Parent Communication 101

Parent Communication is so imperative in today's education. Need to send them a quick reminder about an upcoming test? You can do that! Want to inform them of bad behavior? Yup, got it covered. How about those times when you need to inform of GOOD behavior? We can do that!

I'm here to tell you about two of the ways I communicate with my families.

In my classroom, we utilize ClassDojo on a daily basis. If you look back at this post, you'll see that I am a big advocate for ClassDojo for classroom management purposes. But, what's also amazing about this {FREE} program is the chat component!

I am able to message my parents in an instant, and they are able to message me right back - the good thing is, regardless of the time of day!! If they need clarification on a point loss or point gain, homework assignments, upcoming tests, or field trip information - I'm there!!

I love that I am able to get the messaging feature from my phone, the computer, or my iPad. I could be in California and get the information from my parents at a moment's notice!

The only negative about this program is the only way to connect parents is for them to have an e-mail address. At the school I am at, many of my parents don't have an e-mail address. Therefore, I have about 17 out of 25 parents connected... but that's okay! CUE THE NEXT COMMUNICATION TOOL!

This is my first year using Remind in the classroom. I didn't use it last year because I wasn't really liking the idea of giving out my phone number. BUT you don't have to do that!! With Remind, your parents don't get your phone number. Instead, they get a short number to text with any information they need or want to know/want to tell!

If I'm having any issues, I can quickly send a "text" to my parents, either whole class or specific parents, to alert them. If I just wanted to send a quick, easy, nice message - I can do that, too!! I love Remind for the fact that messages have to be concise. 140 characters or less. Just like Twitter!

LOVE.

Happy Back-to-School time, pals!!

-Sara-

Parenting Conferences {A Few Helpful Tips & A Freebie}

Hi y'all! It's Sara from Miss V's Busy Bees.

I hope you had a FANTASTIC Thanksgiving with your family and friends! How many of you braved the crowds and went shopping, as well? Too crazy for me!

I did, of course, hit up my favorite stores to get some supplies for my craft room for cheap - Hobby Lobby and Michaels would be out of business if it weren't for me! ;)

Anywaaaaays, on Monday, we resume our normal school days with our kiddos for 3 weeks until we hit a break again.

During those three weeks, in my district, we are required to hold parenting conferences. Who has already had conferences once this year? Twice? THREE times?? You lucky duck, you.

I held a few conferences before the Thanksgiving break so as to not bog myself down after the break.

Doing that, I learned a bit about my students and their likes, dislikes, strengths, and weaknesses, but also learned a bit about my parents and their likes, dislikes, strengths, and weaknesses.

It's true, conferences are for you to tell the parents about the students and how they are doing (or how they are NOT doing…). But, little did college let you know, during these conferences, you get to know and see why your students are the way they are.

The saying the apple does not fall far from the tree is SO true. I have some of THE best students. The only reason I have THE best students?? Because I have THE best parents.

But I digress.

I'm here to talk to you about some tips and tricks when holding conferences with your parents, regardless of the time of the year.

Start out with the positives! Every parent finds GREAT joy in hearing how fantastic their child is. Even if the positive is that Johnny can sit in his chair for 30 minutes at a time, a positive is a positive.

In my conferences, I've found that they go MUCH smoother and parents are more willing to listen if you tell them the positives of their students and then follow it up with ways to take the negatives to positives.

That leads me to tip two. Instead of saying "negatives," use the words "opportunity for improvement." This is a much more positive light to shed for parents, because we all have opportunities for improvement. Yes, even us teachers have opportunities for improvement!

I liked to refer to the places my students could work on (multiplication, comprehension, vocabulary, phonics, main ideas and details, etc.) as opportunities for improvement and plan to take that jargon back to the daily classroom with me, as well!

Take notes! Whatever you tell your parents as to what YOU are going to do for their child, write it down. Then, when parents tell you what they are going to do, write it down. Document, document, document.

That way, when your student improves tremendously, you can credit yourself and the parents for working together to get the student to where they are. When your student goes downhill or even plateaus, you can also back that up by stating what you and the parents agreed to do in order to help students.

Document, document, document!!

Have a short list of resources that parents can utilize at home with their students. Whether this be a list of websites to help students practice skills, a list of books to read to or with the students at night, or games that the whole family can play, which in turn help the student, provide it for your parents! They WILL be thankful, trust me!

More on this tip in a few… :)

Finally, tip 5. THANK THEM. Thank your parents for taking the time out of their busy schedule to meet with you. Thank them for helping their students at home. Thank them for working with you to make sure their child succeeds. While we, as the educators, would LOVE to hear a thank you ALL day long, imagine what these parents might feel.

They DO thank you as educators. They thank you for all that you do for their child. They may not show it nor ever say it, but they DO thank you! So, return that thanks to them - thank them for helping Johnny remember his multiplication facts, or subscribing to Spelling City so that their child will get better grades in spelling. Or for helping Carla work on her typing skills using the program Word on a Sunday night.

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Do you have any tips to give for parenting conferences? I hope that when you DO have the conferences at your school that they go as smoothly as possible and you hit ZERO bumps!

To help with your conferences, I have included a link to a freebie for some of MY favorite resources for students. A list of apps, websites, books, and games for kiddos to play and practice at home with their families.

Grab the freebie by clicking the picture below!

Thank you for all that you do, teachers! You ARE appreciated!

ClassDojo: A Behavior Management Tool

Hey y'all! It's Sara from Miss V's Busy Bees again!

I'm back to talk to y'all about a classroom management tool that has been working WONDERS in my classroom this year!

Being only 5 weeks in, we're still working on routines, what's expected of us, and how to act during lessons, in the hall, at specials, and so on. 

Well, one of the tools I use to help us manage these expectations, routines, and rules is ClassDojo.

What ClassDojo is is an interactive classroom management tool. Not only can you take away points, but you can award points! There is a distinct sound that plays when you award points, and an even MORE distinct sound that plays when you remove points for negative behavior. My students know that when I'm awarding good points, it's because they've done something correctly and they quiet IMMEDIATELY because they never know if it's them that's getting a point or not!

The dashboard looks like this when you pull it up on your iPod, iPad, iPhone, computer… wherever! So, all students are shown at all times. I like that there's an attendance feature where you can put in that a student was absent so that you aren't awarding Johnny points for being on green or working quietly when Johnny isn't even there!

After a week, my students are supposed to have 15+ points in order to participate in Fun Friday activities. They have until 2:00 PM on Friday to earn their points.

As you can see, most of my students earned those points this past week. They are made aware of their points 3 or more times a day: first thing in the morning, before lunch, and at the end of the day. Sometimes, I'll keep it up there on my computer which is connected to my SMARTBoard and I'll award points from my iPad. It's instantaneous when you award points - if I add it on my iPad, it reflects immediately on the SMARTBoard and the kiddos love it. I can add points from ANYWHERE!!

These are some examples of positive points that my students can earn throughout the day. I can add behaviors whenever I see fit, but right now, these are the behaviors we are working on strongly, especially that 100% on AR, bringing in homework, working hard, and working together.

They know that if they are doing any of the above, they get points! I added our behavior chart indicators into the points, too, so that they are awarded points based on what their color on our chart was. So, for example, if they end the day on green, they get 1 point. If they end on blue, they get 2 points, and if purple, then 3 points. Clearly, purple is our highest!

But, on the flip side, there's also negative points. I hate hate hate to distribute the negative points, but it lets the student know what they need to do differently. I think the MOST negative points I give is for talking… I have one C-H-A-T-T-Y class this year… they could talk all day long about nothing! But, they see it and they make the positive change that's requested because they simply just don't want to lose any more points!

But like I said, I'm awarding points and taking points all day long… small group time, center work, independent work, walking down the hallway, at lunchtime, at recess, etc. They LOVE it!!

But, I think my all time favorite feature of the program is that you can chart the behaviors that are most experienced in your classroom, both positive and negative. Each week, a donut graph appears on your reports page.

This donut chart lets me know the most awarded points (positive and negative) and reflects our positive percentage as a WHOLE class. I think this graph is important to show to my students weekly because it lets them know that we are a true team… we ALL contribute to this graph, not just one student. It lets them know where they need to improve as a class and where they need to continue as a class.

But again, there's another AMAZING feature - the donut can be broken down by STUDENT! For the protection of my kiddos, I've removed the names from the student break down pages.

 So above is the student's specific donut. We can see that this week, he worked HARD, he was on green, on task, brought in his homework, etc. But he had instances where he'd talk out of turn (which is when someone else is speaking) or talked just in general. So, he was made aware of this when I put in negative points.

The other awesome thing is you can see EXACTLY the points that you award each student and at what times (and date). This is important because if someone comes after you and says you didn't award them for an AR test, you can pull this screen up and show them the date, time, etc. This helps hold ME accountable as the teacher. But beyond that, this feature is AWESOME for my parents.

I can allow my parents to see their students' points if I invite them. As you can see from the little graph above, almost ALL of my parents are connected. The students can even connect themselves so that they can change their avatar, check their report for the week, and then communicate it with Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, etc.

I absolutely LOVE that I can connect my parents because it gives them the opportunity to be proactive in their students' behavior management. They can see all the points that were rewarded and when, and all the points that were taken and when. This part has honestly helped the class a LOT because behaviors change instantly the next day since parents question, talk about it, and so on.

Another great feature is that through ClassDojo itself, I can communicate with parents!

This was me having a conversation with a parent to better explain what ClassDojo is and how to read the different reports. At other times, I communicate with parents about things that are NOT in relation to ClassDojo! It just gives me a new way to connect to my parents besides through e-mail, phone, or in-person meetings.

I absolutely LOVE ClassDojo for my class. I have seen an improvement in the amount of side-chatter since Day 1 and the students love that they can personalize their monster to reflect them. They love hearing the chime of positivity and hate hearing the sound of negativity. They love that I can award them points at any time and they try SO much harder to end the day on Green, Blue, or Purple so they can get those extra points in!

This week, my friend saved the class by reminding me to add in the homework points for the day. That pushed a few over the edge to 15 or more so that they, too, could participate in Fun Friday. It's a GREAT positive reinforcement tool and I am so happy I am using it this year.

Are you using something similar in your classroom? Are you using ClassDojo? What do you think about ClassDojo? Talk to me in the comments below!

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Until next time!

Hello From Miss V's Busy Bees

Hey all!

I'm Sara from Miss V's Busy Bees. I have been blogging for a little more than 2 years and have met some of the most AMAZING people along this journey!

A little about me - I am in my second year of teaching and I'm at a BRAND new school this year. But, I'm in my favorite grade of all time - 3rd grade! They are so bright, fun, and willing to learn, yet they know right from wrong. I moved from Ohio to Alabama in November 2012 with my now husband, Cody, who is in the Coast Guard. So, I'm a big supporter of the military! We have three fur babies - Socks who is a cat and is 4 years old, Lexie who is a Papillion and is 2 years old, and Tucker who is an English Bulldog and is about 1 1/2 years old. The fur babies are our pride & joy - we would be lost without them!

In my free time, I'm a large crafter. I love to create and glue and cut, and have a craft room dedicated solely to my joy. It's GLORIOUS! I also am a huge TV/couch potato - love watching "junk" TV. Right now, I'm currently watching Switched at Birth, The Fosters, Pretty Little Liars, Chasing Life, Big Brother, Hell on Wheels, and several other shows. Love love love my TV time! It's so relaxing.

But enough about me and my life - you're here to get GREAT advice, tips, freebies, and information from some fantastic bloggers. We'll be blogging as often as possible to bring you these tips, freebies, information, and ideas for the elementary classroom, most of which will be for 3rd grade.

With back to school upon us, we're all working on setting up our classrooms to become "homes" for our students very shortly. We also want to make it something that's visually appealing to ourselves, too. This year, I decided to go with a BRIGHT rainbow theme. I literally have just brights all over my room - reds, yellows, oranges, greens, blues, and purples. It's BEAUTIFUL!

I got a new rug this year, too, and it's a map of the United States - and it's COLORFUL!

It matches the rest of the decor PERFECTLY. Anyways, now that you know my theme, I should probably talk about what I'm leading into!

Knowing that I loved color and that I was told that I HAD to have a Word Wall, I decided to make it "my own." I wanted something that went well with the bright decor and just couldn't find the right word wall for me. So, I decided to create one! It turned out SO fantastic and I am so happy with the final product. Granted, it's not super straight - but I love it and it's functional. It's in the back of our room and I cannot wait to fill it with words for my kiddos this year! They loved seeing it when they came back after the first weekend!

Knowing all that - what colors and MUST HAVES did you make/buy for your classroom this year?? I'd love to hear all about it!

And to make this post worth your time, I'm offering that EXACT word wall letter card group as a freebie! Click on the picture below to head on over and download your word wall cards for YOUR classroom!

{Word Wall Letter Cards in Rainbow Colors by Sara @ Miss V's Busy Bees}

Make sure to come back shortly for some AMAZING posts with great ideas by your favorite bloggers! We're so excited to have y'all with us!