How much is too much?
The days of progress reports and report cards are over. Some apps have come online that better facilitate the flow of information between teachers and parents. It’s now possible for parents to receive up-to-the-minute information about their child’s progress and behavior, as well as communicate with the teacher. If you like the idea of one or all of these, ask your child’s teacher.
Class Dojo started as a way for teachers to keep track of their classroom management success. Did Johnny stay in his seat during the video? Give him a point. Did he give someone a wet willy while waiting in the lunch line? Knock him down one. Its goal was to take something fairly ambiguous and subjective—classroom behavior—and analyze it.
Then they opened it up to parents. They can now check the website or app to their hearts’ content, depending on how committed the teacher is to updating the data. My daughter’s teacher, for example, carries Class Dojo on her iPad and updates it constantly. Frankly, it makes me a little nervous. That being said, if your child needs a little more monitoring than average (perhaps for a learning disability), it can really be a useful tool.
The majority of the millennial generation prefers to receive their information electronically, particularly via text. Calls home every night from teachers tend to be sent to voicemail and then ignored.
Remind is a private texting service that assigns the teacher a unique private phone number. Parents subscribe to the teacher’s Remind list with their own numbers, then they can receive blanket or personalized texts from the teacher while still having their private numbers protected. Messages can be anything from “School pictures tomorrow” to “Johnny had a bad day today…”
Your child’s teacher might already use Edmodo for many of their classroom activities, like keeping calendars and collaborating with students and colleagues. What you don’t know is that you can also have a parent account so you can participate in some of these activities—or just keep up with what’s going on. Grades, assignments, and calendars are all available, as is secure messaging between parents and teachers.
How much is too much?
Of course, this opens up questions about information overload. Helicopter parents can basically upgrade to rocket fuel. Even casual parents can find themselves bringing up the app or website more frequently that they should. Then, how many things do you bring up to your child when they get home from school? Not every transgression requires a response.