I try and communicate regularly with parents, post tons of student work online, provide study guides and videos on our class wiki, and open my classroom to parents who want to come in and see what we're learning. Every year I still get questions from parents who still are unaware of why we are using certain technologies and what resources are available.
To help close this communication gap, I did a few things differently this year.
First, I am using Edomodo, a education social networking site that allows parent access, for the first time. I'm hoping that this allows parents to have more insight into what we are doing in the classroom.
Next, I used Screencast-o-Matic to create this short video explaining some of the websites we are going to be using this year and how they can be used at home. It's a great tool because it's unblocked by my school's filter, and it does not require anything to be downloaded. I uploaded the video to a site called MyBrainShark, which I've come to like more than TeacherTube, SchoolTube, and Voicethread for video hosting.
Finally, I am going to have students share the products of their learning on both our class wiki and personal blogs this year using Kidblog. I'm hoping that having an individual space of their own to showcase their learning will make students want to share more than in the past.
