How are you planning on engaging your parents and students?

Today's learners are connected to information in diverse technological ways, and with our focus on forming strong relationships with and between our students, parents, and fellow staff members, it is vital that educators consider new platforms of communication. There are other avenues beyond e-mail and parent phone contact, and perhaps these formats are no longer the tools educators can rely on to be the most engaging tool of communication.  Consider how you can use the technology you already have (or can download quickly for free!) to amp up the the paths of connectivity you will have with you new students and parents this school year.  

Here are a few of my Best Bet communication tools you can keep in your toolbox of resources. Try a few, and share your stories.  If you have any other resources that I have not included on this list, please feel free to add them as comments below!

Remind 101

• Send text message reminders to students; stay connected to parents. One way communication from teacher to students and parents. See my Tips & Handouts page for all information regarding Remind 101 and how to set up a free account.

Twitter

• Fastest way to reach out globally and on the go to others w/in our profession.  Creating a professional Twitter account allows you not only to stay up to date with best practices, but you can also use it as a bridge to communicate out to others all of the amazing things going on in your classroom!

Google Voice

• Allow user to create one free phone number through Google - never attaches to your actual phone number and can send and receive texts, voicemails, and phone calls.  Messages can be emailed to you, heard OR read from the web, or sent as a message to your actual phone (advanced use with using Google Voice for Podcasting: http://goo.gl/LxKLSB).

Google Forms w/Form Emailer

• This application that is found through Google Drive can be used in so many different ways, but teachers can use it daily as an entry or exit slip. A great way to take Google Forms a step further is to use a Form Emailer - this allows you to send individual results AND your feedback to student email addresses - or even parents! (Here’s Catlin Tucker’s tutorial on this: http://goo.gl/0fCbBI)

Classroom Blogs

• Easy to create blogs with the ready-made templates on Blogger (and it syncs to your Woodridge Gmail account!).  An all-in-one hub for students to collaborate and contribute to the learning process. Check out some great examples created by staff in the district here: sample 1, sample 2, sample 3, sample 4, sample 5.

Google Sites for ePortfolios

• A presenter from ISTE '13 and BLC '13, Catlin Tucker, uses Google Sites as the platform that her students use to create Digital Portfolios.  Here’s a link to her blog post on Digital Portfolios which features many samples of her students’ work: http://goo.gl/eWirX1