One might think this abundance of content would make it easy to get quick access to the latest and greatest news, tips and tools for elementary teachers and administrators… on the contrary, the sheer number of websites, blogs, videos, and social media sites can render the process absolutely overwhelming, making it even more difficult to find the best resources (especially if you’re looking for specific information for prekindergarten, kindergarten, 1st grade, 2nd grade, or 3rd grade).

You already have enough to do planning classroom, school or district activities. So how can you find the time to also keep up with expert tips, new technology and the latest happenings in the online education community?

We have some practical ideas to help you reign it all in and get that information overwhelm under control. Throughout the month of February, we’ll post four articles to show you how to

• find top resources
• save them for your own use
• sign up to get regular updates of the best content
• share the most useful tidbits with your network

First: Decide What You’re Looking For

This step is not as obvious as it may seem. Our initial instinct may be to just Google it, but sometimes, if we already know what we’re looking for, there may be a more direct route. How so?

For each of the types of information listed below, there are some great sites that can cater to your needs. To determine which sites will best serve you, take a look at the questions in each section and decide which ones you’re looking to answer.

General Teaching Tips & Best Practices

• Do you want to brush up on research-based practices?
• Do you want to get general tips from other teachers and administrators?

Lesson Plans, Worksheets & Activities for a Specific Grade Level

• Are you looking for an activity for a particular subject or concept in a specific grade level?
• Do you want to find printable materials or worksheets you can use in the classrooms?

Education and Technology News and Trends

• Do you want to stay on top of the latest educational news?
• Do you want to learn about new tech tools and their application in an educational setting?

Community / Forum

• Do you want to connect with other educators or administrators?
• Do you want to ask a specific question or engage in a dialogue?

Next: Find the Best Curators

As the amount of information available to us grows exponentially, curation is quickly becoming the #1 21st century skill. There is now a wealth of tools solely dedicated to aggregating what you come across yourself… but there are also numerous free sites that can do the first step for you, saving you time and allowing you to concentrate only on the most relevant resources.

Here are a few we’ve handpicked for you, organized based on the four types of information we identified above:

General Teaching Tips & Best Practices

• We Are Teachers
  Loads of tips from fellow educators, by topic; also includes contests (with prizes) and a growing community
• Edutopia
  Strategies, success stories and videos by topic from schools and districts across the country; thriving community; also allows you to look up material by grade level
• Connected Principals
  One of the best blogs available for administrators; key topics are covered by principals from the U.S. and abroad; provides an opportunity to read & comment

Lesson Plans, Worksheets & Specific Activities for a Specific Grade Level

• Better Lesson
  Look up lesson plans & curriculum materials (all of which have been submitted by teachers) by grade; think of it as a “lesson plan social network”

Education and Technology News and Trends

• Edudemic
  Popular online publication covering key education & technology issues; focuses on tips and tools
• Mind Shift
  Online education publication with more of a research focus
• Strawberryj.am
  A great tool to immediately see what’s trending on Twitter in your network and among educators at large; sign up to monitor top articles shared by your network or by those using a specific hashtag (e.g. #edchat, #elemchat, #kinderchat, #1stchat, #2ndchat, #3rdchat, #edtech)
• Free Technology for Teachers
  Hands down the best place to learn about tech tools and get specific recommendations for applying those tools in an educational setting

Community / Forum

• The Educator’s PLN
  Thriving and growing forum for educators; a place to read and share articles, post comments or questions; started by one of the founders of #edchat, Thomas Whitby
• Classroom 2.0
  Another great educator forum with similar tools

Bonus – The Best Edu Bloggers & Tweeters

• Edublog Awards
  Check out this treasure trove of award winning resources, including top educational blogs, Twitter profiles and sites; a wealth of resources to save and revisit

Last: Decide to Save, Follow or Share

Now that you found what you were looking for and used it, ask yourself three questions:

• Is the resource something you’ll want to use again? (if yes, you’ll want to save it)
• Is it created by an organization or individual that regularly creates useful content? (if yes, you’ll want to follow this organization or individual to make sure you don’t miss future updates)
• Is it something others in your network might benefit from? (if yes, you’ll want to share it)

Next week, in Part 2 of this four-part series, we’ll discuss shortcuts and tools for saving online resources for later. Have you ever lost track of an article you meant to read? Stay tuned next week to learn about awesome tools that will ensure this never happens again (and we’re not talking about browser bookmarks).

Get Started: Try This

Check out a few of the curators listed above, then share your own favorites in the comments below. How do you find the best resources? Do you have any favorite websites that cater specifically to the early grades? Please share in the comments.

Photo credit: ordisway (CC)

It’s no secret that students whose parents are more involved in their education do better in school. For that reason, schools and districts nationwide work hard to establish parent communication plans to engage busy parents, share information about their children’s progress and provide involvement opportunities.

But parent involvement is a broad term. According to findings from two recent studies mentioned in this Sunday’s New York Times, not all involvement is created equal in terms of providing lasting benefits for student achievement.

The NYT article features a quote from Patte Barth, director of the National School Boards Association’s Center for Public Education: “Parent involvement can take many forms, but only a few of them relate to higher student performance… parental actions that support children’s learning at home are most likely to have an impact on academic achievement at school.”

So what are the best ways for educators to provide parents with the information they need in order to truly support learning at home? And what kinds of tools can help disseminate that information?

Read on for eight tips that will help you evaluate your parent involvement and communication plan, find areas in need of improvement and identify practical solutions.

1. Start with the End in Mind

Throughout the year, schools send home a slew of important information, including calendars, grades and approval forms… but let’s take a step back for a second.

Why are we communicating with parents in the first place? Helping them understand exactly how they can support classroom learning at home (e.g. what activities they can do with their child) should be at the heart of a sound parental communication policy.

Think about your school or district plan. Is this the case? Keeping this in mind can help guide all of your communications. You can support this end goal by sharing with parents:

• How their child is doing/ what he or she is learning (diagnostic information, not just final scores)
• What’s happening in class (major projects, skills covered)
• What’s happening in school (events, parent workshops)
• What specific next steps parents can take to help their child excel and/or help in the classroom or school

2. Make it a Conversation

Who’s doing the talking? Do the communication mediums you use allow you to simply broadcast information or do they also give you the opportunity to get input from parents?

We often hear that communication between parents and educators should be bidirectional in order to provide the most value. We agree. But how about tri-directional? After all, there’s value not just in information flowing from teachers to parents and parents to teachers, but also between parents.

Imagine creating a classroom blog, using Facebook or Edmodo to set up a secure classroom group or Twitter to create a school hashtag. In all of these cases, teachers and students have the ability to share meaningful information with parents, and parents also have the opportunity to comment, responding not just directly to the teacher but also to one another. Tons of possibilities for community building!

3. Support the Plan at the School & District Level

From the district to the school, we all need to support the parental communication plan in order for it to be truly successful. At the district level, administrators must make sure policies are not restrictive and that educators have access to the tools they need to communicate with families. At the school level, administrators must support teachers in their individual communication efforts and also offer school-wide communications to keep parents in the loop about events, workshops and other opportunities.

Restrictive media policies can stifle teachers’ abilities to communicate with parents and reduce opportunities for parental involvement. Consider this example of a kindergarten teacher who was forced to shut down a facebook page he was successfully using to communicate with parents.

4. Make Sure the Frequency is Sustainable

An overly ambitious communication plan is doomed if it’s impossible to keep it up. Before you decide to set up a blog, send a monthly newsletter and plan several parent nights, pick one or two activities to start. Manage expectations by sticking to a consistent schedule.

Not sure you’ll have enough material for regular communications? You’ll be surprised! Material you already have on hand can go a long way. If you already send several flyers home to parents regularly, why not combine the information into a single newsletter or blog post? Or why not tweet some of the same information or post it on Facebook?

Always be thinking of what you’re already doing that you can share with parents to help them start a discussion with their child. For example, do you have a long-term project parents would appreciate knowing about (e.g. a class garden or play)? How about sharing some quick updates? In the garden example, take photos every few weeks to share progress. In the play example, post photos and short descriptions of sets, costumes and rehearsals.

5. Share Diagnostic Information & Specific Next Steps

Thinking back to the main goal of our parent communication efforts, make sure some of the information you’re sharing with parents allows them to understand:

• Their child’s strengths and weaknesses
• What they can do to support classroom learning at home with specific activities

If you’re using diagnostic or interim assessment tools, you may already have the data you need. Sharing diagnostic information throughout the year (during parent conferences, by email, or as a take-home) is a great way to keep parents informed about their child’s progress. Better yet, share specific activity ideas.

6. Identify Must-Have Communication Features

We find it helpful to start with a list of must have features to figure out the mediums that best support our goals.

Here are a few key features to consider:

• Access for all. Some families will not have internet at home, so you’ll likely need to use multiple mediums that allow you to reach all parents. For example, if you send a regular newsletter, you can ask parents at the beginning of the year whether they prefer the paper or email version. Provide the paper version to those who request it but use email for everyone else. You can use the same content for both.
• Security. Whether we use popular social media networks like Facebook and Twitter or education-specific options like Edmodo or Mudpies and Butterflies, we must always use appropriate security settings to ensure that student information is not visible to anyone who is not a parent.
• Ability to showcase student work. Communication mediums that will allow us to showcase student work will be critical for getting parents engaged. For example, a classroom blog updated by students or a classroom Twitter feed that includes student posts can be great ways to keep parents engaged.
• Easy to update. The easier it is to put together and disseminate information, the more likely it’ll be that we’ll actually do it. Choose mediums that are easy to use and update.

7. Ask for Input & Offer Options

As we communicate with parents, we should be mindful of what they want to know and what information they find most useful for planning teachable moments and supporting classroom learning at home. The easiest way to find out? Make a quick survey using Survey Monkey (under 10 questions is free) or simply ask parents for feedback during events or by email.

Many parents genuinely want to help but are dealing with several obstacles.

• They may not be sure what exactly they can do or if the teacher even wants their help
• They may not have much time
• They may not  think they have the right skillset

Let’s tailor our communications to help parents understand that:

• Their help is valued (whether it comes in the form of reading with their child or volunteering during a classroom event)
• Small time commitments (reading just a few minutes a day together) can make a big difference for their child
• The most important thing they can do is be a positive role model for their child and reinforce the value of education

8. Don’t Forget…

When we talk about parent communication, we’re really talking about family communication. Let’s not forget about other key family members and keep in mind how we can help them understand how they can get involved. For example, grandparents might sometimes have more time than parents to read with a child or help with homework. Let’s be thinking about opportunities to bring them into the communication loop.

Another consideration is home language. Providing translators for parent teacher conferences, sending home resources about workshops for learning English and making sure key materials are available in other languages are just some of the things we can do to help parents who are speakers of other languages understand how their children are doing and what they can do to help their children excel.

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What about YOU? How does your school or district handle parent communication and involvement? Do you have any tips to share? We’re excited to see your ideas!

SPECIAL THANKSGIVING GIVEAWAY: The educator who shares the best parent communication tip in the comments will receive an iPod shuffle! Post your comment by Wednesday, Nov 30th to be in the running. We’ll announce a winner next week.

Hi there!

Thanks for visiting.

We’ve just launched a brand new website and we’re looking forward to sharing useful resources and tips with you through this blog and our Twitter account.

Check back here next week for our first post (we’ve got great tips for getting parents involved in early education!).

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