Every week all the classes at my school send home what we call a
Tuesday Packet. The packet consists of the following items:
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| Sample Packet Cover Letter |
- Any papers, forms or notes from the office
- All the student's work from the previous week
- A Packet Cover letter (which is slightly different from teacher to teacher but contains the same general information)
All of these items go home together in a weekly envelope that parents sign off on saying they received the items within it. After working at a couple of different schools, I can honestly say this system rocks!! All the papers, notes and forms from the office go home on one day which helps eliminate the overwhelming number of papers that go home throughout the week. Also, parents know that they can expect to receive their child's graded work from the week before. Now don't get me wrong, sometimes I'm not able to get everything graded in time. However, I can honestly say with this weekly packet that I have become proficient at managing my time when it comes to grading papers so they do go home and most importantly.......GET OUT OF MY TO DO PILE. ;-) This system also helps alleviate the possibility that a specific poor test or other assignment might go missing. Why you ask? Simply because the Packet Cover letter gives a brief list of what items the students completed that week. See my example Cover Letter below to see just how brief my list is. I don't go into great detail - just give a brief list. This is nice for the parents so they can see what their child covered in class and what assignments they should see in the packet. If I have a test listed, they know that test should be in that packet. Additionally, the packet letter let's me communicate with parents with any general announcements and comments or I can write specific ones to a particular family. I also list any points in behavior or work habits that their child received from the week before (this is part of our school-wide behavior plan).
This system really works for our school and parent feedback on it has been very positive. If you'd like a copy of my
Packet Cover Letter, head on over to my TpT store and download it for free. I provided it in doc format so you can tweak it to suit your needs. I hope you find it useful!
Enjoy!
