Saturday, September 17, 2011

Weekly Email to Parent Challenge


Rachel Elliott, @TechmoRachel, a teacher specializing in assistive technology for exceptional learners in Calgary, Canada, is the inspiration for this blog post with her great idea.
Yesterday, I happened to notice her tweet. She said:
"Today's weekly email to parents suggested teaching students the spectrum keyboarding skills with Dance Mat Typing."
It wasn't really the suggestion she gave to her parents that caught my eye and imagination, it was the fact that she writes a weekly email to her parents. That got me thinking... Within a few minutes, I had drafted and sent an email to my entire staff of over 40 teachers, with the subject line: Weekly Email To Parent Challenge. Here's what I wrote:
I came across a tweet by a teacher I follow who writes a weekly email to her students' parents. I thought it was a great idea so I thought I'd share it. It doesn't have to be long-- even if it's just a homework tip, reminder about an upcoming event, or a couple sentence summary of the topics you taught during the week -- maybe a part of the social contract you're focusing on...
I guess now I need to send a note home and ask my parents for an email address...

I'm gonna write my first one to my students' parents next Friday. Who's with me? *chirp*chirp* Nothing long winded or fancy... Just a quick little burst. Maybe short and frequent is better...? -- it'll be more than I currently do :)

Respectfully yours,

-Buzz Garwood
Earlier today, my principal had this to say:
What a great idea.  I have been talking about getting release time for teachers to call parents about progress Reports; how sweet would it be if the majority of that could be done electronically?  For those parents with Internet access... it would be a great way to communicate.
How do you communicate with parents? Comment below and share your great ideas.

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