Staying Connected

Hello everyone. I teach 9th grade English I, and I'm going into my second year of teaching. One of the frustrations I came up against last year was the disconnect I felt with my students and their parents when the final bell of the day rang. It was a relief, yes, to get a break, but I was craving a way for my students and their parents to get ahold of me with questions without giving out my cell phone number or email address. I do not have a phone in my classroom, and giving out my work email is frowned upon at my school for safety and liability reasons. I would also like a way to post homework assignments and reminders to students, so they can access this information at home. Has anyone had success with using social networking sites such as Twitter to stay in contact with your students? Or are these sites more successful than say Blackboard because of its adolescent appeal? And how do you deal with the fact that not every student has internet access at home? Thank you for your help!

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by M. Kimberlyn Peal on August 3, 2010 at 12:47pm

Hey Sarah! I totally understand what you are going through. It can be quite challenging to stay connected with students and their parents once they leave our classrooms. Here are a few suggestions of some things I explored last year that was quite successful when it came to keeping my students informed on assignments and providing HW help.

1. www.engrade.com. Use it! This is an online gradebook that allows you to post assignments on a calendar that students can always view. Additionally, students and parents can view your gradebook and stay abreast with their grades and attendance at all times.

2. I enjoy having a "teacher" Facebook account. Many of my students beg to be my friend on Facebook so I created a separate account for my students. You can use your status to remind students of upcoming assignments and you can even have class discussions and post links that you want your students to view.

3. Many of my students had challenges staying after school for coach class so I came up with virtual tutoring hours using SKYPE. This is really cool. You can tell students when you will be available for virtual tutoring and they can call you on SKYPE and you all can have a tutoring session....AWESOME!

I hope this gave you some ideas to explore....good luck!