Ideas for Parent Communication
Quickly communicate with students or parents!
Communicating with students and parents is key to a successful school year for everyone. If you are happy with how your communication is going, then by all means, carry on! If you are looking for a new way to communicate with students or parents, check out the options below. Depending on your comfort level with technology and the types of things you'd like to share with students or parents, there are a number of different options. Below are a few examples along with some pros and cons of each to help you decide which to use in your classroom. I'm always happy to answer more questions either now or later!
Clicking the title of each tool below will take you to the website.
Pros
Google Classroom is a very common tool for all students, especially at the secondary level. In addition to being integrated with all of the other Google products we utilize, it's easy to use and navigate. When you add due dates to assignments, they are added to a calendar personalized for each student. Last year, Google added the ability to add parent and guardian email addresses so they get a weekly summary of announcements and assignments for their student. You can learn more about how to do that by clicking here.
Cons
Parents are not naturally on Google Classroom like they are in other apps. The notifications from Google Classroom are by email, not through an app push notification like it is for students or as it is for other apps. The communication with parents can't easily be customized, it's just a peek into their students' week.
Pros
Many parents (and teachers) are already on Facebook and familiar with using it. Facebook Groups allow teachers to control who sees the information being posted to the Group. With the Facebook Group app (iOS/Android), you can quickly share photos, videos and information to the parents in the Group, who receive a notification within Facebook. You can even use Facebook Live to do a broadcast of an activity happening in your classroom, which is then saved in your Group for later viewing.
Cons
If you choose to use a separate "professional" Facebook persona to manage your Group, you could be switching back and forth between your personal and professional accounts. There are ways around that, including using the Group app or different web browsers. If a parent doesn't have Facebook, they will be left out of the loop because your Group should be closed or private. They have to have a Facebook account and you have to approve them so they can see what you post.
Pros
Twitter is a way to share images, video or short pieces of text with a larger audience. Even if parents or students don't have a Twitter account, they can view yours if you leave your account public. Using Twitter hashtags allow you to connect with users in the district (#lctitans, #lctitanhill) or around the world (#kinderchat, #sschat, #GSuiteEDU) who are interested in the same topic. Unlike Facebook, it's very easy to switch back and forth between personal and professional accounts if you have both.
Cons
Using a Twitter account can connect you with a much larger audience than what you may be wanting to connect with. Users are supposed to be 13 before signing up for an account, so you cannot expect any interaction online with students younger than that, if that is going to be your target audience. You are limited to 140 characters per post.
Pros
Seesaw is an extremely flexible tool for both formative assessment and parent communication. Students can draw a picture, record audio or video, or type text. All of that can be something they create from scratch or from a prompt that you give them. Once they create their answer, it is sent to you for approval. Approval can be done from a mobile device or a computer. As an example, you can review work that students did individually as you were working with a whole group. In addition to individual or group formative assessment, you can post pictures, videos or announcements from your class to the entire group, similar to what a Facebook Group would accomplish. Seesaw has both a Class (for you and your students; iOS/Android) and a separate Parent app (iOS/Android). You can generate parent letters with information on how they can join in to your class without having to have parent emails. Parents can "like" a post and provide text or audio feedback on items you post to their child's feed. The teacher approves parent feedback before students see it.
Cons
While Seesaw is easy to use and navigate, it's not as familiar of a tool as Google or Facebook, for both parents and teachers. However, there isn't much for parents to do other than look at what the teacher approved for their child and comment, if they wish. While the approval that teachers do works great either from a computer or your own smartphone, Seesaw works best for students on a tablet. Not every student would need an iPad, but if you don't already have one in your room, we would have to work out getting you one.
Below is Seesaw's tour of their summer 2017 app update.
Tour of Seesaw 5.0
Pros
Smore is an easy to use website that can be emailed out to parents, just like other newsletter templates. With the free account, you can create up to five different pages and send to 200 separate email addresses every month. You can edit the same page every week and then send out to parents. Smore allows you to easily add pictures, text, links, etc., in a colorful, friendly format.
You are currently viewing a Smore website, whether online or in an email.
Cons
Just like any type of newsletter, the only notification that parents would get would be an email and then they would have to click on a link or the email to read. It's also not nearly as social as other tools mentioned above.
Got questions or want to know more?
Email Josh to find a time to sit down and talk through them!