For my final project, I wanted to continue working on something that I started in a previous class. My project was initially created to see how consistent communication between teachers and families could have a positive impact on student engagement. Communicating with families is something that I feel is very important, but I wanted to focus on it through a slightly different lens. I wanted to create something that could also allow my students to be in the process of the home and school communication. I typically use texts, calls, parent square updates, and posts on Class Dojo to communicate with the families. But my communication has always been directly to the parents or guardians of students with no student voice involved. I also noticed that there was a bit of a gap between who I was communicating with, I was most frequently reaching out to families of students who had IEP's, and of students who had been needing consistent behavior support. Families of other students did not get frequent and specific information from me. I was beginning to wonder what that silence may have felt like to those families, and also the students who may have noticed that I was not communicating with their families.
I believe learning doesn't stop when students leave the classroom. A child's engagement can be shaped by whether the adults around them are on the same page, but I also believe a child isn't just the subject of that conversation. They're a participant in it, with a perspective that is worth asking for, even at the elementary level when students are beginning to realize the power of having a choice. I teach at Achievement First’s Providence Elementary on the West end of Providence. Achievement First is a district that has high expectations for every student which can become overwhelming for students and teachers at times. I wanted a communication system that could possibly help us manage those expectations with all parties in the know of what was happening in the learning process. The school that I work at is very diverse, and around 70% of the students identify as Hispanic/Latino. Many students are also first generation and multilingual learners. They often act as translators and messengers between school and home already. That role gives them a front row seat to home and school communication. This is a perspective that many adults, myself included, may rarely stop to think about while we think of our students' own involvement in updating and informing their parents in the process of home and school communication.
My initial question for this project asked “How can home and school communication impact student engagement?” I wanted to see how ensuring that all students' families had clear and consistent communication would be able to help students in their own engagement. My original research included me communicating with each student's family on a weekly basis. But I realized that having a class of 31 students would make this extremely overwhelming. I am lucky to work at a school where I have almost 2 hours of prep each day, some of which is used to communicate with families in the first place. But I wanted to give myself more grace with this project. I do enjoy communicating with families of students, but I did not want myself to become overwhelmed with the process or to see communication with the families as a burden on me. After doing some more thinking on this project, I reframed my question and the question became; “How can biweekly home and school communication, shaped by student input impact belonging and engagement?”. I didn't want to only use grades or my own perspectives to update families. I want to share how students experience their own education as well.
Starting this class, I labeled myself as a techno-traditionalist. I usually send information using some type of digital platform. My curriculum is all digital and our gradebook is digital. However, this project pushed me towards using technology that I am already provided by my district in deeper ways than I had initially used it. The project itself will be a structured biweekly communication system, matched to each family's preferred tool. It will all be built around student reflection and self-directed portfolios created using Class Dojo Portfolios. It is important to me that students sit at the center of this system. Class Dojo Portfolios are a space where students themselves upload photos, make videos, create their own presentations and more showing their growth over time. It's no longer just me reporting on a student and what I think the student has learned. It's the student sharing in their own words and in the way that makes the most sense to them. Using these short, kid-friendly tools on Class Dojo, a quick check-in, a review of their portfolio entry, is going to be new for me. However, there is allotted time in the day where we will be able to work on this during the school day. It means treating students as informants on their own experience, which is something I had not thought of doing before this project.
This project centers student voice first. Biweekly student reflections, their self-made portfolios will feed directly into what will be communicated home. In this project I would also like to survey families to make sure that they are being accommodated and receiving communication less if they prefer monthly updates instead. I feel like a lot of my experience as a first year educator has been unlearning things that I have been taught. I had to unlearn a lot about my own assumptions about engagement being good grades or the student that is always raising their hand and participating in class. It is also the effort that students are putting in, and the sense of belonging that students feel in their own classrooms. I know that tech in the classroom is something that can be scary. But they are surrounded by the media from an extremely early age. According to Education Week, by the third grade many students will already have their own personal device, and about a quarter of them already have their own cell phones. It is important that we implement tech literacy skills when we are able to. When it is used with intention, technology can provide some beneficial and unique opportunities in the classroom, we can allow students to reflect on their own education using the tools that we are provided by our schools. Digital tools can help them to build their voice.
A video from the course that helped guide me is finding your why. My why has always been my family. I grew up taking ESL classes and had to be a translator for my parents, like some of my students. My what is providing families with adequate information on their child's education, and providing my students with the opportunity to advocate for themselves. This course pushed me from communicating about students to communicating with them. I'm still a tech traditionalist at heart since I am still figuring out different ways I can implement technology in the classroom while making sure I am helping raise digitally literate citizens. But this class has pushed me to view technology in the classroom through a more positive lens. This system enhances my practice because it closes a loop that used to leave one person out: the student. Families get accessible biweekly updates through tools upgraded to fit them, plus a portfolio of the student's own growth that has been designed by their child. Through this, teachers can also get a clearer picture. Students write their own story. My project is evidence of a belief I hold firmly: students should be at the center of our conversations, after all it is their education we are talking about. It is important that we make sure we are giving them some type of opportunity to truly feel like they are at the center of it all.
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