Why I Do What I Do {Families Are Important in School Success}

It's another "Why I Do What I Do"!

Today I'm sharing about my belief that families are important in school success.  Of course you believe that too, but the purpose of "Why I Do..." posts is to help me (and you too, I hope!) think about how my beliefs govern the practices I have in my classroom.

Two ways that I facilitate home/school communication so busy parents can stay informed and help support their child in school are...

1- FALCON folders!  FALCON stands for Families And Learning Communicating & Organizing Nightly.  Students take homework sheets, graded work, and notes home in their FALCON and are expected to return their FALCONs each day.  I LOVE naming these type of folders.  Giving it a name helps us quickly identify it and also endears it to students, in some odd way!  I love these Nicky folders because they are super durable and the folders inside are clearly labeled for things to keep at home and things to return at school.  Students keep homework sheets in the outside cover and we put things like spelling words and monthly speller's choice pages in the clear pocket on the back.

2- SUPER quick and easy newsletters!  I send one home every Monday inside FALCON folders.  I run them on colored paper so parents can find them quickly.  These are super easy to fill in using Powerpoint.  It literally takes me about 5 minutes every Friday afternoon.  I run my copies and then put them out with the other papers students must collect on Monday morning.  You can check out the 20 templates in my TpT store by clicking on the pic above, if you're interested!

How do you help parents stay involved?  Feel free to share in the comments below!