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Quick and Easy Ways to Connect With Students and Their Parents, Grades K-8

Improving Student Achievement Through Parent Involvement

By: Diane Mierzwik

Have fewer confrontations with students, gain support from parents, and increase student achievement!

The more involved parents are with their child's education, the more successful that child will be in school. This hands-on guidebook provides strategies to enrich the classroom environment, motivate students, and improve communication with parents. Requiring only a few minutes of time each day, these strategies will help create a supportive environment where parents, students, and teachers all work toward success in the classroom. This hands-on guidebook includes information on:

Facilitating constructive parent-teacher conferences
Preparing for Back-to-School nights
Reaching out to uninvolved parents
Motivating even the most difficult students

Full description

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Product Details

Grade Level: K-8
ISBN: 9780761931805
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2004
Page Count: 152
Publication date: June 01, 2004

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Review Copies

This book is not available as a review copy.

Description

"Novice teachers should find Mierzwik's book to be quite helpful as they face the many challenges of modern-day classroom teaching."
Kent Hayden, Field Supervisor, Student/Intern Teachers
University of Redlands

"As a veteran teacher, I wondered what this book could teach me. Well, it taught me valuable ideas, some new, some long forgotten. It resulted in my brain processing a deluge of new ways to look at old behavior problems."
Linda Mercier, High School French Teacher
Conestoga Valley High School, Lancaster, PA

"This book is an excellent resource for veteran and beginning teachers. It contains a number of simple, practical, useful, and effective ideas, suggestions, and practices that can be easily implemented."
Bernard Cavanagh, Director of Curriculum, Secondary
Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified School District, Yucaipa, CA

"Diane Mierzwik offers an approach to teaching which is both humane and effective. Her suggestions are backed by years of experience and research and will help everyone, from the brand new teachers to the old hand."
Martha Plender, Co-Director, Inland Area Writing Project
University of California, Riverside

Have fewer confrontations with students, gain support from parents, and increase student achievement!

The research is indisputable. The more involved parents are with their child's education, the more successful that child will be in school. Therefore, finding ways as a teacher to reach out to students and their parents is crucial in improving academic performance.

Quick and Easy Ways to Connect With Students and Their Parents, Grades K-8 provides strategies to enrich the classroom environment, motivate students, and improve communication with parents. Supplying numerous sample forms, documents, and letters that teachers can use or adapt for their own purposes, author Diane Mierzwik offers simple, classroom-tested methods for building relationships with students and their parents.

Designed for both beginning and experienced teachers, this hands-on guidebook includes information on:

Facilitating constructive parent-teacher conferences
Preparing for Back-to-School nights
Reaching out to uninvolved parents
Talking to parents about troubled students
Motivating even the most difficult students
Using e-mail as a communication tool and other time-saving tips

The activities, suggestions, and techniques in this book can help any teacher make a substantive impact on the lives of students.

Key features

Quick & easy, can be done in three minutes a day
Experienced classroom teacher sharing her ideas and writing in an appealing and teacher-friendly voice
Full of sample documents that teachers can freely copy and use

Author(s)

Diane Mierzwik

Diane Mierzwik currently teaches seventh and eighth grade English at Parkview Middle School for the Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified School District in California. In her 16 years of teaching, she has had experience with first- through 12th graders. She has been Gifted And Talented Education coordinator, Leadership team member, Department Head, a mentor teacher, completed the Inland Empire Writing Project, and served as a Language Arts consultant for the California Language Arts Project. She is also the author of Quick and Easy Ways to Connect With Students and Their Parents, available from Corwin Press, and Wishes in the Field, a middle grade historical fiction novel.

Table of Contents

Preface

About the Author

Part I: Connecting With Students

1. Having Students Introduce Themselves

2. Greeting Students

3. Making the Most of Classroom Time

4. Congratulating Students With Certificates

5. Connecting With Your Students Through the Curriculum

6. Recognizing Your Students as Stars

Part II: Connecting With Parents

7. Sending Home Your Introduction Letter

8. Learning About Your Students From Their Parents

9. Presenting at Back-to-School Night

10. Requesting Parent Suggestions

11. Conducting Parent-Teacher Conferences

12. Thanking Parents

13. Contacting Parents Using E-mail

14. Phoning Home

15. Mailing Home Good News Postcards

16. Inviting Parents to Visit

17. Getting Attention From the Media

Resource: Sample Forms and Letters

Index

Reviews

"A novice teacher should find Mierzwik’s book to be quite helpful as they face the many challenges of modern day classroom teaching."

Kent Hayden, Field Supervisor, Student/Intern Teachers
University of Redlands

"As a veteran teacher, I wondered what this book could teach me. Well, it taught me valuable ideas, some new, some long forgotten. It resulted in my brain processing a deluge of new ways to look at old behavior problems."

Linda Mercier, High School French Teacher
Conestoga Valley High School, Lancaster, PA

"This book is an excellent resource for veteran and beginning teachers. It contains a number of simple, practical, useful, and effective ideas, suggestions, and practices that can be easily implemented."

Bernard Cavanagh, Director of Curriculum, Secondary
Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified School District, Yucaipa, CA

"Diane Mierzwik offers an approach to teaching which is both humane and effective. Her suggestions are backed by years of experience and research and will help everyone, from the brand new teachers to the old hand."

Martha Plender, Co-Director, Inland Area Writing Project
University of California, Riverside

"This book is not only for the beginning teacher, but for the seasoned teacher that needs new and innovative ways of touching the lives of our growing student population with diverse needs."

Lynn Anderson, School Psychologist
San Bernardino City Unified School District, CA

"This book is chock full of ideas that can be put into place immediately. From personally greeting each child every morning to conducting parent conferences, the author provides practical, easy-to-accomplish strategies for building relationships that let students and parents know you care."

Principal Navigator, March 2007

Other Titles in: Administration & Leadership | Principalship | Teaching Methods & Learning Styles

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Review Copies

This book is not available as a review copy.