Dear Parents…
Posted by Amy Erickson on 08 Feb 2010 | Posted in: Classroom Management
Recently I visited several classrooms without even leaving my office. How did I manage that? By using my computer! I found some great teacher blogs and class Web sites, and I had a wonderful time getting a glimpse of what some teachers and kids are doing in their classrooms.
My cyber classroom visits made me wonder how technology is changing home-school communication. When I was in the classroom, most of my students’ families didn’t have computers. Even if I had been technologically savvy enough to create a classroom site, it wouldn’t have been easily accessible to all my students. My main forms of parent communication were sending notes home, sharing homework assignments on voice mail, and squeezing in phone calls during all-too-brief lunch breaks. I had parent conferences and other face-to-face conversations too, of course. How about you? What are the main ways you communicate with parents? Has technology influenced the way you share what’s going on in your classroom?
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I would really love to have a class website to post all upcoming news in the classroom. Unfortunately, I have never seemed to have the time to start one, especially in teaching the lower grades. However, since I am teaching third grade this year I began to think I could probably have the students help me to create and keep up the website. I think getting it started with a regular template is half the battle. Maybe each week a student could be assigned to update the website if needed. I feel it is a wonderful way for parents to see what we have been learning and be able to check for events to come! I know the students would love keeping the website updated and they would be proud to share it with many others!
I have offered my cell number for my parents, so we text or call. Our school has a limited amount of lines so it is faster for me to get a hold of them or vise versa. I leave it on vibrate or when I have a note say they will call the kids and I selected a specific ring tone so we know when to answer. I try and use technology in every subject and with smart boards and classroom computers it makes it fairly simple. Our school has been great about supplying the students with great sites, but still some students aren’t able to access from anywhere then school. I make certain the ones w/o computers use sites first and we split class between smart board and computers until everyone has had a turn each day. My spelling list, math, reading, etc. are written online and hard copy sent home, but it seems double the work, but worth everyone keeping up with the new wave of learning. spellingcity, firstinmath, and many other sites make it fun for children to explore and master their skills without pencil and paper, which is the wave.
I have a website that started out for parents but turned out to be for teachers. Parents love to see pictures of the classroom and explanations of what we are learning.
You can “visit” our classroom and take a virtual tour.
I love looking at classroom websites and blogs! I am a new teacher teaching a combined k-2 class. They have a lot of really great resources and ideas!
I email parents all the time, I also send them a newsletter each Monday. If there is an issue with homework or an assignment I encourage my parents to let me know via email. I check it on my prep and at lunch.