Talks with Teachers Summit
Building a Home-School Connection
Tools to Help Connect
A Class Twitter Account
A class Twitter account allows parents to get a glimpse of what is going on in your classroom. Parents can interact by favoriting or responding to a tweet. Parents do not need to be on Twitter to see the class Twitter page. They can view the page through the Internet or they can get the tweets texted to them.
Another great benefit to a class Twitter account is it allows parents to engage in a more meaningful conversation with their child about their day. Instead of just saying "How was your day?" or "What did you do in school today?" parents can ask more detailed questions such as "Can you tell me more about the Gary Soto story you read today?" or "That science experiment you were doing looked interesting, tell me about it."
Students can also connect with others on Twitter through the class account. For instance in my English class, students often connect with the authors of the books they are reading. When an author of their book favorites or responds to a tweet it is a positive experience for a child, and when parents can also see this it adds to it.
Tweet mentioning Malala and Lynda Mallaly Hunt they both "favorited"
https://twitter.com/BSMS720/status/648848292617523201
Tweet back from Lynda Mallaly Hunt
https://twitter.com/LynMullalyHunt/status/649190963307397120
One of the keys to having parents use this resource to connect with the classroom is you need to be consistent. If you want parents to look to your Twitter page as a tool for them to connect, you should post tweets regularly.
Smore
Smore allows you to add pictures, embed links, and attach audio files and videos. There are a variety of backgrounds to choose from. If you upgrade to an educator account, you will get a larger selection. Your flyer can be as long or as short as you want it.