As a future educator, I think that it is very important to be accessable and maintain a good relationship with your students and their parents. These days, it seems that many people prefer to communicate using the Internet (especially through email) rather than face to face or on the phone. I personally find that I prefer to use email communication rather than talking on the phone. For this reason, I think that creating an online web page is a great way to better connect with parents and students, and to allow them more access to you both during and outside of regular school hours.
I recently created my first "About Me" page linked to my blog. Although I have had a Facebook page for quite a while now where I am able to communicate and share information with my friends, family, classmates and coworkers, this has been my first experience in creating a professional online identity. I think that it is important to let parents and students get to know me not only as Ms. Smith the teacher, but also as Megan Smith the person. I feel that sharing some insight to who I am as a person can help form a closer connection between myself and my students and their parents. I love getting to know the students I teach, and I know that I have always enjoyed learning about my own teachers' personal lives. I still remember my fifth grade teacher, Mr. Bartelson, who shared his love of gymnastics with us, and even did a few backflips one day.
Currently, I am a full time grad student working part time at the front desk of a local hotel. However, I hope to begin teaching full time soon, and when I do, I plan on creating a web page for my students and their parents to go where I will provide them with useful links to sites like Ask for kids (http://askkids.com/) as well as upcoming assignments and projects, contact information should they have any questions, as well as some personal information where they can enjoy getting to know their teacher.
Megan you make some great points. You are absolutely correct when you say that, “I feel that sharing some insight to who I am as a person can help form a closer connection between myself and my students and their parents.” You can make more connections with the students if they know more about you as a person. I am from South Florida, and whenever I have students in my class from South Florida, I immediately make a connection with those students. We can talk about different places down south or compare Orlando vs. South Florida. Also sharing a little bit of information about yourself shows the students you are a real person and that you don’t stay at school all day grading papers.
ReplyDeleteI too, “prefer to use email communication rather than talking on the phone.” I have sent more emails to parents than made phone calls to parents this year. When you do get a job, make sure that you do not email anything that can be deemed inappropriate. Even something innocent about a child’s behavior can cause you a headache if a parent takes the comment the wrong way.
It’s also a great idea to include in your webpage, “upcoming assignments and projects.” This will allow the students that are absent a way to get the work. It is also another way to make sure students cannot claim to be unprepared for an assignment. If you talk about an assignment in class and have it posted in the internet, there is no way students can legitimately claim they did not get the information for the assignment.
I think it is cool that you would be willing to make a website for kids and parents to connect with you. You might want to do some of it now as when you get your job, you may find yourself in survival mode and all those good ideas may get pushed to the back burner.
ReplyDeleteMaybe your school will have a tech person that you can link your site to the school's website or just add a page to the schools website. I would do that for any teacher at my school who wanted to have a web presence for the kids.
Megan,
ReplyDeleteYou make some good points. I agree that many are beginning to use emails as their primary source of communication with parents. I too would prefer email communication.
I also liked that you talked about creating a web page. This is something that is a useful tool. I feel that it is convenient to the teachers as well as parents for classes to have a web page. This is a way to keep the parents involved and updated with upcoming materials and dates.