Rethinking Open House

A few of the learning principles that help us revolutionize learning in our district are to nurture a growth mindset, empower students and value the learning process just as much as the outcome.
After last year’s Open House, several teachers came to realize the district’s traditional end-of-school-year Open House didn’t portray these principles as strongly as it could have.
This school year, we were asked to rethink the traditional Open House so our vision and learning principles were shared with the school community in a powerful way.

Name Change

For starters, every school in our district changed the name of this event from Open House to Celebration of Learning. Doesn’t that name just roll off the tongue and bring visions of happy teachers and students frolicking through the halls?
But seriously…so much better than the visions of hours spent hovering over children’s shoulders willing them to finish their writing piece so you can hang it on the wall before hoards of people wiz through your room like a tornado to disrupt all the perfectly-displayed final projects.

Date Change

We also changed the date from mid May to the first week of April. If you are going to showcase the learning process, it’s best to do so when things are in full swing, not when things are winding down at the end of the year.

Communicate With The Community

Our administration communicated with the parent community so they knew in advance things may look a little different at this year’s event. Rather than seeing perfect cookie-cutter displays of polished work in each classroom, they were more likely to see a few finished assignments mixed in with several projects in progress.

The Details

The specifics on how the Celebration of Learning looked in each classroom or grade level was left to the teachers. Here’s a peek at a few

If a few final projects are ready to hang, put them on display so your students can talk about what they’ve accomplished or what their next steps will be.

Interactive Bulletin Boards

Try incorporating an interactive bulletin board into one of your subject areas. On this board, students post their math explanations from Write To Explain Math Task Cards and Ready…Set…Think! Activities. Their peers use sticky notes to give compliments or suggestions for improvement.

Students can then take their work back to their desk, modify or improve as needed and post it for additional critiquing. Bam! Process oriented learning/growth mindset building made easy!

Parents love reading their child’s reasoning and what their peers think of their work.

Expert Nametags

Each child in your class can take ownership of a different routine, subject area or physical space in the classroom and share their expert knowledge.
These expert nametags are fun for the students to wear and display on their desk so everyone who visits during Celebration of Learning can ask students about the ins and outs of the classroom. Talk about student empowerment!

Why Fit In Wall

Set aside a wall that give students an opportunity to let their unique personality shine. Rather than hanging the same project for every student, have students flip through their portfolio and select their personal favorite to display.
To be honest, the days leading up to our Celebration of Learning threw me off. I was having serious withdrawals from that yearly open house adrenaline rush that pumps through your veins as you wonder if you will actually pull off all that prep in time.
Now that it’s all said and done, I am so happy with the outcome of our first shot at rethinking Open House.  Each child in your class can take ownership of a different routine, subject area or physical space in the classroom and share their expert knowledge.