Domain IV Resources

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Article Title:  A Teacher's Guide to Communicating with Parents

Communicating with parents is one key to gain success in the classroom.  Ensuring that communication occurs regularly and that it is transparent and honest helps build trust between teachers and parents, according to this article, which shares strategies to make transparent communication easier.

First, the article suggests that teachers “make every day Open House” by posting updates, pictures and videos of students’ work onto various media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. This allows a teacher to let students’ parents know what their children are thinking and doing throughout the day.  Second, a teacher needs to “communicate frequently and purposefully,” using such technology at Remind101 and a class twitter account linked to a class Facebook page.  In addition, teachers should employ positive phone calls and emails just as often as negative ones.  This is especially helpful if a problem arises at a later time.  Another technology suggestion from this article is Dash4Teachers, which helps teachers keep track of communication interactions, plus student behavior.  This “intuitive and simple app goes a long way to ensuring we’re helping all of our students.”  It also makes parent-teacher engagements quantifiable. Last, this article suggests that it is helpful to “bring in the experts,” where a teacher uses parents’ skills and knowledge by inviting them to participate within classroom lessons and, thus, areas of students’ learning in which parents have expertise.  This type of interaction doesn’t even have to be in person; Google Hangouts or Skype can be employed so that all parents are able to participate when convenient for their schedule. 

This article also discusses the importance of reviewing your school’s Acceptable Use Policy and Privacy Policy, plus monitoring privacy settings carefully when working with students so you know how to correctly implement this technological sharing.

I found this article to be informative and offer specific suggestions and apps to use in several facets of parent-teacher communications.  I specifically included it for the information on Dash4Teachers, about which I had yet to hear.  Anything to help keep a teacher organized in their communications with parents provides important benefits.

Article Link:  https://www.edsurge.com/news/a-teacher-s-guide-to-communicating-with-parents

Stern, Ben. "A Teacher's Guide to Communicating with Parents (EdSurge News)." EdSurge. 29 Aug. 2012. Web. 13 Nov. 2015. <https://www.edsurge.com/news/a-teacher-s-guide-to-communicating-with-parents>.

Article Title:  Modern Professional Learning: Connecting PLCs With PLNs

This informative Edutopia article discusses how to meld a Professional Learning Community (PLC) with a Professional Learning Network (PLN), the benefits of doing so, and that being part of a PLC and a PLN should not be an either/or decision but rather that both “are vital conduits for the craft of teaching.”

The article reviews the benefits and struggles that come with both professional learning practices, and then examines five ways to create tighter connections between the open flow of ideas from a PLN and the accountability a PLC offers.  The goal of melding these two practices is to produce greater learning and longevity of that learning for both teacher and student.  The five ways listed in the article are:

1. Intentionally connect face to face and online.
2. Keep it simple.
3. Know your purpose.
4. Encourage new habit creation.
5. Link the online and face-to-face worlds.

I included this article predominantly due to the fact that I find number three on the above list of ways to meld a PLC and PLN quite intriguing.  My current campus has PLCs already in place and I have had the opportunity to work within the 5^th and 6^th grade math PLC.  We were given a goal for our purpose at the beginning of the year.  It was to examine our district’s two lowest performing math TEKS, which also happened to be the same on our campus, and determine how best to increase students’ knowledge and skills of these learning standards.  I also have personally developed a PLN, although I didn’t know that is what it was called until recently, of teachers that are retired or have left the classroom for some other reason, but who still possess years of practical and wise teaching methods and ideas. Yet, I never thought to meld these two groups together as we developed ways to reach this year’s PLC goal.  After reading this article, I see that the idea that having all members of our PLC search any PLNs they are associated with for new ideas to reach our set goals makes so much sense.  Why haven’t we looked outside of our campus for answers to how best to reach our goals?  As the article states, “You can't be everywhere and do everything. Focus can achieve incredible results if you're all searching your PLNs for new ideas to tackle a troubling issue in your PLC.”  That’s a nugget worth remembering!

Article Link:  http://www.edutopia.org/blog/modern-professional-learning-plc-pln-vicki-davis

Davis, Vicki. "Modern Professional Learning: Connecting PLCs With PLNs." Edutopia. 11 Nov. 2015. Web. 21 Nov. 2015. <http://www.edutopia.org/blog/modern-professional-learning-plc-pln-vicki-davis>.
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