My advice to teachers everywhere. . . document everything!
At Open House I send home this sheet for the parents to fill out. (click the picture to view bigger or download) Then I put all the sheets in a binder. Whenever I call home or have conversations with parents that I need to remember I write notes on the back of the sheet. That way if they say, "You've never mentioned that before" or "Why am I just hearing about this now?" I can pull out their sheet and say, "Nope, we talked about this on October 4th. I called you at home and you said....."
I also 3 hole punch any notes the parents send my way and any responses I send back and file those behind their child's information sheet. I print out all e-mails and do the same thing.
Sounds a little OCD paranoid time consuming but when you're trying to keep track of 26+ sets of parents you have to have a system!
I hate to do this but the countdown has begun. . . 6 days until meeting begin. . . 11 days until school starts.
Great idea! I always start a notebook, but I like the idea of a binder better as you can keep all of the contacts for a child together rather than having to flip through the notebook!
ReplyDeleteJennifer @ Herding Kats In Kindergarten
Michelle,
ReplyDeleteThat is such a smart idea! I have a back to school questionaire, but I hadn't thought of including the parent contact data. Smart lady! It is sad that we have to cover our behinds, but better safe than sorry. I'm also going to keep track of all of my SpEd contacts after many referrals that were ignored until it was too late for testing. I'll have proof!
Thanks,
Corinna :)
Teaching Fabulous Firsties!