Each new school year I hand over a “parent report” to the child’s new teacher. I wrote a blog post about it at my personal site a couple of years ago. I still think it is one of the most powerful tools in my special needs mom arsenal. Our report is about five pages long, though I’ve also added an “executive summary” page to hopefully not overwhelm anyone. Five pages seems like a lot to ask a teacher to read when you think about everything that they already have to do. It also seems like not nearly enough space to really fill them in on this wonderful person I’ve been getting to know for the last seven and a half years…you know the one who can still catch me by surprise when I think I know her so well. Anyway, so far the teachers all seem to appreciate the information.
Last week at Back to School Night the child’s teacher gave each parent our own homework sheet to fill out and return to her. I’ve been sitting on mine because from the moment I read it I wasn’t quite sure what to write. The topics are:
- What I want most for my child this year…
- Special Information about my child…
- I would like to know more about…
- My child is good at…
- My child needs help with…
- Comments…
I suppose this could be tricky for any parent to fill out, but, where to start? There’s a reason my parent report is five pages long. I did fill it out, and I do appreciate the teacher’s effort to get some feedback from us. Just hoping I did the child justice.
What do you want most for your child this year?
That’s a great idea to have a format you give to each teacher. And if you save it on your computer, it’s just a matter of updating it from the previous year. I like that!
Yes, Laurie, it’s great! This year it took me about 45 minutes to update, and the teachers have all appreciated the information.
Comments on this entry are closed.