8 Engaging Back-to-School Night ideas to connect with parents
What is the purpose of Back-to-School Night?
A month or so after the hustle and bustle of the new school year, many schools host a Back-to-School or Meet-the-Teacher Night. What is Back-to-School Night? This evening event is designed to help parents and caregivers become more acquainted with the grade-level goals and expectations for their child. Often, Back-to-School Night is the first time you meet your new students’ family members. Besides the fleeting moments at the classroom door, this evening is an opportunity to bond with parents in earnest and begin to form a true connection. Such relationship building is foundational to embarking on a collaborative journey of supporting students’ growth throughout the year.
What should teachers talk about on Back-to-School Night?
The challenge of Back-to-School Night is that each teacher or grade-level team needs to fit in an overview of the 180 or so school days clearly, concise, and yet comprehensive for an adult audience of learners – no easy feat! Teachers often walk families through an agenda of annual goals and related curricula. They aim to familiarize families with grade-level expectations – social, emotional, and academic. For teachers, though, there is often a push and pull around how to make the night practical yet personal, so that families feel invited into and invested in the newly formed classroom community. Unlike a traditional open house where families might wander in and out at their leisure, Back-to-School Night requires a more structured approach to effectively communicate with all parents.
Why use Nearpod?
Too often in the past, I have feared that my Back-to-School Night presentation was old-school and lecture-y – not the vibe I wanted to create when trying to showcase my penchant for personalized learning. The last thing I wanted to do was stand at the front of the room giving a “one-and-done” presentation. I yearned for a more interactive format to showcase my approach to collaborative learning.
Nearpod is the perfect tool to help you plan for and showcase your Back-to-School Night presentation. Plus, you can model how you approach designing truly engaging learning experiences. You may want to start by determining the flow of your evening by outlining or listing all you hope to accomplish with your Back-to-School Night slides. Then, work backwards to flesh out each section with top-of-mind information. Consider creating a Back-to-School Night slide for each section and then pair it with one of Nearpod’s nine interactive tools. This cadre of tools will enable you to not only share important information but also check for understanding, gather questions, AND solicit feedback. Existing slide presentations and templates can be uploaded and enhanced using Nearpod’s interactive activities and dynamic media. Educators can easily convert their PowerPoint templates or Google Slides into engaging, interactive learning experiences with Nearpod.
Simply share the lesson code with your adult audience so they can play the role of learners this evening via their phones!
New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access these resources, interactive activities, and engaging lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.
8 Engaging Back-to-School Night ideas to connect with parents
1. Start with a connection
This evening may be the first time you are meeting certain family members. As with any good lesson, you’ll want to hook your audience’s interest right off the bat. One Back-to-School Night idea is to start with an icebreaker, which can be a fun way to warm up the room! Begin to build relationships with your families and encourage them to get to know each other, too. As their child’s teacher, you have a responsibility to establish a partnership with students’ families.
Icebreakers are activities designed to help people get to know one another. Parents can learn how to use the Draw It feature alongside a Nearpod template to share some fun facts about their child. Or you could riff on this Getting to Know You lesson by having parents work together in small groups to frontload some of their questions or hopes for the upcoming school year. This evening can be a first step toward building a strong sense of school culture.
2. Introduce yourself
Back-to-School Nights are one of the first true touchpoints with families. Whether you are new to teaching, new to the school, or a tried-and-true veteran, it is worthwhile to share your background and acquaint yourself with your families. Besides mentioning professional experiences and accolades, help them to understand why you got into teaching and how you started out in the field.
To bring your personal story to life, add some photos or even a video clip to your slides. You may want to share some childhood photos or video footage that showcases you as a student. You could also create a graphic timeline that illustrates your journey to becoming a teacher.
3. Share your schedule
You’ll want to paint a picture of what a “typical” day looks like in your classroom (although we teachers know there is no such thing as a typical day!). Grab a screenshot of your weekly schedule or add a table that outlines a sample day. Provide a visual snapshot of the types of activities you include to engage your students.
To exemplify the level of interactivity and engagement you fold into your daily instruction, use Time to Climb to test the parents on how much they retained about the busy school day. Challenge them to answer questions about what happens in the hours between drop-off and pick-up. We pack a lot into a “typical” day!
4. Showcase curricula
Unless your families have older children, many parents and caretakers may be unfamiliar with what is taught in your grade. Provide them with the scope and sequence of your disciplines so that they better understand what themes and standards are covered and when. Emphasize the rigor of your learning objectives and how you might tailor content to individuals’ interests.
To better illustrate this sweeping overview of subjects and thematic units, you may want to highlight a few of your favorite Nearpod lessons to illustrate how rich the multimedia content is that kids have access to, both in school and at home. You could add a fun (and anonymous) Quiz to test your families. Whether you focus on Westward Expansion trailblazers or the Pythagorean theorem, use these multiple-choice questions as a way to showcase the depth of content that your classroom will tackle over the next eight months.
5. Highlight technology
You’ll want to share with your families how you plan to use technology in the classroom to engage students and personalize their learning journeys. Plan on giving a rundown of which tools students will have access to in the classroom and at home. Remember, your students’ parents did not grow up with these same edtech tools.
To highlight the value-add of Nearpod, you can share how the dynamic platform builds 21st-century skills, promotes differentiation and accessibility, and provides a data-driven approach to teaching and learning. You can point to the many accolades Nearpod has earned over the past 13 years, ebbing and flowing with the ever-changing educational landscape.
6. Create a parking lot
Your families are bound to have many questions — tonight is just one touchpoint! Since time is limited, you will want to gather questions that you can continue to address after the evening concludes. So ,one Back-to-School Night idea for parents is to create a “parking lot” where they can jot down their follow-up questions.
Use a Nearpod Collaborate Board to gather these lingering questions. A group Collaborate Board provides transparency so that parents can see what questions have already been noted, and they can build off of each other’s thoughts, too. After Back-to-School Night, you can answer these questions right within this same Collaborate Board — complete with images, videos, and links — so that everyone can see your responses. This collaborative tool will save you from having to answer the same question multiple times!
7. Point them in the right direction
Your students aren’t the only ones nervous about coming back to school, so use this evening as a way to ease any anxieties. One way to help is to share where families can find the various materials and resources that you, your school, and your district share at the beginning of the year.
In your presentation, highlight a curated list of links to shared folders that parents can reference down the road to find your contact information, important forms, schedules/calendars, policies, and more. Since this evening is more of an overview, you’ll want to give families ways to access and explore more at a later time. You can share your Back-to-School Night presentation with families by adding a QR code to your final slide!
8. End with some student voice
Ultimately, we know why parents come and cram themselves into small chairs on Back-to-School Night: They have their kids top of mind! So, end the night by having them hear from their own star students. Also, take note of any bulletin board displays that showcase student work, as these can serve as excellent conversation starters with families.
On a final slide, compile photos of each student. Here is a Back-to-School Night activity for kids: have them share what they are most excited about for this school year. With Nearpod, you can embed an audio clip or video of each of your students sharing this. Parents can click to listen! In turn, you can ask the parents to leave their kids a personalized note via an Open-Ended Question response. They can share encouraging words that students can read the very next morning.
Start using these ideas today!
These Back-to-School Nights help set the tone for your upcoming school year. Your classroom is just one cog in the wheel toward building the momentum for a positive school culture. Yet, each classroom presentation can help share your school’s vision, build all-important relationships, and impart a positive school spirit. Whether you teach elementary school, middle school, or high school, it’s essential for parents and teachers to build open lines of communication and work together to support students’ academic, social, and emotional growth. Partner with Nearpod to model to your families just how informative and engaging your classroom promises to be. Cheers to the new school year!
New to Nearpod? Teachers can sign up for free below to access these resources, interactive activities, and engaging lessons. Administrators can schedule a call with an expert to unlock the full power of Nearpod for schools and districts.
Darri Stephens is a dedicated LX (learning experience) designer, passionate about creating quality content and programs for kids, families, and educators. With MAs in Education from both Harvard and Stanford, and work experience at best-in-class ed tech organizations including Wonder Workshop, Nickelodeon, and Common Sense Education, she is steeped in the design thinking process and committed to agile and iterative project management, which has resulted in multi-award-winning programs and products.
