Parents & Teachers as Partners™
I use 3-hole paper binders to hold weekly newsletters and print outs of my students' work to share with family members each week. The students are responsible for putting in the newsletters, and taking the journals home to share with their families. When the journals are returned to class, many have comments written by parents, sharing how the family enjoyed and used the information.
I provide parents with a brief introduction about each week's subject area emphasis, list the assignments, and give them a homework assignment that they can do together - as a family. Parents and students are urged to respond with questions, concerns, or share information and their reactions to our work assignments each week.
Our paper binders are like an ongoing link between families and our classroom. My students' parents say they appreciate knowing more about what their kids are doing at school. So instead of asking "What did you do in school today?" and hearing the response, "Nothing". Parents can review the binder's newsletter and ask specific questions about their child's assignments and how each member of the family can contribute to the class topic.
Click
here to see a sample of the newsletter that you can print out. Click
here to download the sample newsletter as a Microsoft Word Document.
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