MAKING IT EASIER TO BE A BETTER TEACHER

NOTEWORTHY NEWS

Here’s our weekly roundup of interesting education stories from around the world. Click each link to learn more:

• The teacher on an Antarctic expedition to help his students - interested in doing the same?

• Special Education in England may be putting students behind by several years.

• Vermont’s teacher of the year has some strong advice for new educators.

TECH TALK

Parent Communication without the Chaos?

Managing parent communication is a crucial part of teaching, but it can feel overwhelming. 

From missed emails to coordinating field trip chaperones, the process often eats into precious prep time, especially for school smaller communities.

The Solution: Konstella

Konstella is an app designed to streamline parent-teacher communication and foster collaboration amongst staff and families. With its easy-to-use interface, teachers can post announcements, share classroom updates, and manage parent volunteers all in one, secure place. 

The app's shared calendar keeps parents informed about key dates, while private messaging allows for individual or group communication, ensuring every message reaches the right audience.

What makes Konstella unique is its ability to handle logistical headaches like event sign-ups and task delegation. Teachers can post volunteer opportunities, track RSVPs, and assign roles without the back-and-forth of email chains. 

This saves time and ensures a smoother flow of information between teachers and parents - especially for schools with highly active PTAs.

How About YOUR Classroom?

Effective parent communication builds trust, improves engagement, and makes your life as a teacher easier. Here are a few strategies for using Konstella:

Strategies:

• Simplify Events: Use the app’s event management tools to post field trip details or class party sign-ups. No more paper forms or last-minute confusion.

• Centralize Communication: Post weekly updates, assignments, and reminders on Konstella to reduce scattered emails and ensure parents stay in the loop.

• Build Parent Communities: Encourage parents to connect via Konstella, fostering collaboration for carpooling, classroom donations, or even homework help.

Konstella’s basic plan starts at $356/year (USD) per school, which is not a terrible price considering the time it would save multiple teachers. By using a tool like this, schools can spend less time on logistics and more time focusing on their students.

BRAINY BITS

Does technology increase parent involvement?

How can we engage parents in their children’s science education, especially those from minority and immigrant backgrounds? 

This week, we dive into a recent study that explores how using technology in our parent communication can bridge gaps and increase parent involvement.

The Study: Technology-Enhanced Parent Involvement in Science Education

Using Flipgrid’s Social Learning Environment as their parental edtech, researchers explored parent involvement in science classrooms through the app.

Middle-school teachers created prompts for parents and students to respond collaboratively through video recordings. Teachers were then encouraged to use these video responses in their in-class lessons. 

Then, researchers looked at three key areas of parent involvement to measure changes in student and parent actions, including:

The Results:

The study found that the use of Flipgrid significantly increased parent involvement in their children's science education, particularly among immigrant and minority families. 

Parents transitioned from passive to active participants by engaging in collaborative tasks and sharing their own scientific knowledge and experience. This shift helped break down traditional barriers to involvement, creating a more inclusive classroom environment. 

The technology also  allowed parents to bring their own cultural experiences into the learning process, enriching the classroom content and creating a deeper connection between home and school. 

Results showed that technology can provide more flexible, accessible ways for parents to engage meaningfully with their children's education, which can lead to more inclusive classrooms.

In Your Classroom:

While this study shows some cool results, It's important to consider the diverse needs of your students and their families. 

Technology, can be a powerful tool for increasing parent participation, but its success depends on thoughtful integration into your classrooms, and the technological-comfort of parents/guardians.

Strategies

• Foster Collaborative Learning: Use digital tools to create opportunities for students and parents to co-create knowledge together.

• Incorporate Real-World Contexts: Encourage families to bring in their cultural and personal experiences to enrich classroom discussions.

• Provide Flexibility: Offer parents different ways to engage, whether through video responses, written prompts, or live discussions.

Studies like this demonstrate how technology can open new doors for parent/guardian involvement, especially for those who may otherwise feel disconnected from their children's learning journey. 

The key, however, remains balancing tech with personal outreach and the specific needs of your school community.

REFERENCES

This week’s issue adapts information from the following sources:

Tech Talk:

Konstella. (2024). Engage Parents. Retrieved from https://www.konstella.com/

Brainy Bits:

Varma, K. (2019). Technology-Enhanced Parent Involvement in Science Education. The Role of Technology in Education. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.86266