Daily phone calls to parents
Since I am calling parents often aways, it would be better to call them with a positive than to wait until a negative (I know I am WAY behind on this – it isn’t news to anyone).
This has been on my mind for years but the business of the school year is always making it impossible. I am overhauling everything anyway, so why not add this to the list? I am thinking right after school, when I am ususally too tired to do anything else.
A positive call can set the stage for lots of positives in the future. Here are some questions I might want to ask:
- How would you describe your child’s interests and hobbies outside of school?
- Are there any specific topics or subjects that your child particularly enjoys or has shown a keen interest in?
- Have you noticed any particular strengths or talents in your child that you believe could be further developed through a project?
- Are there any specific goals or aspirations your child has expressed for this term or the future?
- Are there any concerns or challenges you would like to address this term, either academically or personally?
- In your opinion, what kind of project or learning experience would best motivate and engage your child?
- Are there any resources or materials that you think might be helpful for your child’s learning and project development?
- Do you have any suggestions or ideas for projects that you think your child would be excited to pursue?
That is a bit much… hopefully I can distill that into a couple of questions that get to the core of the conversation.
I also want to plan how I will organize my correspondence – a quick note might be handy weeks/months/years later. New spreadsheet tab? When I add a tab to my main organizer, it tells me that I have created 60 tabs in the past 2.
That might be a tad excessive.