Week 30 - Activity 6
Activity 6 Week 30
Reflection on your evidence
At the start of this inquiry my group wanted to know, what we could do as a school to get our parents engaging with us and sharing their thinking and ideas about their child’s learning. We wanted to strengthen our connections with whanau.
So we sent out an anonymous survey and completed some face-to-face interviews where we could. The results we got were completely different to what we anticipated. We had initially thought that parents didn’t come to our learning events because we didn’t have strong enough relationships with them or that they didn’t feel comfortable coming in. However, that was not the case at all, our parents would love to come in and interact with us (teacher/student) but they simply don’t have the time. So we needed to change our approach.
So since we gathered that data we reached out to colleagues at other schools to see what digital platforms they were using to communicate with parents and what was really successful for them. One application stood out from the rest and that was Seesaw, so we decided that we would trial that as well as Facebook with our classes. The feedback has been really positive for both platforms as parents seem to like both for different reasons. Facebook is easy and all my parents have accounts so it was a smooth transition for me to start interacting with whanau. Seesaw was not as easy at the start as parents had to download the app and go into it to access information. However, once this was up and running the parents that jumped on board really like it. So I am going to continue using both platforms in my class for different reasons.
Facebook will be used primarily to share the collective learning of our class as well as upcoming events, homework reminders just a general look into how our class is working.
“Facebook has a feature that allows you to post updates that parents will see immediately when they log onto their page. You can post information that pertains to homework—for example, “Don’t forget that the Science Fair project is due on Wednesday”—to clarify a new policy, or to detail directions for an assignment. Parents can also send you a private message to ask questions about homework or to ask for a meeting. Parents who might be uncomfortable asking questions in person might feel more at home when using this medium.”
Seesaw will be the place that parents can access their individual child's learning and the place where we can communicate. I have found that the comments parents make are a lot more in depth on this platform.
By using both forms of social media, parents will have the opportunity to access and engage with their child’s learning in a casual informal way and have the opportunity to get regular updates with their child’s progress.
Kia ora Alicia, I have found myself in the same situation. Our whānau are always wanting to support their tamariki and are wanting to be physically involved in their learning journey but is finding that time to do so. I too have followed in the pathway of using social forums to keep our whānau informed in our learning. I use Facebook and Class Dojo. Just like you I found that Facebook was a more successful forum to communicate with my whānau, for the sames reasons they all have access to the social media app and are able to get instant responses. Class Dojo like your Seesaw started off slowly but I am gradually seeing more whānau join. In our up coming Parent Conferences I will be sharing the benefits of the features Class Dojo provides such has the Student Portfolios, and Student points incentive and hope to strengthen the use of this digital platform. I'm also curious to check Seesaw as well. I will be taking that one away. Ngā mihi nui ki a koe.
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