One of the most important things we can do to help our students have a successful school year is to build relationships with their families. Our students' caregivers are the experts on their children. We can learn so much from them! When we take the time to build these crucial relationships, everyone benefits. Building relationships with families provides:

1. Better Understanding: Families provide key insights about the student's needs and strengths, helping us tailor our approach to meeting the needs of the student.
2. Consistent Support: Coordination between home and school ensures consistent routines and strategies, which benefit the student.
3. Advocacy: Families can help address challenges and advocate for their student's needs.
4. Shared Goals: Aligning goals between home and school helps the student make progress.
5. Trust and Communication: Good relationships build trust and open lines of communication for addressing issues.
6. Family Engagement: Involved families are more likely to be engaged in their student's education.

To further enhance these relationships and ensure that we are meeting students' needs effectively, a caregiver survey is an easy way to gather direct feedback and insights from families.

One way you can start building relationships is a simple caregiver survey at the beginning of each school year. This survey is meant to gather information on the preferred modes of communication, the best times to communicate, how much communication they would like from school, etc. It's also used to find out more about the family's student. Even if you've had the same student over multiple years, a lot has happened over the summer. Student interests change as they grow older and have new experiences. Families change, too.

I know it can be tricky to reach families, so I've included multiple ways you can send out the survey: paper form, calling parents to interview and ask the questions, emailing it as a Google Form, or requesting that an interpreter call and ask the family the questions.

Below are four different versions of a caregiver survey. The first is a PDF of the caregiver survey my team used, the second resource is the same survey translated into Spanish, the third is an editable version of the survey, and the fourth is a Google Form.

Check out the Hometown Helpers unit in Themes First!, which includes original songs, books, and activities that support students’ skill development and generalization with content that’s fun, accessible, and theme-based. These monthly units now include an expanded Social Studies suite, containing fun, theme-related activities that reinforce cultural engagement. Included in all Themes First! units are lessons, activities, and worksheets for group and independent work at a wide range of levels.

The next Themes First! release, Monster World, is ready to prep!

💡Tip: Print all the activities you plan to use for the upcoming month as soon as they become available. Put printed activities in a "prep" area equipped with a laminator, file folders, Velcro, labels, and baggies. If you have a large laminator, laminate all the activities at once! When you and your team have a few minutes to spare, laminate, cut, and Velcro. It helps to organize activities in trays by "Needs to be Prepped" and "Finished." Don't forget to teach your team how to prep the activities and to model this new expectation. Check out the How to Prep a Month-Long Themes First! Unit below.

Feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns via email or phone. I'm also available to chat via Zoom Mondays from 7:30-8:00 AM and 3:00-3:30 PM. If these times do not work for your schedule, please email me and we will find a time that will work for both of us.

Use the link below to ask questions about this week's Tuesday Tips 'N' Tricks and/or give suggestions on future topics.

2023-2024 Tuesday Tips & Tricks Newsletters

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