Connection is Key

I think one of the most important concepts to bring into your classroom is connection.

Being connected to your students, your students' parents, your colleagues, etc is key because it allows you to share what's happening inside the classroom easily, making sure parents are up to date. It also allows parents to communicate easily with you; sharing questions, comments or concerns.

A simple way to do this is to create a class website. This is what my CT did. Here you can see what the students are up to. The main pages are not super up to date but one feature that is continually updated is the featured student tab. This tab features a new student in the class each week. The feature student creates a short bio about themselves with basic facts and pictures. The other students then access this, read through it, and leave comments or question, which the feature student can also respond to.

I like the idea of having a class Weebly because it's free, easy to access, and easy to edit. The trouble will be keeping up with it while keeping up with everything else during the year. There are other forms of communication between teachers and parents but I feel like having a Weebly with today's technology is of great benefits.