Modern Ways to Communicate with Parents

According to research by Education world, Parental engagement is a critical component for student success. Everyone who works in a classroom setting can agree with this fact.

Many people are trying to get in on finding new ways to improve parental engagement, including everything from mobile apps to even legislation.

For example You probably would have heard of one Mississippi legislator’s attempt to force educators to “grade parents,” a controversial attempt at making parental engagement mandatory in the state’s schools.

For teachers who want to keep grading for their students, there are plenty of other modern ways teachers can look into better engaging with parents. Check out some of the ways below. 

ClassDojo: Parents,teachers, principals and school leaders can connect on ClassDojo, and create an incredible school community together. Teachers can instantly share photos, videos and updates with parents. I first learnt about it at the Regent School.

"FreshGrade: is the 'Facebook' (FB) for students, teachers and parents. Through real time photos, video and reports, your child’s daily activities, achievements and yes, pitfalls are sent to a personal updated data stream for you to see,” according to Fox Business.

Bloomz: is an app that lets teachers talk to parents at any time. The app is already used in 10,000 schools. It has found success in capitalizing on the need of teachers to better engage with parents including throughout the school day.

Parenthub: is another app that allows schools to create channels for classes, sport groups and after-school clubs.

Engagement happens in one step: as soon as parents subscribe to the channel, engagement immediately begins!

According to parenthub’s website, the channel provides teachers and administrators the opportunity to “add in web links and attachments to give parents access to handy learning resources to use with their children.” Not to mention event invites sync immediately into subscribers’ phone calendars, meaning they never miss an update on an important date.

Brightwheel is very good for early years’ teachers.  It offers teachers the option to provide parents with daily automated reports. Soon enough, the app will even allow parents to check-in from their own device to see how their young ones are doing in the new classroom setting.

The app touts itself as being an app that enables strong language development at home as parents can easily talk to their children about their day without having to worry about their kids being tight-lipped after a long, eventful day of learning.