Cultivating strong parent-and-teacher relationships
creates a supportive and collaborative learning environment for students (Ozcinar
& Ekizoglu, 2013). When parents participate in their child’s education and
school activities, including support at home through monitoring homework and
developing study skills, student grades improve leading to higher academic
achievement. As their grades improve and parents continue to encourage their
children, student accountability increases at both home and school, as does their
confidence and self-esteem. The problem teachers face is establishing and
maintaining parent involvement in a way that requires little time investment
from the teacher yet yields a wealth of support for the student and a collaborative
parent-teacher relationship.
Supporting student growth and achievement includes
using technology to create opportunities for engagement (Ozcinar &
Ekizoglu, 2013) with each student and their families. Blogs are a great way to
share information with parents on what is happening in the classroom, as well as
student progress, learning, and achievement. Posting pictures of learning
activities in the classroom, special events such as field trips, assemblies, honor roll, homework, reminders, a newsletter, and announcements helps parents
feel included in their child’s education and learning, while also fostering a
respectful relationship between parents and teachers. By blogging about the
classroom, teachers can demonstrate their passion, professionalism, and
creativity in building an interactive and engaged parental community.
Classroom blogs allow students to add content to the
blog such as written, oral, and visual content students have created in class. This
increases their confidence and self-esteem, while also highlighting to parents
the learning in the classroom using digital literacy skills. Blogs also provide
opportunities for teachers to share educational information on standardized
testing, literacy, special programs, and articles on topics that contain
information on learning and education specific to the age of the student. As
parent involvement increases, teachers learn more about the home life of their students
by facilitating a strong communicative relationship with parents. This helps
teachers provide support for students who are struggling academically or
behaviorally, while also encouraging collaboration to help support the student
at home and at school.
When using a blog as a communication for families, teachers must consider the different backgrounds, languages, and abilities of the students and their families. Using simple language, providing translation for information posted on the blog in multiple languages, providing mobile device access, and using videos and images to supplement the written content (LinkedIn, 2023) will ensure the blog is inclusive and accessible for all parents. Allowing comments and feedback on the blog posts is important to engage with parents while building trust and establishing a rapport with them. Highlighting student, as well as parent involvement will allow teachers to show appreciation and respect for the contributions of their students and families. A consistent posting schedule whether weekly or biweekly will help parents stay connected to their children and their learning environment.
To create a blog, teachers can go to Wordpress.com,
Blogger, Edublogs, and Google Sites to create a simple, easy-to-use blog that engages
and involves parents, students, and families. Need help or have more tips for
getting started? Comment below and share your insights.
References
LinkedIn. (2023). How can you use blogs to share teaching insights with parents?https://www.linkedin.com/advice/1/how-can-you-use-blogs-share-teaching-insights-parents#:~:text=Blogs%20can%20help%20you%20create,might%20encounter%20along%20the%20way.
Ozcinar, Z., & Ekizoglu, N. (2013). Evaluation of a blog based parent involvement approach by parents. Computers and Education, 66(3), 1-10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2013.01.012
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