As an 8th grade team, we are always trying to increase our communication with the parents of our students. Face it - when we hand a middle schooler something to take home to their parents, I doubt most of those papers ever surface from the bottom of the backpack (if it was lucky enough to make it that far!).
When we had ClassRoll, there was a great place to enter our assignments and include notes for the parents. We switched to Infinite Campus last year and really missed that feature. After speaking with our IT Dept. we were encouraged to start a Parent Page on Facebook. We wanted to make it clear to the parents that we aren't saying the students have to have a FB account, but if they do they can also "like" the page and get updates. In our newsletter, we let the parents know that the page is intended for use by parents of 8th grade students at Ellsworth Elementary Middle School and that it is an attempt to increase parental involvement and awareness of what is happening in the classroom. Our goal to keep parents updated on 8th grade activities throughout the year.
I'm really excited about this added communication tool.
Hmm - I am very curious as to how this goes. I bet some parents will love it. How are you going to keep it up to date? Do all of the teachers on the 8th grade team have access to update it or just one point person? I think it is a great idea since the reality is that so many people are on social networking sites but I feel bad for those families without internet access. Good Luck!
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great idea. A teacher I use to teach with made a facebook page for her students. She has her personal facebook page and a teacher facebook page where students can friend her and she can update about assignments. It worked really well for her.
ReplyDeleteWill you report out next week in class about how this is working. It is simply another way to communicate...and it certainly makes sense. Anxious to hear more.
ReplyDelete