App Practical: Parent Communication

For daily parent communications, most classrooms in my school leave a small logbook outside the door for parents to leave notes each day. This is helpful for giving quick but pertinent bits of information that will affect a child's day such as, "Brian didn't sleep well last night and might feel tired in school today." A parent can leave a short note in this log when dropping off their child. One might wonder, why wouldn't the parent just deliver a message verbally to the teachers? When students arrive at school, it is immensely helpful for families to make the drop-off a swift and smooth transition by not lingering. I have seen first-hand the anxiety that can occur in a young child when their morning routines are disrupted, and how the parent overstaying can escalate upset feelings. For this reason, it is best that parents go about their everyday routine at arrival, then leave a message for us after their child has smoothly transitioned into the classroom environment.

This model of leaving written notes is simple and convenient for parents, but comes with challenges. Because the notes are written after the school day has officially begun, we are not always able to check the messages in a consistent or timely way – some mornings are just too busy! By implementing Google Forms as a communication method, we may be able to make this system more pragmatic and convenient.

From the beginning of the school year, the parents could be linked to a simple Google Form for daily communication. We could roll this out by sending an email, and advising parents to bookmark the link. This way, they can quickly access the form to share information with us before they even leave for school that day. To familiarize myself with Google Forms, I created a mock-up of what this form could look like, as seen here:

This form can be filled out any number of times, so there doesn't seem to be any limit to how frequently parents are allowed to respond. It provides four simple areas to fill in: Who is responding and when, what the message is, and whether/how the parents would like us to follow up. Once responses are submitted, we can view them individually or all on a single page.

The image on the top displays one response, while the bottom image gives a convenient list of all responses. While this view does not show the respondent's name, it is safe to assume their child's name will be in the message itself, making it easy to tell who wrote what. The pie graph shown is also a quick visual reference for who needs a response to their message. 

To keep this information organized, it might be necessary to clear responses after they are addressed. However, deleting responses does not have to mean they're gone forever. Google Forms allows the administer of a form to link responses to a Google Sheet, which compiles all previous responses. Deleting a response from Forms does not affect the Sheet, so a longer-term record can be kept without cluttering the form responses. 

A sample of a Google Sheet linked to Form responses. 

A potential issue with this system is the maintenance of proper boundaries (e.g., respecting teachers' time, not overusing this method of communication). This can be avoided by clear communication up front about what this Google Form is to be used for, and what our expectations are for it. Just as with the paper notebook, this app would be intended only for quick, daily communications. As always, if there is ever a serious or private concern, a parent would be encouraged to schedule a meeting with us, or to use other, more formal communication methods. 

For any child, seemingly small issues such as hunger, fatigue, or sickness could easily snowball into a full-blown Bad Day if the teacher is unaware. Giving parents a quick and easy way to deliver helpful information each morning would be a valuable addition to our toolbox when setting students up for success, and would strengthen the ever important parent-teacher partnership.