Communication is the key to help our students achieve success. In an ideal world both parents and teachers would work together to help students reach their dreams. Many times, I've heard of parents wanting to help their children, but not knowing what is going on inside of class or what they can do about it. Here are some simple ways that we as teachers can help.
Newsletters
Old fashioned newsletters can easily be emailed to parents and help keep them in the loop as to what is going on inside of class without having to reach out and ask a ton of questions. Better yet, the students can't come up with the "I lost it" excuse to their parents. I reccommend sending it as a BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) as you don't want people's emails to be exposed to everyone else. If you are unsure how to get started why not try our free Canva Template .
Remind
Truth be told, students and parents are on their cellphones alot. Even if you have it under control in your classroom, you know once they leave they will be on their phones. Why not take advantage of it? With the remind app both students and parents and text you and you can text them back without having to reveal your personal phone number to them. You can even set 'office' hours so that students are not texting you at all times in the middle of the night. Remind is free to use. Go to https://www.remind.com/ to learn more.
ClassTag
I was introduced to ClassTag last year through my youngest child's teacher. It offers a common place for classroom communication and an easy way for parents to reach out to students. If you have a Google Classroom, ClassTag easily intergrates with Google Calendar and Google Meet. You can send photos, reminders, and parents can comment. I also like that it doesn't have the cutesy avatars or a limit on how long messages can be like Class Dojo doesI can see how it works well in elementary school but in middle and high school you would probably have to set up multiple accounts for the different periods. Go to Classtag to learn more.
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