Engaging Parents 101

Hello! My name is Laura Lavery, and I teach middle school Spanish in Franklin, Tennessee. Part of my vision this year was to engage all of my students’ parents and family members in our classroom community. A fun way to engage parents this year has been creating e-vites from a free website Evite.com. 

Some events that have been popular include the following: coming to class on your child’s birthday, student presentations, bringing your mama and papa to Spanish class, bear market, elf market, and day of the dead station celebration. I first start by creating an account with Evite and then import all of the parents’ emails. I then use their templates to make invitations to class events. I usually plan two to three big events each month. These e-vites serve as formal invitations to invite parents into our classroom. From the students’ perspective, the students are very excited when their mother, father, grandmother, and grandfather walk into the classroom. I firmly believe these invitations have made my parents feel welcome in our classroom throughout the entire year. Here are some of my previous e-vites:

Feel free to contact me laverylau@fssdorg with questions. Also please follow our Twitter @fssdPGMSLavery