In order for students to thrive, there needs to be positive relationships between families, students and teachers. This year I posted videos to develop and maintain effective relationships with families so that they understood I was able to address each students' story, strength and need. Here are ten times I utilized the video sharing option on Bloomz to connect with my parent community.

1. Year-End Video At the end of the year Bloomz provides premium members with a tool to create a video story. It's a compilation of photos, kind of like a digital scrapbook to share memories. I used the template to upload photos from my computer and Bloomz albums. Check out how to make your own on the Bloomz Blog: Year-End Videos Are Back![wpvideo 6GIsiQG4]
2. Proving Positive Social Interactions I've found a new benefit to posting videos in Bloomz Portfolios. This was a complex situation but in short, a parent worried her child had no friends at school. I knew the child was well-liked and engaging in successful social interactions. Because a teacher's word is not always enough, documents to back up observations are essential and Bloomz provides the platform for sharing them. In one week I posted three videos of this particular student enjoying learning experiences with a group of friends. The parent commented on the video posts with messages of gratitude.
3. Extra Credit HW Post by Students In my class we just finished reading Peter Brown’s novel The Wild Robot. Some questions I asked were, "What do you think it means that Roz is “programmed to survive? What parts of her programming allowed her to survive in the wilderness?" In an effort to keep students engaged in scientific thinking I offered an optional extra credit homework assignment. Students were instructed to find something in their home they'd like to program to survive in the wilderness and post a video on Bloomz explaining the code, details, or scientific thinking process. Once the videos were posted parents were viewing, commenting, and liking student presentations.
4. News Broadcast Students researched and wrote scripts about a newsworthy topic. They also created names for themselves and voted on a name for the newscast. I posted the video on Bloomz so parents could see the hard work each student put in. Check out the final product here: Space News 10 
5. Mother's Day Message To send all the moms lots of love over the weekend, students took a moment to say Happy Mother's Day on Friday. I posted a video of each kid giving a shout out to their mom. It ranged from "Thanks for all you do!" to "Thanks for letting me stay in your house, I know it's expensive." Kids, they say the darndest things! Along with the video posts I wrote a message of appreciation for the students and the gifts they bring to our classroom each day. 
6. Cultural Celebrations I spent the year assisting students in building a strong foundation of self-acceptance & identity so that they grow up and know that someone different than them is not a threat to their identity. Birthdays, holidays, cultural performances, and traditions were recognized and honored throughout the year. Whether it was a dance party or a parade I posted videos to keep parents involved.
7. STEM Challenge How do you keep an entire classroom of students engaged? Give them recyclable materials and ask them to create a Leprechaun Trap in teams. This is what I did on St. Patrick's Day and my whole class was busy working away for a good hour and a half straight. They could have gone the whole day talking about ramps, pulleys, distance, design, and probability.
8. 100 Day Collections This monumental day was documented to illustrate how students skip counted and sorted 100 items. Each student laid out the assortment of items in different patterns and then counted them out loud in front of the class to develop number fluency. I documented the collections of marshmallows, legos, toothpicks, and more!   
9. Hands On Math Lessons Along the same lines as the 100 day videos I continued documenting kinesthetic mathematical engagement. Constructing knowledge in mathematics does not always require a pencil and paper. In this case, students used skewers and clay to create a dodecahedron. It was such an exceptional and challenging lesson I had to post a video so parents would not miss the learning experience! 
10. Field Trips Special moments during our overnight camping trip were sent right to parents' devices. They knew what we were doing in the moment it was happening.  In this case my assistant posted videos so that I could focus on leading the trip. Teachers, co-teachers, room parents, and assistants can post videos on the classroom newsfeed.             Have you used video to connect with student families this year? If so, please comment in the section below.  Photo by Michael LaRosa on Unsplash