All day long, the parent is thinking about the child sitting in your classroom. She is wondering what the child is learning and how he is behaving. She is wondering if he came to school and told everyone about that unfortunate episode last night. That child may be one who jumps in the car and gives the mom a play by play of his day all the way down to what he ate for lunch, but there are equally as many who answer the question, “what did you do in school today?” with “nothing”  or “work” or “had fun”.  My students often described the learning as fun. Quite frankly, that insulted me. Yeah, I wanted it to be enjoyable because I understand that was the best way to engage the learner with the content but to evaluate my lesson on mummifying chicken legs, or building marble roller coasters out of plumbing insulation, or planning an Ancient World’s Fair as “fun” seemed to discredit all of the learning involved. If you have a cell phone, you have a camera. It is so easy to use technology to give parents and invested adults (grandparents) a peek inside your classroom and a note about what that activity is teaching them. Some teachers effectively use social media to share photos and brag on students for reaching milestones as well as give announcements and reminders. That is a great way to include parents but be cautious. Always invite an administrator or grade level chair to be part of that group as well. Also, set the tone for only positive things to be public. That is not the space for the parent to complain about your time slot for visiting the book fair or that someone must have stolen her child’s coat. 

Animoto is a free site that is available for teachers to make slide shows. It is user friendly and you can upload the pictures and the app does the work. I always made sure that every child was featured at least once in the presentation. You can also send photos and information home by email groups. That tends to get shared (with grandparents) a good bit but those are the same ones who bid on a butter churn for you. Parents love those photos. Some days, when I was so busy I didn’t have a single second to take a photo, I would get about five emails at the end of the day asking if their child had missed class. They became dependent on those photos not only to know what was going on in class but also to have something specific to discuss with their child regarding school. When I was feeling lazy or felt like what we were working on was not that exciting, I still took photos of happy faces because parents are more concerned with their child’s happiness than the narrative writing prompt. 

*Some children are not allowed to be photographed and shared. Be sure you have written permission from the parent to include their child in classroom photos to be shared with other parents. 

I have already mentioned how valuable sending photos home ( on your cell phone)  of students while engaged in an activity or playing with friends  is for  our PEC parents. This gives parents the opportunity to talk about what went on during the school day with their child. Oftentimes, our students have difficulty sharing this information after school and a photo or two can be a springboard for a great conversation at home.