Recently we set down for a chat with Ayesha Grandison, Principal of Jolly Elementary in Dekalb County, Georgia.

"Throughout the years, there's been a certain level of ebb and flow. In my previous school where I was an assistant principal, we still utilized a paper-based method. Teachers were sending home a third-day folder, and progress reports. And of course, you have teachers that independently went over to other communication platforms and they would send out weekly progress reports and things of that nature, but it was nothing that was done school-wide.

TalkingPoints was one of them. I know when my child was in middle and high school, they utilized TalkingPoints as well. ClassDojo was another one that I saw teachers use independently, but I did not see any schools that were utilizing a particular platform for the entire school. It was always on an individual basis on behalf of the teacher.

Jolly Elementary is a very unique school community. We serve families that speak over 40 different languages and dialects. Finding a platform that has powerful translation tools was important to us. I looked at other platforms and they may have had a few, but they did not have enough of the languages that would fully support my student population.

I wanted to make sure that I was engaging as many families as possible. So having over 100 translation languages was incredible, and made it more comfortable for my parents to use the app. It made them feel like they were more part of the community because we were helping them keep engaged with their student's academic progress and success. 

One of the things that we utilize a lot at Jolly is posts and announcements for our families. I've also synced the calendar to our school calendar on the school website which has been very helpful. My teachers love to utilize the Bloomz photo gallery and make frequent use of the conference tool. I have recommended it to other schools.

I think it's a wonderful tool. Overall we have been incredibly happy and our parents are more engaged than ever. I can highly recommend Bloomz for your school or district!"