Free Parent Input Form!  

Just click below:

Parent Input Form Primary

I’ve been teaching a long time and  I’ve seen all sorts of great ideas – teachers running things for Back-to-School Night:
lists of standards,
Notes on ow to help your child with _______
Classroom rules & introductions.

I even have a copy of a parent input form but so why hasn’t it occurred to me how excellent it would be to use a parent input form?  (Smack!)  That’s the sound of a heartily self-applied ‘dope slap.’  This just all proves that nothing is obvious until it occurs to you.  I guess I was too busy thinking, ‘Back-to-School night is all me telling’ parents about school.  It’s such an easy mistake to make as a teacher that more talking = more education.  After all, we’re teachers.  We are in the information giving business.  It’s so easy to think that we have the magic words all the time.

It’s such a simple and powerful idea!   So I looked around.  Of course I can almost never just take what I find on the Internet. I have to make my own.  So here it is if you like it – FREE!    You can click on the link so you don’t have to try to copy the low res images here.

The best thing about this is that you can essentially prove to parents that you care about the child just by asking.  Otherwise they just hear you saying you care.    The huge benefit is that you learn exactly what quirks the parents have about their child, what they are concerned about in their child and, even more, what they are concerned about in you.  This way you can be sure to address all those things

Here is the form I put together.  I just used it for the first time.  It has a good mix of questions probing for concerns while allowing children to boast and be rightfully proud of their child.  My favorite question turned out to be:

A good teacher is someone who: 

Because you can read the parent’s priorities.  Most just want ‘kind and encouraging’, but a few listed ‘organized’ and one stated bluntly, “One that leaves the parenting to me.”  Sigh.  I hate it when parents get grumpy and defensive and treat us like the enemy when all we want is the best for their child.  (You can bet that kid doesn’t get enough parenting.)

It is absolutely free.  I have it in several formats, the RTF (Rich Text Format) which can be opened in any word processor, and also old Word format, and newer Word format, and PDF.   You need it in editable format in case you have specific questions you’d like to swap for mine.  It also comes packed with the font to make it look cute.

Happy Teaching!

• Scott