The 21st
century has been the age of a technological explosion. Zhao
& Kuh (2004) state, “students learn
better, work independently
and collaboratively, and acquire
self-discipline through utilization
of social networks
and other Web
2.0 technologies”. Web 2.0 has allowed for the world to literally
be a click away. Due to the prevalence and increased use of the internet and mobile
devices, the ways in which people communicate have changed. Therefore, an
effective communication plan is necessary for all schools and school districts.
Sheninger says that “there are four key principles that lay a foundation for
communicating effectively with parents: transparency, honesty, accessibility,
and flexibility” (p. 86). He also lists
strategies to follow to engage stakeholders. I have taken these strategies to
come up with a communication plan for my children’s elementary school. I sent
my children to public school for the first time last year because I decided to
go back to school to get my Master’s. I was shocked at how limited accessibility
I had to my own children. I was also shocked by how little the school
communicated with me about what was going on. Numerous times I found out my child
was performing one day before the event and sometimes not until after the event
was over. Currently this elementary school only uses an all-call service for
announcements and a PTA newsletter sent home once a month. While certain
teachers use other forms such as ClassDojo, the school itself does not have
strong communication between school, teachers, and families.
My suggested plan is as follows:
1.
Immediately create a Resnick CLC Facebook page
and have the current PTA President and Resnick’s principal and vice principal
be the administrators. Research shows that more people use Facebook than any
other form of social media.
2.
Create a Resnick Twitter account and link it to
the Twitter page so that any Tweets will automatically post to the school’s
Facebook page. Twitter is a fantastic
way to share videos, announcements, pictures, and educational articles, blogs,
etc. Those that do not have Twitter will still benefit by it being linked to
the school’s FB page.
3.
Create a school email list of all parents as a
way to send forms, documents, and announcements which cuts down the amount of
papers coming home in children’s folders.
4.
Encourage all teachers to use ClassDojo as a
means to keep parents informed of their children’s behaviors. ClassDojo helps
the parent understand throughout the day where the child is having successes
and failures. It is much more helpful than being caught off guard at the end of
the day by a frustrated teacher telling the parent how bad their child was that
day.
5.
Resnick CLC will all-call major announcements,
emergencies, and inclement weather as well as post it on their Twitter and
Facebook pages.
6.
A school-wide newsletter will be sent home once
a month.
7.
All parents will be able to access grades, syllabus,
schedule, and projects online.
8.
Teachers will have face-to-face meetings with
all parents of their students once per grading period.
References:
Sheninger, E. C. (2014). Digital leadership: Changing
paradigms for changing times. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Hausman, A., Okoro, E.,
Washington, M. (2012) Contemporary
Issues in Education Research, 5(4) p295-300.
Hi Rebekah! You certainly covered all the bases in your communication plan: Social Media using FaceBook™ and Twitter™, print material such as the school newsletter and Face to face meetings once per grading periods. I don’t much about Class Dojo found at https://www.classdojo.com, but it appears to be a concept similar to FaceBook™ in that it builds a community classroom specifically for the students, parents and teachers. To me that makes it more secure than FaceBook™ and designed for a targeted community.
ReplyDeleteDo you know the formula for the number of communications channels formular is N * (N-1)/2 where N equals the number of people ("What is the communications channels formula for communications management?," n.d., p. 1).. The complexity of a communications plan is clearer when reviewing the numerical representation of the number of communications channels. A thought when thinking about a complex subject such as communications is to simplify as much as possible. The number of communications channels in a school could be represented by the administration, the school faculty, the parents and the students. The formula would be 4*(4-1)/2 = 6 communication channels. The impact of the communications must be taken into consideration. I think your approach is a very good communications plan and it is my hope that you will be able to take your plan and introduce it to the Resnick CLC.
References
Sheninger, E. (2014). Digital leadership: Changing paradigms for changing times. Thousand Oaks, CA.: Corwin.
Starr, L. (2004). Should kids in primary grades use computers. Retrieved from http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech056.shtml
What is the communications channels formula for communications management? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.project-management-prepcast.com/free/pmp-exam/tips/333-what-is-the-communications-channels-formula-for-communications-management
Rebekah, I had not built much knowledge about social media until recently. I started to say that I had not been very social media until recently, but let's face it, my understand could hardly be defined as savvy! Like the other comment says, I knew very little (actually, nothing) about Class Dojo until I viewed your video. It looks like an interesting tool. It appears to have some interesting pieces tailored to educational needs. Pam also raises concerns about Facebook privacy. I learned recently that Facebook offers the ability to create "invitation only" Secret groups. This became apparent to me what folks at church were talking about other church members who were posting prayer requests and other needs (e.g help moving) on Facebook, but I wasn't seeing them. Once they got me invited to the Secret Group and I accepted, I was able to access the information that was specific to the needs of the folks in our church, but that didn't need to be posted or the church's public Facebook site for all to see.
ReplyDeleteYour video also reminded me of a lesson from EDUC 631, the week we discussed the legal framework (e.g. copyright law), where part of the discussion was the need for parents to grant their permission to post their children's information (or if a hichschooler becomes 18, I guess the instructor would need their permission). As I learned that to publish a student's poem to a school site, for example, the parent had to grant permission, I thought "one more legal entanglement for a teacher to worry about". In that's week's EDUC 631 post I wondered that for "posting student work on a school website. What kind of permission would be needed? I can remember when my girls were elementary age. We might go on a open house night, and their art or writing work would be taped to the wall outside the classroom. Would I have needed to give permission for that (I didn't)? Then what if the portion of the school web site were locked down to students, faculty and their families. If the student's work was posed in that password-protected part of the site, then would a parent need to give permission? How is that different than taping the poem to the hallway wall?" Teachers have far too much to worry about when trying to use social media to communicate with parents! Not that they shouldn't try, but why does congress make laws that make it hard?
Thanks, Gary