It is apparent to many that a strong involvement in a student’s education by a parent is integral to a successful education; what is not as apparent is how to do that. Below I have collected a couple different articles that go in depth about how to best facilitate communication between parents and schools.

Assessing Technology’s Role in Communication between Parents and Middle Schools – This article is more academic than the others but is still a great read. It goes in detail about the six different types of parental involvement as defined by the Epstein framework. For example, Type 3 requires schools to be proactive by inviting parents to participate in school activities. Wouldn’t that be a great use of Tandem for Schools?

Parent-Teacher Communication Advice from Veteran Teachers – This is a list of about ten tips from veteran teachers. Be sure to skim it and get some ideas!

Schoolcal.org is a site for parents that does a good job at describing the benefits for parents of a good internet school calendar. It also answers frequently asked questions about internet school calendars and how they can help parents. Parents who want to show support for schools using an internet-based calendar can add their name to a list of parents to show interest to schools and encourage them to consider implementing an online school calendar. From the website:

Parents and schools both benefit when everyone uses an Internet calendar. You’ll love being able to:

• Add each child’s Internet school calendar to your personal digital calendar—Cozi, Google, Yahoo, iCal, Microsoft Outlook, or any digital calendar that supports the iCalendar standard.

• Receive any schedule changes or school closures automatically.

• Access the school calendar whenever and wherever you need it.

• Plan vacations, after-school activities, and appointments more easily.

• Save time and eliminate accidental double bookings on your calendar.

A good school calendar can be a great resource for parents, who like and need to have information about what is going on at the school. School calendars like Tandem can immediately update parents with important school information like snow closures or an event rescheduling using the power of the internet. Parents can either go to the calendar page on the internet or have the school calendar sync with many calendar programs that parents may already have such as Outlook, iCal, Google Calendar, or Cozi. This can make school parent communication more effective and less stressful for both sides.

Without a central information hub like a school calendar, finding important school information can be frustrating for parents who may have to call the school or just find out when they get there. With a good school calendar, parents can know exactly where to look to find out key dates or schedule changes.

For time sensitive information like a snow closure or a baseball game rain out, the need to spread information quickly is important. A good school calendar will allow administration to quickly and easily update the calendar so everyone that is affected can get the message.