing field and puts them at ease.}  

Plus, it gives you time to think about your answers and respond in person at the conference.  With limited minutes during each  conference, I always walk away thinking about additional items I would have brought up.  This helps to curb that.

Invite parents to help in some way in the classroom beyond the regular school-sponsored events of holiday parties.  Every week.  Ask directly.  

As that trust and familiarity grows with you, parents that are able will be far more likely to take you up on that offer.  

Just like creating an environment in your classroom where students have “jobs” which helps to create that sense of community, by getting parents involved, it helps them to feel a sense of pride and “in-the-know” as well.

Even if they are full-time working caregivers, there are some things that can be contributed if he or she cannot physically get to the classroom.  See THIS CHECKLIST.

When talking about behavior choices, have those tough conversations WITH the parent AND child.  

If every day a child comes home and all the caregiver sees is yet another behavior infraction and only hears one side of the story, it creates a “divorced parents” situation. He said, she said.  

Rather than a true conversation where all parties take responsibility for their actions and learning can be worked on together to improve the situation.  

It also alerts the child that he or she doesn’t get to play “both sides of the fence” as the teacher and parent WILL be discussing exactly what happened with the student involved in that conversation.

Let parents know about the good things too.  Without those hopeful conversations, it gets really hard to reprimand a child nightly at home.  

Positive reinforcement can do wonders for a child’s behavior – and making connections with parents that don’t involve them feeling like their parenting skills are being judged.

Last one:  Know something personal about the child when the parent does show up for conferences.
If you can tell the parent that you know he is a Rubiks Cube whiz or that she is the best jump roper on the playground during recess, it shows you care about the CHILD.  Not whether he or she can read at grade level or whether he or she has an organized desk, but that you are at least in like with this little human and that you do take personal responsibility for the whole child.

That’s the end of my essay – sorry for the long post.  Yes, I do realize it is HARD to do some of these items regularly with all the documentation you already have to keep on each child – and some classrooms are pushing over 30 students.  Administration is breathing down your neck for data, data, and more data.  You have little supplies and less time.

The more of these items you can implement though, the more your parents will be involved and feel like it really is a partnership.  I know we have all said it – and truly believed it IS a partnership – but how are we SHOWING it to parents?  And how often?

Just some food for thought.  Take it or leave it.  I know each of you is doing your very best in the classroom every single day with the students you have.  It’s all you can do some days.  Thank you for your work.  It really matters.

~Charity

The post Being on the Other Side of the Teacher Conference Desk appeared first on Organized Classroom.