Back to School Night Tips for World Language Teachers
World Language Back to School Night / Meet the Teacher Tips for Success
The school year is in full swing, and at my school we had Back to School Night yesterday. Despite it being an incredibly long day—I wouldn’t be functioning right now were it not for my huge cup of coffee!—I was happy to be able to meet my students’ parents, introduce myself, explain some of the overarching goals of World Language Education, and share important information about my courses. In this blog post, I’ll share some tips and tricks that I’ve learned over the years to help make your Back to School Night (or Meet the Teacher Night, if that’s what you’re used to calling it!) as productive, engaging, and stress-free as possible!
Back to School Night Tip #1: Project a welcome slide on the board
Parents will be entering your room in waves: some will arrive early, some will arrive just on time, and some will arrive after you have already begun your presentation! I like to greet the early arrivers with a target-culture themed welcome slide. This is a super simple, low-prep idea that adds a lot of flair to your Back to School Night presentation! I add a Youtube video with French café music to my Google Slide that automatically starts playing when I project the presentation. (You can choose any music from the target culture that helps create a welcoming cultural ambiance in your room.)
To add a video to your slide, go to Insert -> Video in Google Slides. Add the URL of a Youtube video containing target culture music. Then, click on Format Options -> Video Playback -> Play Automatically. Drag the corners of the video to make it smaller, and move it off to the side of your slide so that it is just barely visible.
Back to School Night Tip #2: Greet your audience in the Target Language
Before I introduce myself to the parents, I say a few sentences in the target language, welcoming them to my room and thanking them for attending Back to School Night. My script would go a little something like…
Good evening, and welcome! Thank you for attending Back to School Night this evening. I’m Mr. M, and it’s so nice to meet you.
I then switch to English and say something along the lines of “I promise I won’t be speaking entirely in target language tonight!” Parents love hearing me speak to them in the language their child is learning—many of them smile, and I can tell that they appreciate this special touch! It’s a simple yet effective way to let parents know: hey, this is a language class! And this is what your child’s experience will be like when they are in my class! In a word, it gives them a small taste of what it’s like to be a student in your class learning the language you are teaching. I highly recommend this opener!
Back to School Night Tip #3: Tell a bit about yourself
Above all else, parents attending Back to School Night want to know that their children are in good hands. I think it’s important to break the ice by giving parents a bit of information about who you are. (Some of them will walk out of your classroom appreciating this part of your presentation more than anything else you’ve communicated to them!) Here are some suggestions for self-introductory topics to include in your presentation:
Your educational background.
Your language learning journey.
What excites you most about teaching.
Some fun facts about yourself.
Your favorite hobbies/pastimes.
Back to School Night Tip #4: Explain the benefits of World Language Education
Many parents are not aware of the myriad benefits of World Language Education. They may have sat through endless hours of boring grammar and translation drills 25+ years ago, and they may not be aware that World Language Education has evolved since then. As you well know, we do not exclusively teach language. We equip students with the skills they need to become lifelong language learners. We promote respect, kindness, and the celebration of diversity. We expand students’ horizons by showing them products and perspectives from cultures that are different from their own. And the list goes on…
Back to School Night is the perfect opportunity to educate parents on just how invaluable your class is. Year after year, I am surprised by how receptive parents are to this part of my presentation. They’ve just never considered that their children are doing so much more than “simply” learning a language. Here are some of the points that I like to touch on:
Back to School Night Tip #5: Describe important features of your course
Parents don’t need to know what your bathroom policy is, or how students break off into groups, or what students should do when they enter your classroom, but they do need to know some of the major features of your class. How will their child be assessed? What is your homework policy? What should their child do if he/she is absent from class and needs to make up work? What are the main resources their child will be using throughout the year, and how can they access them? What should their child do if they need extra help?
Ideally, there should be a partnership between school and home, and so in order to help parents facilitate their child’s learning at home, they need to have a general understanding of what your expectations are and how your course has been designed and structured.
Keep this part succinct (bullet points are your friend!), and only include the most essential points that parents absolutely must be made aware of.
Back to School Night Tip #6: Give parents a handout with the most salient points from your presentation
Back to School Night can be overwhelming for parents because there is a massive amount of information coming at them from their child’s teachers. In my school, students have 8 classes, which means that on a typical Back to School Night, parents are meeting at least 8 different teachers who are all sharing loads of information with them about 8 different courses. Coupled with the fact that many parents have worked a full day and are probably not operating at their fullest capacity at 7:00 p.m.—I am certainly not operating at full capacity after a full day of teaching!—it is likely that parents will not absorb all of the precious information you are sharing with them.
Before BTSN, I take the major discussion points from my slideshow and add them to a Google Doc (along with my contact information) that I print, photocopy, and distribute to parents during my presentations. Parents are relieved to walk out of my room with a resource that highlights the most pertinent points of my presentation. I tell parents that they should keep the handout and refer to it throughout the year should any issues arise with their child.
Back to School Night Parent Info Sheet
Include the most important points from your presentation so that parents can refer back to it at a later time.
Back to School Night Tip #7: Expect to be utterly exhausted the next day, and plan accordingly
Full disclosure: I absolutely dread Back to School Night every. single. year. It is one of the longest, most difficult days of the entire school year, and if there’s one thing I wish my district would take a closer look at it, it’s the way they structure BTSN.
Now don’t get me wrong, I LOVE being able to meet my students’ parents and share important information with them, but the way in which BTSN is structured makes it a very exhausting experience for teachers. I don’t know a single colleague who feels differently. And to be perfectly honest, the day is so draining that it usually takes me a couple of days to fully recover.
We are expected to teach a full day, take a break for a few hours (where it is usually not worth it to commute all the way home only to get stuck in rush-hour traffic on the way back to school at 5:30 p.m.), present to parents for 2-3 hours, leave school at 9 p.m., and then teach students the following day!
There have been years where BTSN falls on a Tuesday, which makes for an even more exhausting work week. Luckily, this year BTSN was held on a Thursday, which means that the weekend is definitely in sight, but REGARDLESS, it’s a really demanding couple of days! I was at school for 13 hours last night! I left at 9:30 p.m. after the parking lot cleared out, only to be back at school today at 7:30 a.m. It’s rough!
Knowing that your BTSN is coming up and that you will be stretched very thin, you need to plan accordingly. On the day of BTSN, do a lighter-than-normal lesson. Have students take initiative by working in pairs or small groups on a cultural activity. On the following day, when you will be walking into work exhausted and depleted, have them present in small groups.
Give them some reading comprehension tasks to work on. Have them write a short paragraph on a given theme and have them work in pairs to peer edit their work. Then, have them read their paragraphs out loud in a small group setting while their group members jot down notes in the target language about what they understood from each partner’s paragraph.
Make it simple. Make it low prep. Make it student-led.
You’re exhausted. You deserve grace. You deserve a break. The students can do the heavy lifting while you rest up and recharge for the following week.
I hope you’ve found these ideas to be helpful, and I hope that there’s something you’ll be able to take with you as you begin planning for your Back to School Night presentation. From my experience, I don’t usually have any issues with parents throughout the year because they leave my room after BTSN feeling like their child is in good hands, that I am a competent professional, and that there is an intentional and pedagogically sound instructional plan being implemented in my courses. I hope that you will take some of these ideas with you to deliver an amazing BTSN presentation that will impress your parent audience. As always, if there’s anything in particular that I could help you with, feel free to contact me or leave a comment below!
Wishing you the best start to the school year,
~ Michael
