The term "Parent Night" inspires fear in even the most seasoned teachers.

But…get over it.

And remember, parent night can mean different things to different people. To some, parent nights are synonymous with parent-teacher conferences. But we're talking about nights when parents are invited to engage with teachers and counselors in a discussion of school issues, education, and even the big, scary world of parenting itself. A parent night can be a chance for parents to use the school as a resource—just as their children do every day throughout the school year.

Schools are centers for the community, and offering some level of programming for parents can help build those important school-home relationships that wind up benefitting everyone: students, teachers, administrators, parents, and the community at large.

So yes, they may inspire fear, but they also just plain inspire.

Get Your Planning On

First things first: rally up some topics that'd fit in nicely to a successful and relevant parent night. These should be topics that would (a) have some benefit for parents, and (b) be kind of interesting to them.

Coming up short on ideas? Your school counselors can be a great resource to help you determine what kind of information parents are looking for. These are the folks who hear about the concerns, fears, and challenges parents and students are dealing with on a daily basis. Besides, school counselors often play a prominent role in planning and organizing parent nights. So if you're interested in trying to put one together, checking in with yours might be your first step.

Still fishing for topics? Here's another hint. Think back to the education classes you took in college, or professional development courses you've participated in. After all, you're a teacher: you've spent loads of time studying early childhood and adolescent development. Many parents haven't, and a lot of them could benefit from learning more about certain issues.

Want some examples? (And some specific talking points thrown into the mix?) Check out areas such as the teen brain, internet and social media safety, or video gaming and screen time. And guess what: you and your colleagues are the ideal people to offer mini-workshops on these topics (and more) during a parent night.

Once You Have Your Topic

You'll need someone to, you know, talk about it. After all, a good topic needs a good presenter. Check in with your school counselors and faculty members (and hey—if you have some expert parents in the fold, check in with them, too). Narrow down to the ones among your contacts who could put together a solid presentation on each topic you'd like to feature, and start pinning them down.

How many topics to include, you ask? Like any good question, it's got a great answer: depends. Maybe video gaming is a big deal in your school, so you want a whole chunk of time for a presentation, questions, and discussion. Maybe you're thinking more of a showcase to get the wheels turning on a range of issues. Lots of directions to go here.

If you're the one-two-punch sorta instructor, we'll just say four topics seems like a good upper limit. Especially if parent night is new to your school. Even if you've got 500-1000 students at your school, not all of them are going to have parents who are down for a night in the classroom with a ten-topic agenda to burn through.

But don't despair: a group of 25-40 parents is an excellent turnout the first time you hold one of these events. Because if you hadn't noticed, it's hard to get people to leave their houses at the end of the day. And if you succeed—well, that's half the battle. (Okay, maybe a third). As for the topics, you can hammer 'em out one after another, or do the mini-workshop thing and send groups of parents to a few different classrooms.

So back to presenters.

Ideally, these folks will be connected to the school, and also ideally, a fair number of teachers will attend. The event, after all, has two purposes: to provide information and education for parents and to build relationships with them. This is a chance for parents to learn about issues relevant to their children's development and education, for them get to know teachers, and for teachers to get to know them.

Get with the Program

As in, make a clearly detailed program of the topics you're going to address and make sure it gets itself disseminated. Throughout the meeting, it's a good idea to have a clear agenda printed, posted, or projected so that everyone knows exactly what's happening when. For example:

6:00-6:15 Light refreshments in the cafeteria
6:15-6:30 Welcome and explanation of mini-workshops (or topics, or whatever)
6:35-7:25 Mini-workshops
7:30-7:50 Debrief in the cafeteria (and finish off those refreshments!)

As you can see so neatly and clearly in the sample schedule, mini-workshops shouldn't be longer than 45 minutes—an hour tops. You should also make sure that there's ample time built into the workshops for questions and discussion after any presentations.

As for the debrief at the end of the night—it can include report-backs from each mini-workshop, or simply provide a chance for people to share comments about what they've learned or make suggestions for other topics they'd like to see featured at future parent nights.

Some surefire tips: keep the whole event two hours or under, start and end as a large group, and adhere to your start and stop times for all activities.

People gotta get home in time for Project Runway, after all.

Enhancements, Tweaks, and Other Ideas

We've fed you some sample topics, a sched, and other key tips. But we're the generous type, so we've got more. Try adding a few of these features to your parent night to make it an even bigger success.

• Childcare. You'll get more parents of young children to participate if they can not only bring their kids along, but also dump them in a separate room and take advantage of free childcare. The easiest way to accomplish this is likely to have a few rooms open to accommodate children of different ages and interests: a movie room, a board game room, a story time room, and a quiet reading or studying room. All great options that can be staffed by tweens or teens in your district who have child care experience.

• Combine your parent night with an open house. Ask teachers to be present in their rooms so that parents can wander in and out, viewing student work and asking questions before breaking into groups for the mini-workshops.

• Have a keynote speaker to kick-off the night before letting parents attend the mini-workshop of their choice. You fancy, huh?

• If parent night always leaves out the same set of parents (for example, the type who would prefer a mid-day activity), try hosting a few parent brown-bag lunches. Check out this Education World article to key into how a few educators have implemented brown-bag lunch programs in their schools.

Pumped to get started? Here's a final booster. By inviting parents into the school for a parent night that offers information to help them support their children's education and personal development, you'll make allies—and maybe even friends—who will support you and your school.

And let's be honest: they'll save you time down the road so you, too, can get home for Project Runway.