Communicating With Families

With the beginning of the new school year, it's time to start connecting with families to show them they are an important part of their child's education. Getting them involved in their child's learning begins with a welcoming environment at school and a teacher who communicates well. Here are a few ways to keep families informed of classroom events and their child's activity at school.

Remind: This is a way to send a group text to parents for quick reminders about class events. Click here to see how it works.

Class Blogs: Blogger is a great blogging tool from Google which is very easy to use and manage. Teachers can share events from the day and photos of class activities. Add a widget to the blog that enables followers to subscribe by email. Parents can receive updates in their inbox every time you post. Click here to find out more.

Facebook page: A class Facebook page is an incredible way to reach parents and community members to share the great things that are happening in your classroom and school. Because of the nature of the news feed, friends of people who "like" the page can also see a teacher's post which widens the audience.

Digital Journal: I am so impressed with the features of Seesaw, a digital journal designed for students as young as kindergarten. Students evaluate their work and pick their best work to add to their Seesaw account. Parents can sign up to receive notifications each time their child posts a school project. Teachers can use this as a way for students to showcase and share work with the class. One amazing feature is the way students can log in by simply scanning a QR code. Seesaw works whether students use ipads, chromebooks, or computers. Click these links to find out more:

overview
teacher instructions
tutorial video

Creating Email Groups in Gmail

Creating groups in your gmail contacts is an easy way to send emails to an entire teaching team, class of students, or group of parents. Having groups created makes sharing docs easier when using google docs. Here's how to do it:

Click the arrow next to Mail in the corner of your gmail window. Select Contacts.

Select New Group and give it a name.

To add new contacts,  (ex: parent emails) click the name of the group, then New Contact. You will see a new window to add their contact information.

To add someone to a group who is already in your contacts, find their name in your contacts list. Click the group icon near the top and select the group you want the contact to be added to.

To send mail to a group, click Compose, then begin typing the name of the group in the recipient window. The full group name should appear in drop down menu. Select it, and the names of the group members will appear in the recipient window.