Parent Communication with Stephany from Primary Possibilities

There are a lot of great apps out right now that serve as tools for teachers to communicate with parents.  They are great because they take you outside of sites like Facebook where you have little control of parents sharing pictures or posting.  The Bloomz app has thought of everything when it comes to communication from the classroom!  It's super easy to use for the teacher.  I can't imagine how much time I will save uploading and sharing, communicating, and scheduling with this app! x

I recently did a review of the Bloomz app which is a great communication tool.    You can read more about it by clicking here.

I also like to keep track of my parent communication with these simple tracking sheets.  This is a great way to keep yourself accountable and also to give yourself some back up in sticky situations.  

How do you track parent communication in your classroom?

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Positive Parent Communication {with Aloha to Second}

Parent communication is one of the most important things in the classroom.  I always like to keep parents informed of what is going on.  This helps prevent negative things from arising, and it just builds a great relationship with the families.

One focus I have is to send a positive parent note home at least once a month.  They get feedback often, but I like to give them something hand written or via email.  I get lots of compliments from parents when I do this!  I document my communication in my binder.  I have numbered tabs and behind each tab is where I keep student information, and I also include this parent communication log.  I like this log because I can quickly circle how I communicated and jot a short note of what the communication was about.  I try to not repeat the positive things I say when I send notes home.  You can grab your free copy below!

I also sent home a weekly newsletter.  It may seem like a lot, but it is actually easier than doing one monthly because you can quickly put the information for the week and some things don't change so you can keep them on the newsletter each week.  It is a great way to remind parents of things that are going on and it keeps them informed of what their child is learning each day.  I loved doing this!  I found this template here.  I placed an example of one of mine below!

At my new school we were asked to not write newsletters but use a blog instead.  At first I was hesitant because I'm "old school" and I like paper/pencil, but I started blogging for my class and I love it!  At the beginning of each week I post a "Glance of the Week" and it tells the parents what we're learning for the week, and then during the week I post pictures and information about what we did during our learning.  I can also use it to post reminders and provide them with various resources.   Parents sign up to receive email notifications for when I post, so they are always being informed.  You can check out my school blog here!

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you have found some good resources.  I would strongly suggest using a classroom blog to keep families informed.  It also saves paper! :]

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Positive Parent Communications {With The Learning Chambers}

Hello friends!  Today I wanted to share with you how I use Edmodo in my classroom to communicate with my parents.  Of course, I still love to send home little notes and make positive phone calls but I love using Edmodo as a quick way to message all of my parents.  It's been a life saver for sure and I've gotten a lot of compliments from my parents.  Here is how I use it in my classroom...

If you use Edmodo in your classroom, using the Edmodo Parent App is a must!  Not sure how to get your parents to sign up for a parent account?  Here is how they can sign up...

Your parents will just need to go to the Edmodo website and they will find the parent code on the front page of their child's page.  They can also download the Edmodo Parent App for either Apple or Android devices.

They can create their own account and follow along with their child's progress.  They can also see notes that you send to parents.  I love using this as a way to send out announcements.  

I just go into my group and type in the name of the group in the send box.  When the group comes up, I just need to click on the one that says (Parents) at the end of it.  You can also schedule it to send at a later date.  That is super handy and a total timer saver!

I hope you guys can use this super easy way to communicate with your parents.  It has been a total life saver in my classroom this year.

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Positive Parent Communication {Enchanted Kinder Garden}

Hey friends!!!

I have to admit that communication with parents is one of my strong points. We have folders with a behavior sheet. It holds five weeks and I just jot a smiley in there. However, I am horrible about positive communication for the kids that are angels all the time. This year, I was reading something about sending little notes homes every day with a different set of kids. I write on my kids' behavior sheets daily, but it's usually about something they've done wrong.

That's when I came up with a quick and easy idea to make a few of these. I just print a few sheets of each on different colored paper. I cut them out and just pop a paper clip over them. Every day, I choose a few students to write a quick little note to. I started making them for each month to switch it up.

They get so excited when they look in their folder and see a little note inside. It's the little things for those that do exactly what I need for them to do each day. They NEVER know who will get one and it's something to look forward to. They also are excited when they receive more than one in a month because I try to give them a different colored one... boom. Instantly excited and motivated kid. Win win, right?

Make sure to pin this for later. Enjoy!

Click the image to download.

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Communicating with Parents {from The Husky Loving Teacher}

Hey friends and happy holiday season! To kick start this month, we are sharing all kinds of helpful tips about parent-teacher communication. Let me start by saying, you may already know all of my tips, or, if you are a new teacher, you might find these really helpful. Everyone says it's important to build positive relationships with parents and reach out to them often. It's true, friends! You always want to have the parents on your side for the sake of the students. I have found that once parents trust me and know that I am doing everything I can to help their child, as well as all of the other children in my room, they are willing to share insightful family information and do as much for me as they can. It's all about building a mutual relationship with parents.

I'd also like to share my reasoning behind my three best tips for parent-teacher communication, so here goes!

 1. Keep a running list of important info.

I will be teaching a lesson and *boom* something hits me comes to mind that I want to share with my classroom parents! I always have a pad of paper on my desk that I jot down ideas on of what I like to share with parents. I find it is so much easier to write my classroom newsletters when I have a running list of information. This information is also authentic and it's not me just talking about standards or who knows what!

 2. Send periodic emails

In addition to my classroom newsletter, I send emails at least once a week! I do my best to keep my information in my newsletter but if I have already sent it and there's something important that I need to tell the parents, I certainly will send an email. To be honest, I think parents like short and sweet emails over a huge newsletter (but I still send both).

3. Always express gratitude

Building positive relationships with parents has a huge plus. Parents who feel invested in their child's teacher are willing to help out in so so so many ways!!! I have parents volunteering and sending sweet gifts in all of the time. Anytime a parent sends in a gift (which come on, they don't have to, and when they do I am so honored) I ALWAYS send a "thank you" note! This is twofold, (1) I want my students to learn how to express gratitude and see my thanking their parents and (2) I authentically want the parents to know how grateful that I am for anything from a candy bar to a gift card.

Well friends, I hope these tips helped you and I'd love to hear your thoughts about parent-teacher communication! Don't forget to stop by tomorrow to read some more helpful info!

Melissa from
The Husky Loving Teacher 

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Positive Parent Communications {With Mrs. Plemons' Kindergarten}

Keeping on top of parent communication can be such a challenge.  Sometimes I feel lost in a sea of emails, voice mails, and notes that I need to respond to especially around holidays and special events.

In addition to keeping up with all of these communications, my school district places a huge emphasis on making positive contacts with parents. So I wanted to share a quick little freebie and tip for you for keeping track of parent communication. For me, giving positive communication to parent always came easily because in kindergarten a majority of my students were picked up by their parents at the end of the day and I would have a chance to share a quick story. But it is so easy to lose track of all those day to day interactions with families. Also I wanted to be sure I was touching base with the families that I wasn't able to see on a daily basis, so I started to keep track of these POSITIVE contacts only.  Any time I interact with parents to celebrate and tell them something awesome about their child I write it down.

There are always a few kids that I feel like I'm having so many not so fun conversations about (for behavior, academics, etc.) that they really really need to hear the positive.  I really do want parents to know how much I love and care for their child regardless of the challenges.

Here is a little spreadsheet I created to keep track of these POSITIVE contacts that is quick and easy for me to use.

I keep it on a clipboard on my desk so I can quickly add the date and code for any interactions I had that day. I find it really holds me accountable and is a great reflection on my own teaching. Grab a copy for FREE here!

I also think that it is super important to find ways to invite families into the school/classroom to continue to build those positive relationships.  That is why every spring I work with my Kindergarten team to host Muffins for Mom and Donuts for Dads events for Mother's and Father's Day.  Although getting parents involved is often a struggle at my school, this event typically brings almost every family in because it is so special and of course all FREE ;)

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Turkey Time Traditions {Amna from Teach Two Reach}

Thanksgiving has already come and gone! And what? It’s going to be December tomorrow? Well, I’ll be closing out the Turkey Time posts for this month's Elementary Entourage theme. And although the time has past, maybe this post will help with some ideas for next year!

Reading Turkey Trouble can never go wrong. Students always love this silly book  about a turkey trying different disguises to escape being dinner. It’s the perfect time to do a Disguise the Turkey activity if you like doing that in your classroom. The book is a great one to start off the unit. Students also get to really dissect the book and work on comprehension skills with this Turkey Trouble tab booklet.

Around this time, we get to do our Thanksgiving HandwritingScoot. Handwriting Scoot is something I created when I realized, sheesh, students really need to work on their writing! Handwriting gets focused on less and less as the years go by. So I try to do these themed Scoots where students learn relavent vocabulary and play a handwriting game. They love it!

Speaking of games, why not incorporate Thanksgiving related sentences and practice sentence structure as well. So we do our noun and verbroam the room games.

Of course my favorite time is Thanksgiving lunch/dinner with the family. And here is a little freebie for you to practice fact families. It's a cute little project using a "place setting," to write out four fact family sentences. 

See you all next month!!

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