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Family Communication

  • 1.  Family Communication

    Posted 12-06-2019 11:04 AM
    Hello all, 

    Looking for some input on how schools are currently communicating with families. Our classrooms are using a weekly newsletter, as well as classroom Instagram accounts. From the office, they are also receiving a school newsletter. I know there is no pleasing everyone, but was just looking for information on how other schools are best communicating with their families. 

    Thank you for your time!

    Karen

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    Karen Wilson
    Education Coordinator
    Noroton Presbyterian Nursery School
    Darien CT
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  • 2.  RE: Family Communication

    Posted 12-07-2019 10:10 AM
    Good Morning,
    As Director of my school, I send a "Friday Flash" email weekly with school updates and local community resources.  As a teacher and for parents to communicate with each other, we use Shutterfly Share Sites and have one for each class.  There, we are able to share photos, calendar items, and messages privately.
    All the Best,
    Sherrie Rose

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    Sherrie Rose Mayle
    Director/Teacher
    Campbell Parents' Participation Preschool
    Campbell, CA
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  • 3.  RE: Family Communication

    Posted 12-08-2019 08:16 AM
    Hello Karen,

    Some of the preschool teachers I have collaborated with in Maine use Seesaw to communicate regularly with families. Efforts to involve families/some of the ways they are using it were written up in NAEYC's TYC magazine (Aug/Sept 2019 issue)  Developing Family Partnerships Using New Communication Tools. Seesaw is free, easy to use, and with features such as the ability to organize each child's work, easily take, draw on photos, add audio or video to share with parents, translation support, etc has been a very helpful way to communicate with families.

    There have been a few other discussions on HELLO about this topic in the past that might prove useful.

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    Bonnie Blagojevic
    Morningtown Consulting
    Orono ME
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  • 4.  RE: Family Communication

    Posted 12-10-2019 07:09 AM
    Hi @Bonnie Blagojevic and @Karen Wilson,

    I just wanted to chime in on this! Seesaw and some of the other free tools for family communication have drawbacks as compared to the paid products like Storypark. First, the free products only allow a teacher to communicate with the families of the children in his or her class. which is a drawback because program leaders and administrators can't oversee the communication for all of the classes in a program or in a multisite program. Seesaw is only for "communication," which means the functionality is limited to posting messages and related media, whereas Storypark is a pedagogical documentation tool that allows sharing between teachers, family, extended family, and specialists... everyone in the child's ecosystem, and it allows parents to initiate documentation to the child's ecosytem. The tool is designed to prompt Learning Stories, or observations, as well as include media. Some programs like @Michael Knuckey's may use it for family communication as well as rich documentation to inform their work as educators. which includes rich insights from families as well. It also allows administrators to have insight and generate reports about the documentation for all the classes and children in the center. I recently presented at the NAEYC Annual Conference about how to select family communication and program management systems. You can access the slides and handouts, including a robust list of all of the products in these two classes of products at https://engagestrat.com/ece-software . I hope this is helpful!
    ​​​

    ------------------------------
    Fran Simon, M.Ed.
    Engagement Strategies, LLC
    Early Childhood Investigations Webinars
    Early Childhood Investigations Consultants Directory
    Washington, DC Metro
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  • 5.  RE: Family Communication

    Posted 12-11-2019 06:57 AM
    I have heard the link to the material I posted is broken. Here is the correct link. https://engagestrat.com/ece-software

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    Fran Simon, M.Ed.
    Engagement Strategies, LLC
    Early Childhood Investigations Webinars
    Early Childhood Investigations Consultants Directory
    Washington, DC Metro
    ------------------------------



  • 6.  RE: Family Communication

    Posted 12-09-2019 11:48 AM
    Ho Karen,
    We have been using Storypark for the past 8 years and absolutely love it.  It is more private than Instagram and parents can communicate with teachers as well as teachers sharing stories, photos and videos safely with parents.  The family then can invite any other member of their family to participate such as grandparents in other parts of the country or the world.  There are also a number of other valuable features such as agenda planning and teacher portfolios.  What's best is that the family ends up with an online portfolio of their child's experience at preschool which they get to keep forever.

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    Michael Knuckey
    Executive Director
    Children's House Preschool
    Boulder CO
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  • 7.  RE: Family Communication

    Posted 12-10-2019 11:47 PM
    Hello Karen:

    This is a problem for many.  Nevertheless, with the internet there are more and more options available.  I have heard many good things about class dojo.
    Take a look at https://www.classdojo.com

    Also, many times it is a good thing to have families fill out an orientation questionnaire at the start or before the start of the new school year and in there you give them options on the best way to reach and communicate with them.  There they can check off which option is best.

    I Hope this helps you.

    Gary Klein

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    Gary Klein
    Professor of Early Childhood at
    Touro College Graduate School of Education
    Brooklyn, New York City Campus FirstName] Klein
    Professor
    Touro College- Graduate School of Education
    Forest Hills NY
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  • 8.  RE: Family Communication

    Posted 12-11-2019 07:18 AM
    Hi @Gary Klein and @Karen Wilson,

    In my work reviewing all of the products in this category, I noted that there are a class of products designed for early childhood and others designed for elementary through high school. Classdojo was designed for higher grades. In fact, it includes functionality for "students" to participate, including badging for behavior management. While some early childhood programs use ClassDojo and other products in this class, using the tools specifically for early childhood programs requires fewer workarounds. The products designed for early childhood honed in on how we work with families in ways that are distinctly different than the ways ​​teachers and administrators work in higher grades. The materials I posted from my conference session include a list of products the various products revealed in my survey of early childhoid administrators and teachers. Some indicated they used Classdojo and other products designed for higher grades. While Classdojo and Seesaw will get the job done, you should look at other products like Brightwheel, HiMama, Storypark, Procare, Educa, Kaymbu, Tadpoles, and many others. In fact, some of these products will provide tools solve other challenges administrators and teachers in early childhood program face beyond family communication!

    ------------------------------
    Fran Simon, M.Ed.
    Engagement Strategies, LLC
    Early Childhood Investigations Webinars
    Early Childhood Investigations Consultants Directory
    Washington, DC Metro
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  • 9.  RE: Family Communication

    Posted 12-11-2019 11:20 AM
    Thank you for all of your input. The slides and the recommendations are extremely helpful.

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    Karen Wilson
    Education Coordinator
    Noroton Presbyterian Nursery School
    Norwalk CT
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  • 10.  RE: Family Communication

    Posted 12-11-2019 11:50 AM

    So happy to help! �� Good luck!

    Warmly,

    Fran