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

This hands-on guidebook provides simple strategies for creating a supportive environment where parents, students, and teachers all work toward success in the classroom.

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.

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