Gabrielle Caine
Dr. Bogad
CURR 501
9 July 2025
Communication for Families
Vision
Something I would like to improve in my classroom is communication with parents and families. I believe that students learn best when teachers work in collaboration with student families and perspectives. In order to create relationships with families, I keep a tracking document of ways I have communicated with parents and guardians throughout the year. This chart includes options for email, text, phone call, in-person, or multiple types of communication with parents.
Besides my chart, however, I really have no way to effectively gauge the relationships I have built with families. Just because I've sent an email home, doesn't mean I am building rapport with parents—especially when they don't respond to my messages. My school additionally does not have an "open house" night in the fall, and only hosts 1 day for parent-teacher conferences in January. As a result, many parents (especially those who work) are unable to meet with teachers to speak candidly about their child's progress.
As someone who teeters between being a techno-traditionalist, and a technocrat in Scott Noon’s vision of technology users, I know that I can do more to leverage digital platforms to better engage with families. I think a great digital project for me next year would be to create a monthly virtual call with parents during the evening. This would help to increase "face to face" interactions with parents, while not burdening them with physically coming to the school in the evening. I believe this option would be more useful to some parents who have deep concerns about their student's progress, or nuanced questions that may not be accurately expressed through email. Additionally, this open Zoom time could be used for parents to meet one another and connect about ways in which they can help their children learn. Having this meeting happen monthly is important to ensure that this communication is consistent. Only through repeated conversations can trust and relationships truly grow between teachers and their students' parents.
A simple digital strategy to reach parents is likely to be most effective. According to Marc Prensky’s “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants,” students, who are growing up in a time of technological advancement, are much more well-versed in how digital tools can be used and taken advantage of to communicate (2001). These students are what Prensky (2001) calls “digital natives,” speaking the language of technology. On the other hand, students’ parents are what Prensky refers to as “digital immigrants.” As “immigrants,” to this new technological landscape, parents are naturally unfamiliar with digital tools that their children may be quite adept at utilizing. While critiqued, Prensky’s work reminds us that students’ parents are inherently less familiar with digital technology than their children—or even young teachers—may be. It is important that my communication with parents centers around platforms that are easy to use and engage with. Any digital communication that takes place between parents and educators should center the parents’ ability to utilize the technology. Therefore, my project should take advantage of intuitive programs online to meet with parents.
Jennifer Spiegel’s “Prensky Revisited: Is the term “digital native” still applicable to today’s learner?” (2021) also discusses the differences in students’ and parents’ ability to utilize digital platforms. Although Spiegel works to critique Prensky’s often-problematic ways of categorizing different generations of digital technology users, she does highlight the need for digital users across generations to engage in foundational skills to use this technology. Although our students have grown up with digital media and technology, students may not understand how this technology can help them educationally. Spiegel explains that while students may often use digital technology for gaming or chatting with friends online, they were not necessarily taught about the more professional or educational applications and value of the technology. I have seen this in my own classroom, as few students even understand how to write an email properly. Utilizing digital to help families meet for parent-teacher conferences can help bridge this gap in students’ abilities to leverage technology for productive means. Using platforms such as Calendly and Zoom help students to see the inherent benefits of online programs, and help them to gain familiarity with these commonly used products.
Digital Tools
My project will rely on a few digital tools. The virtual meetings will rely on Zoom to facilitate “face-to-face” communication with parents. As mentioned previously, Calendly is a digital scheduling tool that could help to make virtual parent-teacher conferences easy! Calendly has features that help to organize your schedule, allow participants to choose meeting times, and can sync Zoom links with your calendar. I have never used Calendly to schedule meetings with parents, but I remember one of my college professors my freshman year using the platform for her digital office hours during the pandemic. For this project, I looked up user-friendly digital platforms that can help to schedule virtual meetings. In a quick Google search, I was reminded of Calendly and how my professor had used it in the past. After researching the platform and its capabilities during our current class, it became clear that this digital technology would be perfect for my parent conferences project. Calendly offers options to meet in groups with parents, as an open check-in or drop-in office hours time might function, or to meet individually with families. Either option could work for my project idea, but a one-on-one meeting would provide me with the opportunity to prepare work samples and progress notes for parents with student concerns. In order to address these concerns, parents will choose from 30-minute meeting slots on my Calendly, which will allow me to ensure that parents do not try to meet at the same time as one another. Additionally, once a parent signs up for a meeting time through Calendly, they will be sent an email confirmation of their meeting time and the Zoom link they can join with.
Along with Calendly, parents will join virtual meetings using Zoom. Most families will be familiar with Zoom, as it was perhaps the most widely used video conferencing platform used during the pandemic. Zoom is intuitive to use, and those who join meetings do not need to create an account to use the platform. This makes Zoom easier to use than other video conferencing platforms, particularly for families who have not yet used the digital technology. Additionally, Zoom offers translation features and closed-captioning, making it accessible and user-friendly for students’ families. Overall, both Calendly and Zoom offer free, easy-to-use services for families.
Planning
This project plan will not require significant planning as a result of the ease of the digital platforms involved. Before setting up monthly meetings with parents, I will need to create open time slots on the Calendly platform for parents to select. Once my 30-minute blocks of time are programmed into my schedule on the platform, parents will be able to select a time that works best for them. After creating the Calendly and Zoom links, I will send an email to all of my students’ parents and guardians telling them about the option to meet virtually each month if they have concerns. This email will be created with a short and comprehensive flyer attachment to make it easy for parents to access the information.
