It was the summer of August 2015 when I started working at a new school, West Seattle Montessori and Academy. I landed the position as a Lower Elementary Teacher of a class called The Horned Owls. There were two other owl themed classes, Barn and Snowy. All three owl crews were made up of students in first through third grade. I had subbed all over the Seattle Public School district and taught a year of Kindergarten prior to this experience so I had a deep understanding of the social-emotional developmental stages of my future students. Plus, at this school I received the benefit of working with an assistant teacher. We turned out to be a first-rate fit, both eager to learn the ropes of a new school and equipped with positive attitudes. It was her first year at the school too. I think Robyn summed it up perfectly at a staff meeting one day when she said, "Jude and I are a great team because she is musical and I can reach the top shelf!"

Jude Miqueli and Robyn Morlock September 2015

On this particular professional development day in late summer, I sat in a fluorescent lit pre-school classroom trying my best to get comfortable in a student chair along with a room full of teachers. Our director introduced Horacio Ochoa, head of marketing at Bloomz. She met him while at a conference earlier that summer. He proceeded to give us a tutorial on our new parent-teacher communication app. My ears perked up. In all my experiences working at schools we never had an app to communicate with parents. Quite the contrary, cell phones were banned. It was too bad because I had all these ideas about innovating parent-teacher communication with social networking. Now there I was being instructed on how to use it! Squee!

Right off the bat, I wanted to know everything about Bloomz. I did not need convincing nor did I mind a change. I wanted to learn all that I could about this new technology and advance it to the best of my ability. I became an ambassador for Bloomz so that I could be  informed of the upcoming innovations and relay that information to my colleagues. Technology and education is what I am passionate about so I am proud to be a representative from West Seattle Montessori for this matter. Since becoming an ambassador I have received benefits that enrich my career and experience as a teacher. For example, the ambassador program requires attendance at webinars. In these webinars I receive information that I can directly apply to my classroom instruction, behavior management, and parent communication. Furthermore, I find that when I write on what is happening in my classroom for Bloomz, it magnifies my self-reflection process which is critical to being an effective teacher.

Horned Owl Classroom at West Seattle Montessori

Before school started I walked around the building to check in with each teacher to see if they had any questions about Bloomz. My goal was to show each teacher how to import the school calendar to their Bloomz classroom page. I figured it was something I could offer the staff and unity in a school community creates a more supportive environment for students. I spent 5-10 minutes in each classroom, developed stronger relationships with my colleagues, and set up the whole school community's calendars. Not to mention it was healthy to get out of my classroom and stretch my legs by walking around the building. An easy task that energizes me and improves the social relations of my school community, I'll take it!

Bloomz is an intuitive and modern parent-teacher communication app that every school should implement. It's all encompassing. With Bloomz teachers and schools streamline  communication needs such as sign-up tools, calendars, messaging, assessment, and much more. Dolores, the main office attendant at my school uses a typewriter to print documents and has an AOL email domain. She effectively uses Bloomz everyday to communicate with our entire school community. There is no excuse! You can do it too! And so can every member of your staff. What are you waiting for? Download Bloomz and save time by having all the tools you need to communicate with today's parents in one easy-to-use (free) app.

Is your school using Bloomz already? Tell us how it's changed the way you communicate with parents in the comments section below!