Staying In Touch...

I'm curious... How do you stay in touch with parents on a regular basis? I've tried newsletters, and they are starting to get boring. I feel like I'm telling them the same thing every week. In spelling, we're.... In reading, we're.... Spelling test on Friday.... Same old, same old. I utilized the blog component of my school website a few years ago. Parents seemed to like it, but again, it seemed like I was just posting reminders and such.

SO. What do YOU do?

I've seen some teachers that have created a Twitter for their classroom, but Twitter and I don't get along. I just don't understand it. But what I DO love, is Instagram. So, it struck me!

Why not create an, obviously private, Instagram account just for parents. I can snap pictures throughout the day on my iPad, then plop them right onto Instagram. Parents can literally know what we're doing in real time. I'm seriously geeking out, I'm so excited. I really hope it works and doesn't just flop on its face.

Do you utilize any type of social media in your classroom? Do tell!! I'm anxiously awaiting the alternative to the newsletter!

Power of Positive Praise!

Earlier this marking period, I set out on a mission to be in contact with families more often. As teachers, we all find ourselves contacting parents when things go WRONG, but it's so easy to forget about letting parents know about how wonderful their kids really are! There are many ways to do this, but here's what I came up with...

I was looking for something that:
-was not overly time consuming
-included all students
-motivated my students

I designed a few little positive praise cards, which are FREE ON TPT! Here's a few of the ones I came up with... I'll probably make loads more, I just wanted to get the file up there so you guys could snag it!

Each day, I set a goal of around 4 or 5 students, and throughout the day, I look for those select students doing something exceptionally awesome. For some students, this was easy. We all have those "is an eager learner" students. I wanted to design something that wasn't strictly behavior based and wasn't strictly academic based. The cards I came up with are very universal... For instance, I've got a little kiddo who is really struggling in math. One day, his card simply said that he "worked so hard to understand the concept in math." You can literally use these any way you want. My FAVORITE part, by far, is hearing from parents about how excited their children are to rush off the bus and show them the little slip of paper, that seems so simple to me. They are proud, the know that they made their teacher proud, and their parents are proud, too. I love love love it, and highly recommend trying this in your classroom. Like I said, if you set a personal goal of 4 or 5 kids a day, you'll get through all your students in a week, and it will create a warm relationship with parents so that when you DO have to call for not so positive things, they already know that you love and care for their child.