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Parents are partners in children's educational journey, so we must keep parents involved and in the loop. Students receive more support at home if we involve and inform families through communication tools. Freebie alert - Grab a copy of the FREE parent and guardian communication log here.
You Can Share So Much with Families
Volunteering opportunities in the classroom/school
Schedule updates or events at school or in the community
Extra resources to support learning in the classroom
School events (book fairs, field trips, dances, etc.)
Homework and assignments
Documents and files for parents to sign
Child's progress in subject areas
Classroom topics being covered
Reminders for parent/teacher conferences or PTA meetings
Getting in Touch
Here are some simple methods to get and keep in touch with parents and families.
Phone home: Remember that scene in E.T. where all you wanted to do was "phone home"? Well, do just that! Set the stage for a positive interaction with children and their parents before you need to call home to report an issue. Call parents early in the year with a favorable report.
Communication log: Keep track of your communication with parents and families. A communication log helps you track who you contacted, when, and how. Be sure to include these items: 1. Parent or guardian name, 2. Date/time you contacted the parent, 3. How you contacted the parent (email, phone call, text message, etc.) and whether you left a message, and 4. A few notes about what you discussed. Freebie alert - Grab a copy of the FREE parent and guardian communication log here.
Newsletters: Smore and Microsoft Sway are excellent ways to present content, but you can also make beautiful newsletters. Provide the content, and the design work is all done for you. You can customize the layout with headings, fonts, backgrounds, and colors. Jazz it up with photos, videos, links, and more! They are so easy to share via email or social media—you can embed them on your class website. Fun fact: You can even track the number of views on each newsletter. Make it easy to contact you by including your contact information.
Tech-Tool Round-Up
There are SO many edtech tools out there. Here's a list of four you can try and see what works best for you.
Remind Message parents about ALL the things using this tool. Remind can work with several learning-management tools and even Quizlet! You can schedule out messages, too, saving you some teacher time. Remind even includes translation! I also love the feature of office hours, so parents and students know an excellent time to contact you. (remind.com)
Class Tag: This has impressive features such as translation and access across devices. Share pics and videos with parents. This tool is different from others because teachers can unlock rewards to get classroom goodies for FREE from partners. (classtag.com)
How do you keep in touch with the parents and families of the students in your classroom? Share out your strategies and tools and tag me! Let’s chat about it!