Blog - Addressing Potential Obstacles to a Collaborative BTSN - back-to-school night
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Addressing Potential Obstacles to a Collaborative BTSN

One part of a new school year that always seems to sneak up on us is Back-to-School Night. We forget (perhaps intentionally) that it’s coming, and then we’re scrambling to pull something together and enduring awkward presentations to the handful of parents who trickle through our doors each “period.”

In this episode of the podcast, we discuss how we revamped the traditional Back-to-School Night presentation to make the evening more engaging and meaningful for families/guardians, students, and ourselves.

Sometimes not everyone embraces change (even when they say they want you to try something new). If you want to change up your back-to-school night presentation or try something completely different like we did, you’ll probably need to get your principal on board, especially if, like us, you’re planning to collaborate with other teachers in your Professional Learning Community. The more you think things through and preemptively address potential concerns, the more likely you are to get the approval you seek.

Preparing Your Back-to-School Night Proposal

  • If you’re planning to collaborate as a PLC, approach the principal as a group. If, like us, you work closely together as a PLC, emphasize that having a shared presentation will better familiarize parents with how the course works at your site.

  • Start with the “problem” you’re trying to solve. For us, it was historically low turnout and engagement, so we started there and explained how our proposal would be more engaging for parents.

  • Focus on how the idea you’re proposing will better serve parents and students. Our emphasis was on how to better help families/guardians communicate with and support their students.

  • Center your proposal on key values of your school or district. Whether your school is big on technology, collaboration, social-emotional learning, or community outreach, highlight those values in your proposal, especially if they have been a focus of back-to-school professional development.

  • Share how you will cover the traditional elements of Back-to-School Night your principal is expecting to see. Your principal is more likely to be onboard if you’re still meeting the “basic” requirements.

  • Anticipate some of your principal’s other concerns (see below) and have a solution prepared. Not only does this address any possible objections, but it highlights that you’ve already thought this through.

Addressing Potential Obstacles

One concern we had was space. Not only did we need to set up stations and allow families/guardians and students room to circulate, but there were four teachers in our PLC and we wanted a central location. We knew that AVID used our school library during the spring Open House, so we asked if we could use the school library for the night, which was right off the central plaza. We just printed signs to put on our classroom doors directing parents to find us there.

Consider trying something different for Back-to-School Night. Families/guardians will thank you.

If, like us, you want to set up interactive technology stations, you’ll need quite a few laptops. Our district provides Chromebooks for every student, so the library still housed several mobile labs, which we requested to use for the event. We recommend using Chromebooks, not your personal devices, for a variety of reasons. If your school doesn’t have technology readily available, you might consider printing screenshots of the different programs you use for parents to view.

Another obstacle we had to navigate was the fact that each of us taught multiple preps. Our combined Back-to-School Night was focused on English 10, but between the four of us, we also taught AP Literature, Yearbook, English 10 Honors, and Film, Literature, and Composition. Several of our stations overlapped with our other classes, but we also created a separate station for each of those courses and made a point of lingering near that station during the “period” those parents would be visiting.

Finally, full disclosure, this did require time, money (although you could probably do it without spending any), and effort to set up. But we viewed it as an investment: the work (and money) we put in this first time would pay off for years to come. You could also spread the cost (and workload) among your PLC. If you’re not ready to go all-in all at once, check out this YouTube video, where we discuss how to start by revising the content of your traditional presentation.

If you have other questions or concerns about trying a new approach to Back-to-School Night at your site, reach out to us or DM us on Instagram.