Integrates current information and communication technologies
1. Every student in the elementary school has an emergency card. These are kept in the office, but are easily accessible to the school staff. On the day of our field trip, one of my students (the only one) had not brought back his signed permission slip. I asked S for his home phone number so I could call the ask his parents to bring the signed form to school, but he did not remember he phone number. I was able to run to the office and grab the phone number listed on his emergency card. He is an ELL whose parents speak only Spanish, which is when resources come in handy, like the staff who work in the migrant office and are bilingual. Always knowing that these cards are accessible to me in case I need to call a parent eases my mind.
2. Email can be a key form of communication between teachers and parents, simply because of the ease of working around schedules. I can write an email when the time is convenient for me and the parent can read it and write back when the time is convenient for him/her. My favorite thing about email communication is the ability to send a quick email to a parent to check in and simply say, “Your child did a great job this week on her math skills. She really put in a lot of effort and I saw great improvement in understanding.” It really makes the parent excited to hear good things about their children, and I feel that it builds a bond between teacher and parent.