In reviewing my GAME plan, the goals I set for myself can be summarized as, I want to get better at using digital tools to communicate among my peers, parents, and students. The actions that I suggested for myself in order to reach my goals involved using tools and applications to keep in touch with parents and students. I also said I would like to start a group on my campus where we can share ideas for digital tools that we have tried and how they have helped in the classroom.
The resources that I will need to carry out my plan involve applications for communication. I think the surprising thing to me is that I already have some tools at my disposal, I have simply struggled with the task of actually using them. For example, Remind 101 is something that I mentioned that is free to use, I just need to set aside the time to set it up. This is a texting tool that allows you as a teacher to send out mass texts to parents, without giving them your personal cell phone number. This can be a convenient way to keep parents up to date without having to spend too much time on contacting them.
I also would like to utilize Edmodo more for parent communication. There is a feature that allows students' parents to sign up for a free parent account and view assignments, calendars, and grades for their student only. Finally, I mentioned using a website or blog to keep parents up to date on the events in my classroom. These are all tools that would be very easy to set up, especially since they can all be done for free.
So far, I have been able to set up student Edmodo accounts. Unfortunately, when I sent a parent letter home inviting them to sign up, I only had one parent sign up out of my 135 students. I think this goes back to the typical problem of sending a note home with students and wondering if it ever really makes it into the parents' hands. I might try to address this by asking our district public relations officer to post something on our official Facebook page to notify parents of the tool so that they can sign up.
Jessica,
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain about taking the time to learn and use technology that we have to offer. At my district, we continually overhauling our technology. New Generation 2 Smartboard, Ipads, grading software, and tools in my drafting classroom like the 3D printer. It is a daunting task to find the time to put in the man hours need to be efficient at them. Technology is very cool, when it works. I've had more issues this year than I would like to admit. I know several teachers that use Edmodo and they seem to like it. I think that I would experience the same outcomes as your are if I tried to use program.
Hi Jess,
ReplyDeleteI am glad that I chose to read your blog this week, I found it to be resourceful. I would like to look into using Remind 101. I have my department head that set up a folder that for each of his classes that has parents of his students in it. When there is a major test coming up or progress reports he sends out a mass email to his entire class of parents letting them know. I did take him time to place all parent emails of his students into the email folders but once it is completed that rest is all downhill. Again like you the only issue is that when he sends out this emails many get bounced park or no responses. I had did this similarly this past marking period but did it for students who work not passing or border line and had hit the read receipt so I know they have read it and asked for parents to send me a short response back to let me know they have got my message. Sorry to hear about your efforts with Edmodo maybe sending an email would be better and would love to hear how your Remind 101 goes and curious to see if it is easier to use than email folders of parents for each class.
Thanks for sharing,
Nicole
Jessica,
ReplyDeleteEdmodo sounds like a great tool for parents. It is really too bad that there were not more interested parents, especially since you have already set up the accounts are already putting out information. Our district has a similar program that is linked to our school website as well as our gradebook program. Parents can view class announcements, assignments, and see the grades of their student. Students also have access to all of this information. We have a much higher participation rate than 1 in 135, but I am still surprised that more parents do not take advantage of the online resources. I have to admit that as a staff we probably do not put enough valuable information on the calendar or include as much assignment information to make it a necessary resource for the class, but having up to date grades is something that almost all of the teachers do and there are still many students and parents that do not take advantage of the program. Keep pushing the Edmodo in class and maybe if you have the chance you can get a few more parents interested at parent teacher conferences. Once a few people see how helpful it is, I bet you will get at least a third of the parents signed up. Best of luck.
Grant
Jessica,
ReplyDeleteI agree with using more digital tools for communication. I teach 6th grade and as a team we have start utilizing Remind 101 and are pretty pleased with it. We have decided to save it for important reminders that are not common occurrences. We didn't want to overuse it so that people would stop paying attention and really reading the information. If that makes sense? So far this is our second year using it and we have gotten great feedback from parents. They really like using it as a form of communication for quick reminders that need no response.
Good luck,
Natalie