I'm seeing on lots of other blogs people talking about how school is starting for them soon... some of you in a few short weeks. THAT'S CRAZY!! Here in WI, we don't start until September 1st or the Tuesday after Labor Day, whichever comes first. Teachers usually start coming in to set up their classrooms around the middle of August and we have inservices that last week of August.
So my second year teaching I wanted to make my contact info more readily available for my students parents, so I bought business card magnets from an office supply store, printed my info on card stock, cut them out, and slapped them onto the magnets. Let me tell you, they looked AWFUL! They looked so cheap and since I printed them out on my home printer, the ink smeared. It was a HOT MESS! Unfortunately I was so close to the beginning of the year that I just sucked it up and gave them to parents at Open House anyway... hey, it was better than nothing!
The following year I wanted to do it again, but I set out to see if I could order them. I had no idea how much it would cost, and I really didn't want to spend a whole lot of money on it. This is when I first heard of Vista Print. Honestly, I haven't really explored their site to know everything they do, but it looks like they can print on anything. And guess what? They can make business card magnets! SWEET!! Here's the one I made:
I changed my school/numbers/email address, but you get the idea! I paper clipped it to my first newsletter that went home at Open House. I asked parents to hang it on their fridge so they have my contact info right at their finger tips. I ordered 100 of these bad boys a few years ago for $35, because the more you order, the cheaper it is per magnet. Now I am seeing on their site lots more design options (I saw one with a cute school bus on it!), or for all of my super creative teacher friends, you can make and upload your own design. AANNNDDD... I just saw Vista Print on Groupon the other day! I am going to need more for next year, so I'm super excited to create a new design. Perhaps with a hippo on it? I think YES!
What do you do to stay in touch with parents?
I give out business cards too. I like the idea of magnetic ones. I clip those business cards to my welcome letter and to the first two report cards. If a student moves away, I clip it to the file. That way the new teacher can get right in touch with me if she needs to.
ReplyDeleteWe all have fusion websites at our school which I update regularly. i can't post kids pictures though.
I also send home a newsletter atleast once a month.
KindergartenLove.
Cindy
I actually had to reorder and got the bus one! I haden't ordered in a couple of years but did this year! The bus one IS really cute!
ReplyDelete