Blog Post #13

For this blog post, the assignment was to write on something that I had not gotten to write about yet. I was reading an article earlier from Edutopia, Empathy and Research: Engaging Parents With Tech Initiatives, which is about helping parents see the importance of incorporating technology into the classroom more fully. This topic seems to be very valid and important. There are many people who are hesitant about technology, partially because they do not quite fully understand how their children will be using it and how it will be useful to them. They may also feel like they don't know how to help their children improve. Many teachers may ask the question "How do I get parents more involved?" This post will discuss these further using a few sources: Empathy and Research: Engaging Parents With Tech Initiatives, Old School or New School, Keep Parents Involved, Blended Learning in the Mix: The Informed Parent, and Engaging Parents: An Elementary Teacher's Field Guide.

The first source I found was Empathy and Research: Engaging Parents With Tech Initiatives. This article is about parents' closure to technology becoming involved into the classroom. Some parents get the feeling that they are "out of the loop". They do not know how to help their children improve if they do not know what the teacher thinks each child needs to work on. I can definitely see the concern. They want to see the red markings on the page and get the teacher feedback in that regard. However, by using technology, teachers have all of their students work compiled and it is easier to see the data. Also, teachers can sometimes use technological terms that parents do not understand. For the most part, if a parent can express all of their concerns to their child's teacher, these issues can be addressed. When I am a teacher, I want there to be good communication between myself and the parents. I will use some of the techniques that I will discuss shortly.

The second source I found was Old School or New School, Keep Parents Involved, which is about keeping parents involved in the classroom. There are many ways that teachers connect with parents: agendas, flyers, test folders, phone calls, parents in classrooms, class website, ClassDojo, and Remind.

Some ways that are kind of "old school" can be modified to be more "new school". Agendas are useful because they can serve two purposes. They can be used to write down assignments, as well as notes from the teacher to the parents, upcoming events, minor problems that their child caused during the day, or if their child was well behaved. Flyers can be used to give parents ways to get in contact with the teacher. In addition to that, it can contain important websites to the class. This flyer can be printed and sent home with each student, given to the parents at back-to-school night, and/or attached to the class blog as well. Test folders can be very helpful. These allow parents to be aware of the progress of their children and get feedback from teachers. Phone calls are a very important mode of communication. A teacher should not only call parents for bad behavior, but for good behavior as well. A parent who hears the teacher saying positive things about their child will be more inclined to be involved in the classroom. Having parents in classrooms is another great way to get parents involved. They can be a part of the classroom physically and/or virtually. Students can write a persuasive letter to their parents on their blog, which their parents can reply to on the blog. It would be a fun way to get busy parents involved. They can also be involved by coming to see their children perform or present something. They love to see their children shine and it will also motivate the children to do well.

The rest of these ways to get parents more involved are more "new school" in nature. Having a class website is a great idea to keep the parents updated on classroom happenings. This way, all of the information that parents could need, such as calendar of events, contact information, plan for the week, photos of class activities, and good educational activity websites. I had not heard of ClassDojo or Remind before I read this article, but they both seem like very helpful applications. ClassDojo is an application that allows teachers to send weekly behavioral reports to the parents. It keeps them updated and keeps track of the students' behavior in one place. Remind is an application that allows the teacher to be in touch with the parents without having each others phone numbers. This app is used to inform parents on when tests are, events that are occurring, as well as early dismissals.

Lastly, one thing that I really got from Engaging Parents: An Elementary Teacher's Field Guide was that parents don't really care about your past experiences with teaching, where you went to school or how qualified you are. They really care that you care for their children and they will be loved. This is an important aspect that will determine how involved the parents are going to be.

I really enjoyed all of these articles. I learned a lot from doing this blog post assignment and I am very glad I got the opportunity to research how to keep parents a big part of the education of their children and help them become more comfortable with technology. I hope this blog post is useful to anyone who reads it.