Assessments/Communication with Parents

Assessments are important in order for teachers to help students learn. Useful assessments allows teachers to teach correct instruction. Assessments allows teacher to review students knowledge and performance base. This helps us to provide feedback to students in order for them to be successful in their future learning. It also provides motivation for students to want to do better.

Communication between teachers and parents take part in different ways. Communication can take place face to face, phone or through technology. I remember always receiving communication from my teacher over the summer by mail. Today, with technology we can send a simply welcome email to parents and students. There are so many different technology applications available for teachers and parents to communicate.

If we use technology to communicate to parents should we still have parent- teacher conferences? Eliminating parent-teacher conferences could be a controversial question. As a Kindergarten teacher we continue to have face to face parent teacher conferences at least once a year. Back and forth communication helps improve academic performance. Using technology to communication is a great way to enhance the communication that students and teachers have with parents. Technology should not replace human contact in education. It’s so important to remember that relationships are built on communication.

Communication technology with parents is helpful if we are able to include assessments in the communication for parents to see the progress of their child. Below are some communication applications used among parents and teachers that includes assessments

• Dojo Messenger
• Bloomz
• Parent Square
• Seesaw
• Bulb
• Weebly
• Sesame
• Freshgrade

I choose to use the Seesaw application in my classroom.

Seesaw is a free digital platform application for teachers, families and students. It’s a platform that allows students to independently document their learning and forward it to their parents to view. Students are able to take pictures, draw, write, record videos and capture learning. Seesaw is also a great way for teachers and parents to see the progress of students work. Teachers are able to refer to past activities and see how each child has progressed through the year.

What is nice about this application as you can see above is that you can add family members to the account in order for them to see your child's work and progress in school.  Seesaw also does a very good job on explaining to teachers and parents on how to use the application.  For students it's easier if the teacher demonstrates on how the application works. 

I also like how Seesaw sends out weekly emails which shows how often the application is being used.  It breaks it down for the week and also from the beginning of the year.  This allows me to see how often students and parents are actual using the application.  

Students need to be taught how to use this Seesaw application and what options it provides. Students start off by learning the Seesaw symbol so that they can easily locate it on the iPad.

Once they locate the Seesaw symbol they tap on it and it brings them to another screen that provides them with many different options.

Once students become familiar with the application they become very excited to be able to use technology in order to communicate with their parents while in school. They begin to take photos of their work and send it to their parents.

Literacy Photo 

                                                                   Drawing Photo


Parents are able to view their child's work or any post their child is tagged. Prior to parents seeing what their child is sending them it needs to get approved by the teacher. The reason for this is to make sure the child sent the request to the correct person. Parents are also able to view comments made from other parents on the post. To protect children, parents are not able to access any other students content unless they are tagged with their child.

Teachers are able to add announcements and document students work toward a goal.

Teachers are also able to create activities on Seesaw. Below is a YouTube video demonstrating to teachers on how to create a new activity. 

 
Reflection:

This application is very easy to use for teachers, parents and students. Below is a video on how quickly a student is able to take a photo of a lego piece he created and send it to his parents. Students really enjoy using this application on our classroom iPads. 

As you can see in the video the student taps on the Seesaw application.  He then clicks on the plus sign which brings him to the screen with different options.  The student decides to click on the camera which will allow him to take a photo of his lego piece.  He takes his picture and then clicks on done.  It then brings him to a screen with all the students names in the classroom. He clicks on his name which allows him to forward the picture to his parents.  As a teacher, I will see on my side of the application that he took this picture and would like to send it to his parents.  I approve the request and shortly after it's delivered to his parents.  

Parents get excited when their child sends them photos, videos or pictures while they are in school. They are able to see what they are doing and learning in school and also they are able to monitor their childs progress throughout the year.  It's also a great way for parents to see how quickly they become familiar with an iPad to use technology for communication.