A Joint Effort: The Path To Raising A Child

There was a time when raising children required a village. Today, with the shift from a big household to a nuclear one has done away with the need for many people to rear children.

Yet, the combination of teacher and parent is still vital. Both separately play a crucial role in a young one’s life. Together they create a force to be reckoned with.

Earlier parents rarely had the time to interact, in depth, with each teacher of each of their children. It is why the five-minute interaction during a PTA meeting was the highlight of communication between the parent and the teacher. Slowly, people on both sides of the table realise that cramming a whole semester’s worth of information in one meeting is not sufficient. They now grasp that when the two sets talk and hash out things, the child blooms.

Collaboration between the school and home builds a holistic experience for the kids. When parents participate more, they influence the child who is critical to success. Since parents and teachers alike are expecting more out of communication, they are now looking for various ways to improve it, school app being one of them.  With the massive change technology has brought about in every sector, it is but logical that education utilises it too.

Different aspects of technology can aid:

• Reduce the interpersonal strain PTA meetings cause at times
• Disseminate the vast volume of data and information that piles up for every kid
• Encourage parents into more meaningful participation
• Improve the experience for the teacher, child, and parent

Technology That Alleviate Communication Challenges And Barriers

Time and distance are the biggest barriers to communication. Technology and the devices it births eradicate both of them. Using innovations, teachers (and parents) can improve the interactions in myriads of ways:

• Scheduling
• Sending students grades
• Allotting homework
• Sending private communication to parents

These are just the tip of the home-school communication iceberg. There are many more. Let’s take a look at two technologies that support parents in participating more in the education of their child.

1. Email : Email is a boon to schools. From the announcement of homework to submission of assignments, through it everything is possible. A digital classroom not only reduces the clutter and effort on the teacher’s part but also keeps the guardians in the loop. The use of emails is most prevalent in primary schools because it is the phase that requires maximum communication between teacher and parent.

School Parent Communication Apps: Leading The Future

While using emails may seem as old-school to many, considering we’ve been utilising them for official and personal communication for donkey’s years, there is a genuinely disruptive one:

2. Mobile Applications : The popularity of mobile communications apps in the educative world is increasing tremendously. We already use apps for everything ranging from ordering food to talking to loved ones sitting across oceans. This everyday use has gained its acceptance as a mode of communication between teachers and parents. When you open an app store, there are several School Parent Communication Apps. But chances are, the school of your child will recommend the one they use the most.

Technology is the new frontier for communication between school and home. It is appropriate for keeping parents updated in a plethora of techniques including video conferences, school websites, texts, social media, etc. It is thanks to this “frontier” that children are feeling positive about school, participating more, getting higher grades, and completing assignments.

The hope is as digital communication evolves and parent-teacher communication increases, the child benefits more. Already, it has been seen that kids whose parents are actively involved in school tend to fail less, have lower stress, require fewer disciplinary action and are rarely absent!