As a parent, I appreciate regular communication from teachers. In the early grades, students are willing to share their school work and teacher communications -- although it sometimes gets lost in a book bag. As children get older, they are less likely to share information from their classes. Middle and High School teachers also have much larger numbers of parents to contact. Technology can make that communication more practical.
We are reaching a critical mass of parents and students with regular access to the Internet and e-mail. Even those without access at home, often use the Internet at work, school, library or other public locations. The PTA conducted a survey in September 2000 and received 1658 responses (34% of all households in district). Of those responding, 1267 or 76% use e-mail. The time you save using electronic communication with those parents, gives you more time for voice communication with those not yet online.
The ability to type one group name and send an e-mail to multiple people is called a mailing list. You can create a simple mailing list in most e-mail programs. Netscape Communicator calls them "Lists", Microsoft Outlook Express calls them "Groups", and Eudora calls them "Nicknames". You could create a list for each of your classes and add the e-mail addresses of parents or students that provide you an address.
When you send an e-mail using a group list, the group name is replaced by every e-mail address in that group. If you put this group list in the TO: line of an e-mail, each recipient will get the full list of group e-mail addresses at the top of the message. This is cumbersome when the list is large. It also makes the addresses visible to everyone that receives the mailing. If you use the BCC: line (instead of the TO: line) in your e-mail, the list of recipients will be suppressed. BCC stands for Blind Carbon Copy.
PTA is compiling a database of parent e-mail addresses. Eventually you may be able to use their mailing list rather than maintain your own list of parent e-mail addresses.
Folders (also called mailboxes) allow you to organize your e-mail messages. In addition to folders already created, you can create new folders, Sent messages can be automatically saved in an "Out" or "Sent" folder. This allows you to keep a record of you communications with parents, as well as update and reuse messages. Filters allow you to move groups of messages between folders based on e-mail address or content.
E-mail should be considered somewhat more formal than verbal communication. Always reread a message before sending it. Many E-mail programs now include a spell checker that can quickly find typo's and misspellings.
For more information about using Netscape Communicator, check out the tips at (chuh.org/Workshops/Email/mailtips.html) or attend an Instructional Institute Advanced E-mail workshop.
Class web sites provide a common area for general information about your class. Any staff member can get space on the HeightsNET Web server for a class web site. Many recent programs, can "save as" a web page (sometimes called HTML). Any documents you create for parents can be saved in a form that works on the web. You can also share student work (without personally identifiable information) and document class activities.
If you put time into maintaining your site, make sure you promote it in a "signature" at the end of every e-mail and paper communication you send out. Also tell the HeightsNET webmaster (webmaster@staff.chuh.org), so it can be added to the directory of staff web sites (www.chuh.org/staffdir/) and listed in What's New (www.chuh.org/main/new.lasso)
John Stephens, World History and Auto Mechanics at the High School has been maintaining a class web site for a number of years. When he schedules a class in the computer lab, he often creates a web page that the students use to begin their assignment. (heightshist.tripod.com/) and (www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Downs/5227/)
Ari Klein, a math teacher at Heights uses the web to communicate with his classes. He has put up a number of Powerpoint presentations that show what his students are doing. Microsoft Powerpoint (part of Office) has a "save as HTML" feature that converts your entire slide show into a web site. An index is created using the title of each slide. (www.chuh.org/staff/aklein/aklein.html) and (chuh.org/chhs/globe/main.htm)
Crystal Maclin, another Math teacher at Heights, uses the web to manage assignments in a pilot project using a web enabled database. Click on the assignment calendar for a particular class to try it out. (www.chuh.org/staff/cmaclin/)
Lou Polsinelli, Science teacher at the High School, maintains a class web site with a newsletter, assignments and annotated links for student to use. Lou uses e-mail, as well as the web site, to keep parents up-to-date (and remind students) of assignments and other class information.(www.geocities.com/l_polsi/)
Basha Bhatia and her class at Bellefaire put together an extensive resource on Cleveland area field trips that they took last year. (www.chuh.org/CleveAlive/)