5 Ways to Make Orientation Day More Impactful

Whether it’s Orientation Day, Meet the Teacher, or Open House, this is an exciting time of year for new beginnings, a fresh start, to renew our commitment to teaching and learning. It’s also an opportunity to create an academic team consisting of all stakeholders to foster student success and increased student learning gains. One important way to bolster this success is to engage parents in every integral decision made about their children’s education. After all, they’re the experts when it comes to their children. 

We can reimagine Orientation Day and build partnerships with parents—acknowledging their expertise, engaging, valuing, and including them. Parents want opportunities for dialogue, to share vital information with teachers that affect their child’s learning, and to support teachers in planning lessons and pedagogical activities that meet students’ needs. They may also want to help create an environment where learning is meaningful and fun-filled.

So, if teachers had the opportunity to inquire about a student and their learning, what would they want to know? What could make their teaching easier if the parent simply shared the information directly rather than the teacher learning it on their own? Let’s consider ways that teachers can facilitate better partnerships with parents.

1. Ask parents to share their expectations for the school year 

They may want their child to develop certain social skills or learn a new study technique. Teachers can then work to incorporate some of these expectations into lessons and activities. Using tools such as a teacher-created questionnaire or face-to-face conversations can be the beginning of a productive relationship between teachers and parents.

Understanding parents’ desires demonstrates that you value them as partners in their child’s education. While some ideas or suggestions may not be feasible to implement in the classroom, teachers can provide appropriate resources to facilitate learning during independent time in school or at home with the parent. 

2. Ask parents what motivates their child 

Each child has a unique motivator that sparks their interest and desire to learn. Parents are in a unique position to provide this information, especially in the primary school years. This type of detail could be a game-changer for teachers when planning lessons and can help encourage student participation in the classroom. The teacher-created questionnaire can be an effective tool for collecting this information. Another method that could be employed is to ask parents to discuss motivators with their children—which the child then shares during the early days of school. This empowers students to communicate with the teacher while garnering parental support.

Teachers are focused on keeping kids safe throughout the day, relaying objectives to ensure that students achieve learning gains. Having student motivators integrated into lessons will pique learners’ interest during and increase retention. 

3. Ask parents what triggers their child 

While teachers need to know student motivators, they also need to know student triggers. If a child had a harrowing encounter with a dog as they were playing in their neighborhood, they may now have a fear of dogs. Without parents sharing this information, teachers may inadvertently plan activities that trigger an outburst or the student shutting down.

Thus, it’s helpful for the teacher to know this information so that they can choose books, find stories, and plan lessons that are sensitive to students’ fears. Not all triggers can be addressed, but equipping teachers with this knowledge will help keep the classroom calm and focused. 

Parents’ sharing their child’s triggers can be deeply personal, emotional, and difficult. It’s important for teachers to be open-minded, thoughtful, and nonjudgmental. You can send a message to all parents, asking them to schedule an appointment to discuss information about their child’s triggers, and offer support and examples of the methods you’ll use in class to mitigate any issues. This will allay parents’ concerns and aid in your planning.

4. Create an open line of communication 

School activities, conferences, and meetings are often hosted at times that aren’t feasible for parents to attend. Teachers should offer opportunities at different times of the day throughout the year to allow as many parents to participate and communicate as possible.

Using different methods of communication is also beneficial for increasing parent engagement. To encourage this, on Orientation Day, teachers can inform parents about the phone applications they plan to use during the year, such as Remind, Skool Loop, Bloomz, or Klassly. Demonstrate the app on Orientation Day, and let parents ask questions to gain working knowledge of its features. This helps ensure that parents will be more likely to use it as an additional communication tool. Email or phone calls can also be used to facilitate communication with parents and build a feeling of camaraderie. 

I’ve found that not only does this encourage parents to engage with schools, but also they feel it’s an important part of the process of educating their child. Though many teachers already implement various tools, it’s a great reminder as we begin planning for the new school year. You may need to reevaluate which methods will be the most successful for the incoming class and their families. What worked in previous years may need to be adjusted for this year.

5. FIND OUT IF PARENTS WILL share their professional expertise

Learning about various professions, even from a young age, allows students to envision opportunities available to them. For example, when I was young, I loved being creative and enjoyed drawing and painting, but because I was never exposed to creative professionals, it never crossed my mind to pursue art as an occupation.

Now, as an adult, I wish there had been more opportunities to learn about different professions to expand my understanding of occupations that I was not exposed to in my daily life. This is especially true for lower socioeconomic and marginalized communities where resource access may be limited. It’s critical for these students to be exposed to and expand their visions of what their future could look like. 

Parents are the experts on their children and want to become educational partners with their child’s teachers and administrators. They have a vested interest in their child’s success. By creating an environment of teamwork and collaboration starting at Orientation Day, teachers begin the year with an inclusive environment where parents can support teacher needs, provide important information to aid the teacher in fostering student success, actively communicate with teachers, and help each child reach their full potential.