The smell of tacos and the buzz of conversation filled the school halls; parents traced their students’ footsteps from class to class. Back to School Night, an annual event held at the school for parents to connect with teachers, took place on Wednesday.
“Back to School Nights are at least an annual transition,” Joe Austin, Executive Director of the TPHS Foundation, said. “It’s the first official event of the school year where parents, teachers and students all come together, and for us, it’s a rare opportunity to connect with so many parents at once.”
The evening started with a presentation by Principal Rob Coppo, followed by parents visiting each of their students’ classrooms for 10 minutes, mirroring a condensed, typical day in students’ schedules.
“[Back to School Night] gives parents a lot more insight into what their student is doing during the day,” Anna Hubbard, AP English Language and English 12 teacher, said. “One of the things I try to talk to parents about is the kind of class that we have for AP English language or for English 12, what we’re doing, what I value, what I want students to get out of the class, the challenges of the course and the challenges of junior and senior year. I think, if anything, it gives more parents more of an understanding of what their child is experiencing day to day, and kind of creates more opportunities for conversation.”
Various school organizations raised money during the event, such as Falcon Vision, the school’s broadcast organization, and AVID, a curriculum that prepares students for college, that set up drink, dessert and taco stations for parents to purchase.
“This is just an opportunity for those student organizations [to] welcome parents to the first official event of the school year,” Austin said. “So not unlike a football game … this is a big, huge event.”
As a parent himself, Austin values Back to School Night because “by the time kids get to high school, especially when they start driving their own cars, parents sort of feel like their role is diminished in high school.” [He] argues that the most successful kids are the ones who have the most involved parents.
Suzanne Miller, Megan Miller’s (11) parent, agrees that Back to School Nights can help parents support their kids with their studies.
I love meeting my children’s teachers,” Miller said. “That way, when they talk about the class, I can visualize the classroom and who their teacher is, and get information about their syllabus and expectations. I think it gives us a commonality, so we both know what’s expected in the class, and then I can help support her in making sure she’s prepared for tests.”
Along with giving parents a clearer understanding of their children’s classroom, Hubbard has also found that Back to School Night has changed her perspective as a teacher and parent.
“I really enjoy meeting the parents,” Hubbard said. “For so many of my years of teaching, I wasn’t a parent, but now that I am a parent. I feel very connected to them in terms of what they’re experiencing and how they look at their children, so I can very much empathize with them [when] thinking about my own son.”
Back to School Nights are not the only opportunity for parents to meet or communicate with their students’ teachers. According to Austin, parents have opportunities to meet other parents through foundation-sponsored parent socials, [and] there are “lots of opportunities for parents to meet teachers and communicate with teachers, whether that’s email or through Google Classroom messaging.”
“I think what I enjoy most is [that] meeting our families is just incredible,” Coppo said. “They’re all so nice, so appreciative of the teachers in the school. And, it’s just really, really great to see everybody here enjoying the school in a unique way.”
