Parent communication made simple!

School has started, and thus the reason for not blogging in the last few day! L  Hope that all of you teachers have had a great start to the year!  I have 23 new kiddos in my class, and am already enjoying them so much.

Last week I had a BREAKTHROUGH in getting parent contact information, and just had to share.  I tried something new for Meet the Teacher this year, and was thrilled with how smoothly it went!

It started with a simple Google form.   These are relatively easy to put together, and make it a snap to gather parent emails, contact information, transportation and such.  After putting together my Google form, I added it to my class website.  This is easy to do, and allows new parents to add information later if needed.   Next,  I bookmarked our website on each of our 3 classroom computers.  When parents came in for Meet the Teacher Night, I directed each of them to kindly fill out their contact information at this computer station.  They did, and I now have a quick, accurate (yay!) record of all of my students and their families.  It took all of 3 minutes per family, and the parents loved it.  Cut and paste into my distribution list--check! :)

One more new touch—using the Remind 101 website to stay in touch with families.  It’s free and it’s a lifesaver!  Parents simply text a given number with an access code (provided by Remind 101).  Once that simple step is complete, they can receive quick text updates from me—with just a simple message and “click” on my end.  I’ve already been able to send out a quick blurb to “remember gym shoes” to the class quickly and easily.

Ongoing communication with parents and families is so important.  Thank you technology for making this part so much easier!