Navigating the teacher and parent relationship is much like ballroom dancing. Dance partners must be synchronized in their timing and movements, just as teachers and parents must be on one accord and work harmoniously toward the common goals of student success and academic achievement. Communication, the imparting, sharing, and exchanging of information and/or news, is vital to the teacher-student-parent dynamic. Active and consistent communication between teachers and parents has a positive impact on students’ overall achievement, success, and classroom conduct (Can, 2016; Chena & Chena, 2015).
While recognizing the significance of teacher-parent communications, both parties will likely also admit that the process is neither easy nor without hiccups. Teacher-parent communications can be inconvenient, time-consuming, sometimes frustrating, games of phone tag. Historically, written notes and telephone calls were the primary means of communication between educators and guardians. Subsequent to the reliance upon telephone calls, came the use of email, which has the disadvantage of lacking immediate responses. However, in the digital age in which we currently exist, there are communication options other than telephone calls and emails, that may be more productive and efficient. The availability of smart phones and the prevalence of mobile applications gave birth to a new method of teacher-parent communication. Mobile applications, or mobile apps, are software programs specially coded for use on smart phones. In his study of mobile application usage for teacher-parent communications, Can (2016) found that use of mobile apps are an effective means of communication in educational settings, and contributes to increased parental involvement.
This school year, I began using the Remind App, as a means of parental contact and student interaction. Remind, formally Remind 101, is a communications platform created for use in educational settings. Remind supports two-way mobile messaging between teachers and their students, as well as between teachers and parents. Remind allows teaches to send messages, pictures, and videos to their pupils and their guardians without divulging personal contact information, such as cellphone numbers. Using Remind simplifies the parental contact process and allows for teacher-student communications in a cost-effective manner. Teachers can contact a single parent or multiple parents at one time. Teachers also have the capability to reach one or more students in a single message. Remind can be used to notify students and/or parents of upcoming school and class events, such as parent nights, school holidays, concerts, tests, and project deadlines. One of the most remarkable features of Remind, in my opinion, is the two-way messaging system that permits students and parents to reply to teacher messages. Remind offers free teacher accounts that include basic messaging, translation, and app integration services for up to ten classes, with a maximum of 150 participants per class.
Open lines of communication between teachers and parents is critical to student success. Research (Can, 2016; Chena & Chena, 2015) has shown that mobile apps have the potential to improve parent-teachers communication, and consequently home-school relations. In two months of use, for me, Remind has proven to be a convenient, user-friendly, inexpensive method of parent communication.
References
Can, M.H. (2016). Use of mobile application: Means of communication between parents and
class teacher. World Journal on Educational Technology: Current Issues, 8(3), 252-257.
Chena, Z.X., & Chena, C. C. (2015). The intention of using smart device messages as parent-teacher communication from the view of parents. Procedia Manufacturing, 3,
5617-5623.
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