This is one of the hardest stretches of the school year for me: The weeks between the start of school and Back-to-School Night.
My kids know their teachers, but I don't. Policies are being set, but I don't know what they are. Assignments are being given, and I'm not sure how to help. My child is being trusted to bring home relevant information, and I have no idea if it's happening.
I can send in notes, but there's no assurance they'll be looked at, or even removed from my kids' folders. I can make phone calls, but the return message will be "We'll talk at Back-to-School Night." Nothing official has started for the year, and yet my kids are in that building for long hours every day.
It makes a helicopter mom anxious, I tell you. My anxiety's worse this year because both kids are in high school, where parents' interventions are less welcome than ever. I didn't even get the ordinary start-of-school paperwork packet home this year -- my son had to fill in phone numbers himself in class. He knows his number. Did he print it so anyone can read it? Who knows.
Also augmenting the anxiety this year is the knowledge that, for the first time in a while, my husband and I are going to have to split duties on Back-to-School Night. I'm not going to be able to meet all my kids' teachers personally, and I need to. I learn so much by seeing what other parents I recognize in the classroom, how the teachers present themselves to parents, how they describe their regular assignments and grading processes. Back-to-School-Night meetings have led to specific actions on my part in the past. And now I get only fifty percent of that benefit.
While I'm waiting for my personal meetings Monday night, I've instigated a larger-scale teacher-parent meeting of the minds. I've written a list of things parents would like special educators to know, and invited Sue Watson, About.com's guide to Special Education, to do the same from a teacher's point of view. Read our lists, then add your own thoughts in the forum. If you're a parent, what would you like teachers to know? If you're a teacher, what message would you send to parents? And if you're one of my kids' teachers, e-mail me, okay? I have questions.
Read more: Special Needs News | Site of the Day | Ten Reasons to Attend Back-to-School Night
Photo: Dave Einsel/Getty Images