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Two educators share their secrets for offering real-time updates from their classrooms.

A recent study by Gallup found that only 1 in 5 parents are fully engaged with their child’s school, meaning that 80% of parents aren’t getting the information they need from their children’s teachers. This could be due to parents’ lack of interest, lack of time, or simply that they or their children’s teachers don’t have the tools or techniques to communicate effectively. While mobile technology has become a daily part of how we access most information, from email to news to where the closest Uber car is, schools are still learning how to use apps to improve communication with parents. Here, two teachers share their best practices for sharing real-time updates on what’s happening in their classrooms.

Jessica Meacham. 1st-grade teacher

As a trailblazer in classroom technology, it seems like I’ve tried every form of communication out there: printed newsletters, emails, texting, blogging, a YouTube channel, even Facebook. But along with grading, lesson-planning, and everything else a teacher is asked to balance, it all got to be too much.

I wanted the communication process to be easy and streamlined for my students’ parents and me. Finally, I asked my students’ parents, “What’s the best way for me to communicate with you?” Essentially, all of them said “email” or “texting,” implying that their smartphone is their lifeline to the outside world. That’s when my hunt for the perfect communication app began.

Just as social media apps like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat take you into the lives of friends, celebrities, and idols, I wanted to find the perfect app to give parents a glimpse of their child’s life at school. I started with a quick Google search to find the top parent-teacher communication apps in the market. As you can imagine, that search was a bit overwhelming. I used my personal Facebook page to ask fellow teachers what communication apps they were using, and I got dozens of responses. To narrow my scope of what exactly I wanted in a communication app, I created a list of non-negotiables. The right app would:

1. Allow me to share photos, links, and messages.
2. Allow parents to respond to messages.
3. Allow me to message/share with a few select or all parents.
4. Allow me to schedule events and notify parents of the events.
5. Sync scheduled events to my Google Classroom calendar.
6. Allow me to schedule parent/teacher conferences.
7. Share volunteer and wish list opportunities.
8. Work on web-based and smartphone platforms.
9. Cost nothing for parents and teachers.
10. Have a variety of comprehensive support for teachers.

The enormous list of potential apps slimmed down to seven free communication apps that would potentially fit the bill: Remind, Class Messenger, Livingtree, SimplyCircle, Seesaw, Class Dojo, and Bloomz. I signed up for accounts, started playing with each app’s interface, devoured the support/help resources I found on their websites, and contacted the app’s developers.

As an avid teacher/blogger, I created a working spreadsheet to break down the features of each app, including security and privacy, coordination tools, community-building tools, and more. My goal was to create a resource to help teachers who were also searching for communication apps. After I posted the spreadsheet on my blog, comments immediately started rolling in. Teachers offered their recommendations, shared their personal stories of success, and thanked me for all the time and effort I put into my research.

At the start of the 2015 school year, I found Bloomz fit all the criteria I was looking for, and decided to implement it in my classroom. Parents were all extremely excited to download the app to see what their child does at school all day.

Bloomz functionality is similar to that of Facebook, with which most parents were comfortable. As the year went on, I used the app to share daily photos and videos of the students, schedule conferences, find volunteers for class events, and message parents throughout the day. Parents are able to scroll through the app and see their student hard at work. Posting on Bloomz has become such a regular part of my day that students look forward to showing off their work—and parents get anxious when I don’t post something for the day.

“I love seeing updates during the day and pictures of activities,” said one parent in an end-of-year survey.

“It’s so much easier than keeping track of papers and asking my child what they’re doing,” said another parent.

I remember one specific example where I ran out of paper towels in my classroom. I posted on the app, asking if any parents could send some with their child. Within one minute (literally), I had responses from three parents—and plenty of paper towels the next school day. The app also comes in handy when communicating information to parents in an emergency situation if necessary.

In my search for the communication app that was right for me, I was able to help dozens of other teachers find an app that works for their classroom and help close the gap in our school-parent communication. The Bloomz app has successfully connected me to parents and vice-versa, creating a team-like environment where everyone’s goal is to ensure that each student has the best learning experience possible.

Toni Madison, 7th-grade math teacher
To connect with my students’ parents, I have been using the Moments app within ClassFlow since the end of August. To get started, on “School Business Night,” I made sure that I added Moments to the syllabus. Several parents signed up and registered their students that night. Moments has been a game-changer for parent communication. I can quickly and easily send them a message through the Web version of ClassFlow. (Although a teacher app would make my life even simpler….I hear one is coming!) The message goes straight to their device with the app, and most respond pretty quickly.

We have been awarding badges in class for certain things (showing a growth mindset, working hard, meeting goals, etc.) and the notification about these badges gets pushed out to parents using the app. I’ve also been adding announcements on the class homepage that gets pushed out to parents.

I’m hearing from many parents that they love the ease of contact. It’s so much quicker and less formal than an email. Parents like getting the notification from badges and class announcements as well. In the very beginning of the year, I had several parents ask me why the rest of their children’s teachers weren’t using this and I explained that we were working on it. I’ve proposed a schoolwide demonstration of the Moments app on our next professional learning day in November.

Using Moments in tandem with ClassFlow has simplified my life as a teacher immensely! I love being able to use one program and not have to have several apps or websites that I’m constantly going between. As soon as I make an announcement or give a student a badge, the notification to the parent is almost instant, and I don’t have to use an additional form of communication.

Jessica Meacham is a 1st-grade teacher in the Southern Door County School District in Wisconsin. You can subscribe to her blog <em>here</em>. 

Toni Madison teaches 7th-grade math at Post Oak Middle School in Spotsylvania, VA.