This year at Northwest, we had the first Parent Exchange Day instead of the typical open
house. Open house usually occurs before the first day of school, where parents can go to
each child’s classrooms to meet their teacher. Parent Exchange Day allowed the
parents to attend a day of school with their student and sit in on a short 20-minute lesson.
The goal of Parent Exchange Day was to bring in more parents and give them a better
example of how their students’ teachers conduct a lesson.Elizabeth Minerva was interviewed about her experience.

How do you feel Parent Exchange Day went overall?
I think it was a huge success.

Could you estimate what percentage of the students had parents who attended school
that day?
20%

On average, how many parents showed up for the open house in the past?
– If there was a difference between the two, what do you think caused that difference?
Honestly, it’s about the same. I had about 5 to 7 at the parent exchange and I think I
had about 5 to 7 maybe a little more.

What was the biggest difference between the two days?
The amount of engagement and interaction.

What part of the day do you feel went really well?Just the classes themselves, having the parents in here in the room because the
parents who come they’ve already bought in. I mean those already our good parents. So
they’re here, they’re ready to make the most of it and they did, they were fun to have in the
room, they participated.

What should be changed to improve the day?
I hated losing a B day and I wish there was some way to do it either earlier or some way
to do it where we didn’t lose a day.

What were some issues you had to overcome throughout the day?

It was really pretty easy. Pretty straight forward 20 minutes.

Did the day give a good example of how each teacher teaches? Why do you think that is the case?
A lot of people did getting to know you activities because it was hard to adjust their
curriculum. In those cases, I don’t know how effective it was. I know that a lot of other
people did actual activities, and I think those were really successful. I saw pictures of Ms.
Corcoron in her class having people actually [do pottery].

What was the funniest thing that occurred throughout the day?
Some of the parents were really funny. One of them repeated what her son always says
when I call roll he always says, ‘present in the flesh’ so when I came to his name, she said
it.

In attending the day, what did the parents learn about their student and their classes?
I think they probably saw how much students have to walk. How short the passing
periods are to make it to the bathroom. How crowded the classrooms are.

What steps did you take to plan your lesson for parent day?

I took a piece of what we going to do and I blew it up. I took it and I simplified it and I
created copies to hand out where I would have ordinarily just kind of given the students the
assignment with less direction.

What aspects do you plan on taking into account for your parent lessons in the future?
I’ll probably try to do something similar because I feel like that was really effective to do
actual class work.

What were you most excited to do with the parents?
Just probably more of the same. The parents that show up for this they’re ready to be a
part of things. You can count on them.

Do you prefer the new Parent Exchange Day or the open house? Why?
I prefer the new Parent Exchange Day. I think the parents get a better sense of what we do in the classroom.