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Brittney Richardson Teacher, Kelly Elementary School Compton Education Association “Come in, come in, please come in and look around,” she says on the fi rst day of school, in an effort to make parents feel especially welcome in her classroom. She calls the fi rst day of school a “celebration” where parents are greeted enthusiastically and informed that they are part of the “team” she’ll be working with throughout the year. Parents are invited to visit anytime, read stories to students and help with activities. “This makes parents want to be involved in the classroom and feel comfortable with me,” she explains. “I communicate with them regularly, so they don’t feel I’m only contacting them when something is bad.” Showing support for her students in non-school settings also wins her huge points. Occasionally she will show up for students’ baseball or soccer games or even Bible school presentations. “Ev- eryone gets very excited when I step outside of the school arena,” she says. “Parents are very appreciative and realize that you really do care about their child, and they are more motivated to work with me in helping their child succeed.” As a result, parents are more willing to spend time practicing math with their child. Richardson says she frequently re- fers parents to www.mathdrills.com. Courtney Woods-Ziani Single-subject credential student (French), San Diego State University Student CTA Her favorite book for classroom management for middle and high school students is The First Days of School by Harry Wong. “The book is written in a practical user-manual style and has a corresponding website offering supplementary information.” She uses www.blogger.com to create free class blogs where she posts homework assignments, extracurricular information, and any other tidbits she wants to share with students. “I use docstoc.com to transform document fi les into embed codes to post work on our class blogs. It’s free. To make learning come alive, use multimedia — lots of music, live streaming, Internet, blog, iPhone apps — to keep learning current and integrate technology. You can teach two skills at the same time.” Tony Gonzales Science teacher, Merced High School Merced Unifi ed High School District Teachers Association Get to know your support staff, says Gonzales, or “the people that really run the school.” This includes secretar- ies, custodians and others who can help improve your teaching environment. He also gets to know his students — their culture, interest and goals — by conducting student surveys at the beginning of the year. His question- naire asks students about their hobbies and interests outside of school and future career plans. When he knows their interests, he can make his subject matter more relevant to their lives. For example, if a student is interested in medicine, questions in Gonzales’ biology class might revolve around medical science. “Sometimes it’s all the same concept, but it’s worded differently to be interesting and relevant to different students.” Visit us online To read more back-to-school tips by members for members, see the extended story at www.cta.org/schooltips. Tiffany Samora English language arts and AVID teacher, Muscatel Middle School Rosemead Teachers Association Jamal Cooks Assistant professor, secondary educa- tion, San Francisco State University California Faculty Association Debbie Todd Academic literature teacher, Kings Canyon Middle School Fresno Teachers Association Steve Aberle Spanish teacher, Computech Middle School Fresno Teachers Association SEPTEMBER 2010 | www.cta.org 19 Photo courtesy of Courtney Woods-Ziani