Tuesday brought with it a busy, but good, night. Back to School Night (or BTSN if you will) always makes you feel a bit nutty since you only have 10 minutes with each class period's parents and you say the same thing multiple times. By the last period, you can't really remember if you told this class that already or if you just said it to a different class ten minutes ago. As I type this I realize that it's really not that different than every other day as a teacher...
Anyway, it's always good to bring your teacher A game to BTSN, and this year I broke out my birthday pants. My parents sent me two pairs of pants I had asked for last May for my birthday. I tried them both on, decided they looked better online, and took them back to exchange them for other pants. And then I never wore them since it was the last month of school and putting an outfit together that requires multiple pieces was just not something I was up for that late in the year.
So they hung in my closet for months. Poor pants. I imagine this is how they've felt on all those lonely summer days:
But alas, their moment to shine arrived on Tuesday. I decided that these would be a good choice for the day since I was planning on staying at school from the start of the day until the night was over. And while I have made plenty of bad fashion decisions in the past (and my mom insists on leaving those pictures hanging up on the wall), this was a good decision. These pants are the stuff that teacher dreams are made of.
I'm a bit in love with these pants since they look like real pants and feel like yoga pants. I might have said, "Check this out" and then demonstrated their awesomeness to a couple of colleagues. They're the best! I paired these with a black shirt I love (It has a bow on it. Reason enough to love it.) and a blue cardigan. So--I'm pretty sure no one who knows me is surprised that I picked neutrals with a pop of color. And the Dak Prescott shoes (in a different color) also got their moment as well. I threw on some silver bracelets and earrings to finish it off.
As for the actual evening, I've found a few things helpful for me:
As parents walk in, I give them an index card and ask them to tell me anything about their student that they think I should know but the student might not tell me. I also ask for their email so I can add them to a Google folder that I use throughout the year to house assignment sheets, etc.
I find that index cards work better than a sign-in because all parents can complete the task at once and there isn't a back-up while they wait to sign-in or a concern about the clipboard getting to everyone.
I keep the spiel pretty basic and try to focus on the big picture of what I want the kids to get out of their time in the class.
I make sure to tell them the dates for the quarterly Writers' Nights so they can mark their calendars now, and I end by mentioning that if they have an extra box of Kleenex hanging around the house, I will happily take it off their hands.
And before you know it, the night is over.
As for outfit help, here are some options for a BTSN ensemble:
Okay--well, I hope that helps!
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