Week 2 of our new school year is nearly done and dusted. Routines are established, books are beginning to take shape, ideas are flowing and my Year 7’s are beginning to find their way around a new school more easily.

During the holidays I was looking for some new “beginning of the year” activities to do as we waited for stationery to be purchased and testing to be finished, mainly because I was bored with the same old ones I’d been doing for the past 3 years! I stumbled across a beauty! (I thought I had saved the URL in my Start of the Year Ideas Google Notebook – but I can’t find it!)

You’ve really got to try this one …… it’s brilliant!

In a million words or less …tell me about your child!

Your Name: _______________________________
Child’s Name: ______________________________

Hello, parents and guardians!
This may be the first homework assigned to you in a while, but I know you can handle it!
This is your big chance to let Ms. H know about your child.
You can write (or type, if you prefer) anything you like – as long as it is about your child.
Some things you may want to write about are their strengths, things you’d like to see them work on, hobbies they have, or anything you feel their teacher should know.
Write as much or as little as you please! These essays will be kept completely confidential.
You may return this to school with your child or e-mail a response to me.
Your child’s pin will move up 10 bonus squares if you do your homework!

I have laughed, I have awwwww’d, I’ve shed a tear or two, and I have been totally blown away by the response. The parental homework completion rate in just over a week is 75%. The mostly email responses have expressed gratitude and appreciation for the opportunity to share some first-rate insight of their child with me. I’ve expressed gratitude and appreciation to my parents for the knowledge I have gained about each of my new students. I haven’t had any negative responses yet, and most parents have written at least half a page for me.

This is definitely an activity that I will do again, and it’s such a positive way to make contact with parents for the first time.

Postscript: Thanks to Anne (Education World, Article, In A Million Words or Fewer ….. ), I can now credit the original idea to it’s owner. Last Summer, Deb Bova introduced this idea on the MiddleWeb Listserv. You can read some of the responses from the teachers who tried it in their class for the first time.