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4 Ways to Modernize Communication Between Teachers and Parents

As an educator, it is crucial to engage with the parents of your students. After all, it has been shown that increased family engagement results in children who are more likely to succeed academically! Essentially, consistent parent communication is one of the best ways to nurture a healthy school environment as well as continue to encourage learning after a child has left the classroom. Luckily, in today’s world of ever-evolving technology, there are amazing new ways to modernize your communication between teachers and parents. If you are looking to find new methods to communicate with parents, check out these unique and modern ideas below!

1. Set up a digital newsletter

A newsletter has always been a great way to let parents know about up and coming events at school. From changes in policies to upcoming field trips, a newsletter is full of important information shared from teachers to parents.

 

So, how can you best use a newsletter without that crucial information getting lost? One great way to modernize this method is to go from paper to digital newsletters! These can be through email or even through a comprehensive school management system, such as SchoolCues.

 

This way, you can quickly put a short but catchy newsletter together with the important information you need parents to look at. Plus, parents can access this digital newsletter 24/7, which makes losing papers you send home a thing of the past.

 

2. Take advantage of Google Voice

One way that communication between teachers and parents is evolving is through phone calls and texting. At times, you may have a parent share their preferred contact is through a call or even a text. Luckily, there’s a way to do this without using your own personal phone number.

 

With Google Voice, you can create a phone number that is attached to your Google account and easily make wifi calls and send texts as well! Plus, all of this can be forwarded to your phone or done on the web to make communicating with parents a breeze.

 

That way you can keep your sense of privacy while also being able to effectively and efficiently communicate with parents.

 

 

3. Make surveys for parents to fill out

Creating a survey can be a great way to gather feedback from parents and gain their unique perspective. For example, you can make a digital survey after a parent-teacher meeting for any after meeting questions that can come up.

 

Another example to consider is doing a survey at the start of a new school year. That way, you can send this survey out to understand the unique communication needs of each parent, such as preferring digital over written communications.

 

If you want to try using a survey with parents, there are a lot of options online to consider. For example, Google Forms can help you make easy to create and navigate surveys for parents to respond to—all for free!  Plus. these forms are easy to access on both mobile and web devices.

 

Surveys may seem like a pain, but the results are well worth the effort. A simple survey can help you avoid some major headaches from potentially unhappy parents down the line.

 

modernize communication between teachers and parents

4. Make your students notes modern with a blog

One easy and cost-effective way to encourage communication with parents is through options like blogs or even public apps where you can journal or post information. This can be a great modern version of the classic communication book, for example.

 

Plus, when using a blog, you can allow parents to respond to the posts you share with any important questions they may have. This way, you can set up an easy two-way communication system that parents can access on their time.

 

Not only is this a good way for you to keep in contact with parents, it helps parents interact with one another. As an educator you are well aware of the propensity for students(and even parents) to repeat questions. Having an effective blog is a great way to save yourself from having to constantly repeat policies you’ve already gone over. Parents answering each other’s questions without wasting educators’ time is a godsend.


In addition, you can supplement certain information that you would’ve written out before with catchy videos or even images from the classroom! Thus, you can involve parents with what their children are achieving at school in an easy, engaging way.

 

Final thoughts

Modernizing communication with parents may sound like a pain, but the reality is it can make your life as an educator far easier. Not only that it can help to relieve a lot of the worry that parents(especially first time parents) feel when leaving their kids at school. So don’t fear technology in the classroom, after all it’s 2020 already!

 

This post contains affiliate links and I may receive a commission, at no additional cost to you, should you purchase through one of my links. Please see my disclosure for more information.

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TWL Working Mom

Jennifer is the Owner of TWL and Co-Owner of a Influencer Facebook Group Influential Mamas.  Along with blogging + freelance writing and selling Zyia Activewear, she is a mom, army wife and full-time teacher. Jennifer lives in Washington State and is a born + raised New Yorker. In her spare time, she loves traveling, yoga, the beach, writing, listening to books and drinking coffee.

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