Communication is Key!
The purpose of this blog is to serve as a practice exercise for the graduate students enrolled in EDM 510.
As a future educator, one of the things that I hope to establish is a partnership with parents to support student learning. I believe that a solid means of communication is essential in establishing this partnership. However, finding a successful way to communicate with your students' parents is often a chore, rather than a pleasantry. The overall goal in searching for the best form or communication is to find a time-efficient way to do it. When
I was in school, teachers would often write notes/letters, call, or send out a
newsletter to communicate with parents. Currently, teachers may still use these tools to communicate. However, with the advancements in technology the doors of communication have been opened. One of the trending communication tools that I came across last year is Remind. It is formerly know as RemindMe101. Remind is a "free, safe, easy-to-use communication tool that helps teachers connect instantly with students and parents." Teachers are able to connect instantly by signing up on the site. Once they are signed up, they can create a class, add their students, and start communicating. Parents my join the class by using the unique code created by the teacher. Once the classes have all been established, teachers can easily connect with their classes. You can find out more about this communication tool by clicking on this link Remind. Please explore this site and comment on the pros and cons of using it as a tool to communicate with parents. Also, post other innovative ways to communicate with students and parents.
Looking forward to your ideas!
Thanks,
Norleisha
Hi Norleisha,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed learning about Rewind. Some of the positive things I liked about it were: It doesn't release personal information to everyone in the class, it allows teachers to post voice memos (which to me makes it more personal), and it can be accessed across multiple platforms. One of the negative things about it, I would think, is that it doesn't allow students and parents to reply to the messages. Maybe that's intentional, but I would think if they had questions about an assignment or something, it might be easier / beneficial for them to be able to just directly reply to the notification instead of having to open up another email or text window and have to message the teacher that way. Of all the communication devices that I researched, Remind sounded like the best one. I found an article on NPR about apps that teachers can use for communication with students / parents and it was mentioned in there. Two other ones that it mentioned that I thought would be helpful were Class DoJo and Twitter. Class DoJo helps teachers and students monitor positive and negative classroom behavior in a fun way, and Twitter allows teachers to send out short reminders, questions, etc. to students and parents. Here is the link to the article that I found: http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2014/09/16/347377022/a-is-for-apps-teachers-share-top-digital-tools-of-the-trade.
Mallory,
DeleteI really like the Remind tool! There is one thing that this generation always has, their cellphone. I love that you can schedule things in advance to be sent to students. I like to use it to remind students about homework assignments and quizzes. You make a good point about students and parents having questions, and not being able to reply. However, they could send an email with questions. For me, my emails come to my phone. I would be able to still provide them with immediate feedback.
Thanks for sharing that article. I had never heard of DoJo, but it is definitely something I plan to explore.
Norleisha,
ReplyDeleteI have found that communication is definitely the key to success for students, parents, and teachers. My current grade level uses Class Dojo to communicate with students and parents. It allows each teacher to log on and provide immediate fed back about students' behavior in each of the classes throughout the day. I believe this is an effective way for immediate contact with parents. For example, students I have first period are most of the time great and on task. In contrast, by fifth period sometimes the same students are off task and uncooperative. The days of calling are few and far between. Often, parents email teachers to ask questions and or monitor student behavior.
Jathany,
DeleteMallory mentioned this tool also. I have never heard of it, but I am so glad that you both spoke about it. I plan to learn more about it, and introduce it to my future classes. I agree that the days of calling are on the border of extinction. Thanks for your feedback.
I really enjoy how there are apps like these that exist. Some communications to parents can be generic and non student specific and I am sure there are those features in these apps that allow for that. Aside from standard communications, phone calls, face-to-face, emails and texting/messaging, I can see parents having a place they can log in and find out what they as parents need to find out about their child. These communications are very important especially in elementary and middle grades. There are times when the high school teacher may need to communicate with the parents as a group and such apps can be beneficial.
ReplyDeleteEither way, I believe that the teacher must set their boundaries from the beginning, regardless of the manner in which they chose to communicate with the parents. They would also, more than likely need to get to know the parents. Those who don't care to communicate, those who would like to but don't always have the resources and those parents who would want to stay in constant communications all the time.
Kesia,
DeleteI agree that this is tool that would be good for a generic memo for parents and students. I am glad that you pointed that out.
Some parents are just not interested in responding. I was so surprised when I discovered that. I have sent out several emails regarding students that are behind or not doing well in my course, and I did to receive anything back from many of them. Now, this could be because the students are in high school. However, I know that I am going to be one of those parents that want to know everything regardless of the grade level. Thanks for your feedback.