Back-to-School Night

Last night, a Wednesday evening, my school held Back-to-School Night from 6-8 pm. Now, I'm not exactly sure how parents get the information that there will be a school event where they are invited to meet their children's teachers and find out about their classes. I assumed that the school sent out a newsletter. But, from the information that my kids gave me, the only way they knew about it is by me telling them. I suppose that the idea is that they will, in turn, tell their parents.

Now, this game of telephone doesn't work in general, but it really doesn't work with thirteen-year-olds. The last thing kids that age want is their parents to show up at school, much less make friends with their teachers and other parents. This, in many of their eyes, would be social suicide. It also didn't help that I wasn't aware of the circumstances and didn't mention it until the day of the event. So much for attempting to be well-informed. Furthermore, several of my students' parents work in the evening and wouldn't be able to come either way. Needless to say, the circumstances were not ideal.

Obviously, then, not many parents showed up last night. Even though I am in charge of exactly 84 students, nine students came with their parents and close relatives. Nine.

I had planned (sort of) a little presentation about myself, the class, curricular goals, and expectations. I ended up having one-on-one interviews with single moms and dad, with little ones running around, gnawing on the desk legs during the process. I did the whole political thing: told them how wonderful their child is, demonstrated high expectations of my students and portrayed a devotion to my job. Despite the fact that it wasn't what I expected, it worked out in the end.

Plus, the little highlight of the evening was that one of my students, *Miranda,* came in with her mom and older siblings. She is new to our school and is demonstrating some attention-getting behaviors in class, I believe, to develop her status. She is a pretty girl and has a bit of attitude, but she is also smart and has good English skills. I was hoping to win her trust and let her know that I'm on her side, so I placed her poem on the bulletin board as the student sample. It wasn't the best poem in all of my classes, but I think she needed the boost of self-esteem more than the other kids. She beamed when she showed it to her family and they showed that they were proud of her. I could tell I had made the right move.

So, it was a productive evening nonetheless. I got to know a few of my students a little more and was able to show my confidence in them. And they were able to see me in a more personal environment and get to know me. I think this will help my classes in the long run, but I know that it would've made an even greater impact if more students and parents could come. Next time, I plan to do things quite differently.