parents | TeachingSagittarian

As we begin our second semester at ISB, I’ve been reflecting on quite a number of things. One of which is how do you bring parents into your classroom (digitally speaking)?

One of the things I really like about my position as ES Technology & Learning Coach is the opportunity to work with a wide variety of colleagues, all of whom are in different places in their own personal technology journey as well as different grade levels of students.

Every classroom in the ES has a class blog. They are “windows into the classroom” and used in a variety of ways. Here’s some of the things our teachers do to bring parents into the classroom digitally:

Newsletter posts (no more paper)
Some teachers create a newsletter pdf for parents to download – some write the newsletter right in a post
Class Magazine (using Youblisher)
Embeds in a post and turns pages just like a magazine. G4-5 students take turns at creating the magazine rather than the teacher.
All links are in one place – the class blog!
This requires the students & their parents to visit the blog to access information
Homework posted on the class blog
Sometimes the student homework is to get their parents to comment on a post! Kids love it when their parents have to do some homework too!
Use the email subscription widget – (Especially excellent to have ready at Back to School Night)
This handy plugin makes it easy for parents to sign up with their email account to receive an email whenever the class blog is updated. As the teacher, you can also see who is signed up to receive this kind of notification
Facebook Page (Parents can “like” the page & receive status updates)
Some teachers have trialed the use of a class facebook page as a “snapshot in time” into the class – due to our policy of discouraging our ES students having a facebook account – only the teacher logs in and updates this page – although wouldn’t it be great if it was a student’s class job to update the class facebook page 4 times a day with what was going on – images & reflections
Each class has a Collection on our school flickr account
This collection URL does not change so it’s linked on the class blog – everytime a new set goes in the collection, the link automatically shows the latest images!

There’s some of our ideas. What things does your school/class do to digitally bring parents into the classroom?

Week 2 of our new school year is nearly done and dusted. Routines are established, books are beginning to take shape, ideas are flowing and my Year 7′s are beginning to find their way around a new school more easily.

During the holidays I was looking for some new “beginning of the year” activities to do as we waited for stationery to be purchased and testing to be finished, mainly because I was bored with the same old ones I’d been doing for the past 3 years! I stumbled across a beauty! (I thought I had saved the URL in my Start of the Year Ideas Google Notebook – but I can’t find it!)

You’ve really got to try this one …… it’s brilliant!

In a million words or less …tell me about your child!

Your Name: _
Child’s Name:

Hello, parents and guardians!
This may be the first homework assigned to you in a while, but I know you can handle it!
This is your big chance to let Ms. H know about your child.
You can write (or type, if you prefer) anything you like – as long as it is about your child.
Some things you may want to write about are their strengths, things you’d like to see them work on, hobbies they have, or anything you feel their teacher should know.
Write as much or as little as you please! These essays will be kept completely confidential.
You may return this to school with your child or e-mail a response to me.
Your child’s pin will move up 10 bonus squares if you do your homework!

I have laughed, I have awwwww’d, I’ve shed a tear or two, and I have been totally blown away by the response. The parental homework completion rate in just over a week is 75%. The mostly email responses have expressed gratitude and appreciation for the opportunity to share some first-rate insight of their child with me. I’ve expressed gratitude and appreciation to my parents for the knowledge I have gained about each of my new students. I haven’t had any negative responses yet, and most parents have written at least half a page for me.

This is definitely an activity that I will do again, and it’s such a positive way to make contact with parents for the first time.

Postscript: Thanks to Anne (Education World, Article, In A Million Words or Fewer ….. ), I can now credit the original idea to it’s owner. Last Summer, Deb Bova introduced this idea on the MiddleWeb Listserv. You can read some of the responses from the teachers who tried it in their class for the first time.