It's common practice for teachers to send a weekly email with curriculum and event updates to class families. Other than work, I can’t think of any other situation in life where a person would receive weekly emails with a plethora of important dates to remember. These dates I’m referring to directly effect a child’s learning and social experiences at school. Although I'm not a parent, I try to put myself in their shoes when I write my weekly updates. We'd have teacher meetings where we strategize ways to organize these emails so that parents read them. We'd try to do things like put the list of reminders in bold or put the important dates at the beginning of the email rather than the end.

This week I discovered the magic of scheduling announcements on Bloomz. I started writing my weekly email as usual and listing the dates with reminders. After the third bullet point I thought, “Wouldn’t it be great if I could give parents one bit of information at a time?” Why not create ONE announcement to pin at the top of my class page for each specific reminder? And guess what! I don’t have to tell parents all the dates at the same time! I can schedule announcements to post on days and times that relate directly to that event. On top of that, I can schedule that announcement to disappear when I need it to!

For example, I am going to need students to bring in tri-fold boards to set up their cultural fair projects in April. I also need chaperones for a field trip coming up and I need to remind my students to bring in their instruments on Tuesdays. These are JUST THREE asks/reminders that I need to communicate to families in the upcoming weeks. So rather than giving them a list of tasks with dates I scheduled the tri-fold board post to happen early April. I scheduled the instrument reminder for Monday before music and I scheduled the April class calendar to come out March 30th.

Now that I’ve scheduled these announcements I feel confident in knowing my communications will be revealed bit-by-bit at relevant times. These messages will not get lost in an unread or glazed over email. The announcements will stay at the top of my Bloomz classroom page for as long as I need parents to see them. Furthermore I like that I can sit down with my calendar for 20-30 minutes and schedule all the announcements I will need to make through the end of the school year. And just like that they will pop up right when my families need to know the info! I’m excited to schedule out the rest of the school year, not only because my families will be updated, but because I will be reminded as well. Scheduling announcements with Bloomz helps me organize information for class families and saves me time.

Have you scheduled announcements in your Bloomz classroom page yet? If so how has it revolutionized your parent teacher communication? Please share your comments in the section below.