My very first....Teacher Talk Tuesday!

So excited about my latest parental involvement idea!  Teacher Talk Tuesday! :) 

Now...full disclosure...Daina over at Sticky Notes and Glitter and I BOTH came up with this, but...now that she's in Texas...I'm goin' it solo, folks! :/

We came up with this idea because we were looking for a way to empower parents with the information needed to help their students at home.  They responded really well to this first installment!  I truly believe a good time was had by all! :)

I covered two topics...about 20 minutes on each one, and included some practice activities for the parents to do...just like what I would do with the kids.  I let them ask questions throughout and talk to one another at the tables about the material.  We laughed and learned together! :)

Here's what I used in my first 'T3' as I like to call it!

I like to set out an agenda so that parents know where we are throughout the process!

I built in lots of talk time so that they would be able to particpate in the learning! :)

I started off with Phonemic Awareness...because it's just fun! :)

I went over how to pronounce the sounds of the vowels properly and then I had them play a sound substitution game.  They worked with another parent across the table from them...just like if they were working with their own learner.  They were super cute when they did this!  And SUPER conscientious too! :)  Just a precious group of parents I have this year!! :)

I printed these sheets off two to a page and had them ready for the parents in a little basket before they walked in.  I wanted to give them an idea of what they could do with CVC words.  This sheet is for initial, median, and final sounds...but I also had sheets available for parents that were just initial or final sounds if they wanted to take that home.

Next, we jumped into the number sense time of my lesson.  This was going to be harder, so, I saved it for the end.

I have been working with making tens for a while, but today was the first day I had a learner be able to articulate how to use making tens' as a strategy to solve an addition problem, so...I made a quick video.  She earned her first 'chip' for the tool kit today! :)  So exciting!!

**I actually had the parents watch the student videos and then do the strategies with problems that I made up for them! :)**

The video didn't really transfer well from my phone.  It's a cross between Charlie Brown's mother and a really bad R2D2 impression. :/ *shivers*  I swear, my phone is from a cracker jack box.

So, I pieced what I could of it together with images to show you.

Next, I demonstrated another way I taught students to make ten.  This way is more difficult because they do not use manipulatives.  I have this video on my You Tube Channel, since this is a student from last year.  You can read a whole post on this if you click HERE.  I really emphasized to the parents that they need to be able to make tens with automaticity in order to be successful at these strategies. This type of strategy won't work for a learner who can not generate numbers to ten quickly.  We are working on making tens quickly in class, so...over time...this will become automatic!

I wrapped up by telling them about my next topic, and soliciting ideas from them about future T3 nights! :)

This was really fun to do with the parents and a great way to build camaraderie and collegiality with them.  They got to experience what their kids are doing in the classroom and I think it helped give them a bit of perspective.

I would totally encourage you to try it quarterly or even twice during the year to get parents engaged in what the kids are doing! :)  Keeping them connected to the classroom is a great way to help their kids be better learners! :)

Hope you all are having a great start to your week! :)