And what’s the best way to offer and act on those choices?<\/p>\n Ask ahead of time what your families need, act on the data, then close the loop with exit tickets.<\/p>\n It can in fact, be just that simple.<\/p>\n Methods on offer: Google Forms sent to family emails, paper forms sent with students or via US Mail.<\/p>\n Sample pre-survey questions could range from most convenient times to preferred video-conferencing (and non<\/em>-video-conferencing) platforms. Questions on individual student progress, and questions on school policy. Much of this is exactly the same as the pre-surveying you’ve been doing with more traditional parent nights.<\/p>\n And then after parent night, sending out a survey can not just tell you how well you pulled it off, it can also tell you what additional topics families wish you’d covered, or where there’s still some confusion.<\/p>\n Best of all, it’s a way to invite families to continue the parent night conversation with you. Everybody loves being asked for their opinion!<\/p>\n Time flies when you’re having trouble finding the “mute” button.<\/p>\n A one-hour virtual parent night will whip by. Time will do wild loop-de-loops; you will struggle to fit everyone’s questions in. Y’all know this. So, take the opportunity to prep as much of the information you want to give families in advance. It will give them time to pre-read, if they’re pre-readers. It will give the people who can’t make it access to the information as well, and it will save your together time as a community for genuine interactions.<\/p>\n Here is a fabulous example from Newark School, in West Burke VT:<\/p>\n Look at all the information in Newark’s agenda! Links to tutorials and parents guides, schedules and remote plans, and — be still our beating hearts — a Code of Conduct.<\/p>\n (That’s not a joke; Codes of Conduct are incredibly helpful documents, never more so than as we all began spending so much of our lives shouting at each other through lighted, moving panes of glass.)<\/p>\n So in addition to providing this information to families for pre-digest, the document also lives on as an amazing quicklinks resource, after the event! We’d copy that agenda to our Drives in a heartbeat.<\/p>\n Now, we know what you’re thinking: that looks like a *ton* of work, and it is. So. Who do you know who might be interested in writing or recording some tutorials, or tech guides for families?<\/p>\n We’ll give you a moment there…<\/p>\n ….rhymes with “shmudents”…<\/p>\n That’s right: students.<\/p>\n Bear with us but: what might it look like to ask your students to write up a Zoom Code of Conduct for their family community?<\/p>\n Embrace accessibility. As we are now all highly dependent on these beautiful beautiful screens for a further couple of months, we’re all becoming much more aware of the accessibility needs related to technology. If you’re going to have a spoken presentation, find out your options for including an ASL interpreter<\/a> or even getting real-time, CART captioning services.<\/p>\n Include in your pre-event survey any needs for translators. Translation services exist in your community and online both.<\/p>\n Other aspects of accessibility may be less obvious.<\/p>\n![\"virtual](\"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/bingocards.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n2. All hail the feedback loop<\/h4>\n
3. Prep as much as you can in advance<\/h4>\n
![\"virtual](\"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Remote_Learning_Family_Night_-_NSS_10_07_2020_-_Google_Docs-926x1024.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n4. Make it accessible<\/h4>\n