Is Anyone Listening? (Part 4 of 4)

by recesstec classroom management email tips writing

Monday Morning Message ~ 2-28-2011

Your Distribution List is made, and you are ready to send out your first note.

Remember, you promised your parents that you would keep their email addresses confidential!

It’s easy and the secret is…

Bcc (or “Blind Carbon Copy”).

The benefits of sending emails to recipients using the Bcc Option is that it

   1. keeps addresses confidential;

   2. protects recipients from receiving spam; and

   3. protects recipients from receiving a reply when
someone accidentally selects “Reply All”.

When writing your note, address it to yourself using your school address.
Next, choose the Bcc Option, and use the Distribution List contact name as the recipient.

Another benefit of using this option is that you will also receive a copy of your note, in addition to the one that is in your “Sent Folder”.

One more reminder:

You might want to use the day/date as your Subject.
This also helps parents keep track of notes/reminders.
If your note contains important information or deadline reminders, you might want to use that as your subject to get their attention.

You are now on the road to being heard, and more important, they are listening!

Have a great week!

Is Anyone Listening? (Part 3 of 4)

by recesstec classroom management email tips

Monday Morning Message ~ 2-21-2011

Great! Every one of your parents responded to your email address request!

Now how in the world are you going to email every single one of those people every single day?

The answer is easy.

It’s called a “Distribution List”.

I have included step-by-step images and instructions to help you create this time-saver.

Finally, be sure to check back next Monday to see how to keep your parent emails confidential!

If this Monday you are observing Presidents’ Day with a day off from school, enjoy your day,
and be sure to do something for yourself…

Step 1


Step 2


Step 3


Step 4


Step 5

Is Anyone Listening? (Part 2 of 4)

by recesstec classroom management email tips

Monday Morning Message ~ 2-7-2011

You read the word, “Email” last week, and now you will begin to see how a daily email note to your parents will solve a lot of “communication” problems.
Let’s start with the necessary steps to begin the implementation of your new system.

The first day of student attendance is quickly approaching.
Your weekends and days are filled with organizing your room, finalizing first lesson plans, and memorizing your student names on your new class list.
As youParent Signature Needed! fill your students’ “First Day Folders”, make sure you include the “Parent Email Note”.

Your “Parent Email Note” is the first step.

Send home this note on the first day, and then present it to your parents at the first Parent Orientation Night or Open House.
This note must be your first priority at starting your new year.
Getting every parent “onboard” is essential.
Remind them they can use any email address.
They may also use as many as they want.

Notice in your note that you make three promises.

Promise #1: Keep their email address confidential.

Promise #2: Write daily.

Promise #3: Don’t, and again, NEVER spam your parents’ in-boxes.

Remember many of your parents are professionals, as we are.
They use their emails to conduct business.
Also, an increasing number of parents receive their email on their cell phones.
Keep it short, and keep it simple.

Below we have provided a link to a template of the “Parent Email Note”.
Please feel free to adapt and use this to get started on the road to the best school year yet.

Finally, join us next week to learn how to keep the three promises.

ParentEmailNoteTemplate

Is Anyone Listening? (Part 1 of 4)

by recesstec classroom management email tips

Monday Morning Message ~ 1-31-2011

You work hard writing, editing, and finally publishing your class newsletter. It’s filled with important topics like field trips, your week in review, and students’ upcoming tests.

Picture AND fundraiser money are due, and the permission slips for next week’s field trip.

Top that off with finding just the right piece of clip art and seasonal font, to make YOUR newsletter something you are sure will be kept in a memory box forever.

The reality is that today’s parents are different than yours were.
And all of your hard work is failing.

Parents are busy just like you.

Do you want to get through to parents?
Do you want to save trees?
Do you want to regain some of your busy life?

Everyone is busy every day all of the time.
That includes your students and their families.
Most of the time, student book bags are cleaned out, and after your notes and newsletters are skimmed through quickly, they go straight into the trash after mom or dad asks, “Hey, do we need this paper anymore, or can I throw it away?”

You have to get with the times if you want to get through to your students’ parents.

Face it.
The days of the mimeograph and ditto machines are over.
Telephone calls take up too much time, and callbacks waste even more of your precious time.

The solution to all of this is email.

We can’t wait until next Monday when we will continue with our four-part series to help you set up a quick system to get you on the road to productive, easy communication with your students and their parents.

In the meantime, enjoy your Monday, your week, and your students!

Splitting the Text

by recesstec SMARTBoard tips writing

Monday Morning Message ~ 1-24-2011

We have found a great hidden tool within the SMART Notebook 10 Lesson Activity Toolkit. Called the “Text Splitter”, it will split up sentences into words, or words into individual letters.

After you have placed this little tool onto a new page in your Notebook document, simply highlight text from a document or from the Internet, copy it, and paste it onto your page. Next, drag it into the text splitter window. Choose to split it into words or letters, and your text is instantly interactive.

Do you already have spelling lists typed in a Word document? Now you can drag each word into the “Splitter” to instantly separate it so your students can respell it.

 

For another idea on using this tool in a Language Arts lesson, watch this quick little video. To get the “big picture” we suggest you watch it in “Full Screen” mode.

We welcome any comments to share how you might use this new “BFF”.

Stretching the Limits

by recesstec Photography tips

Monday Morning Message ~ 1-17-2011

You have taken a picture of each of your students to put on the front cover of their individual annual classroom memory book. All year long you have captured images of your kiddos doing creative, educational, and innovative activities. You open your favorite publishing program to put it all together with the clock ticking away. So many pictures, so little time, and so many pages. You insert your pictures, re-size, move them all around to make them fit, and write your captions.

Finished.

But wait! Did your students go to the local amusement park and stand in front of the crazy mirrors? They are all too wide, or stretched too long. That is definitely NOT the look you are going for.

I saw this exact thing happen walking through the teacher workroom last May. The parent volunteer was assembling the books, and was not happy with how her child looked.

Here is a simple solution:

  1. When resizing any object, whether it is a picture, a shape, or a text-box, grab a corner, and hold down the shift key while dragging it to enlarge or make it smaller. This will retain the proportion of your image/shape in one easy step. Your pictures will look great, and you will look like you know what your are doing!
  2. This works across most programs such as SMART Notebook 10 and all Microsoft Office applications.

So with that, start working on those “End of Year” projects now, a little here and a little there, and if we can help in any way, just email us.

Have fun this week!

Monday Morning Message ~ 1-10-2011

by recesstec Blog reflections tips

Monday Morning Message ~ 1-10-2011

With the new year, and some changes we foresee, the “Recess TEC Team” is making a new commitment.We have questions, too...

We are both asked many questions as we travel to different schools for training and presentations.
Our in-boxes are filled with more questions, and…
we often ask ourselves questions.

The difference between the questions we are asked, and the questions we ask ourselves is that;

1. most of the time we know the answers to questions asked, and
2. of the questions we have for ourselves, we know where to get the answers.

So Recess TEC has decided to share ideas, tips, suggestions, websites, and thoughts that might help you facilitate technology in your classrooms.
Our goal is to make technology fun for you and your students. We have worked with teachers who are frustrated with technology and have grown discouraged when they can’t get it to “work”.
What we do best is to break it down to the “least common denominator” and add fun and enthusiasm.
We always include things that are free, practical, appropriate, and relevant.

When we learn new things, we get excited about teaching.
And when we are excited about teaching,
our students are excited about learning.

So, check back with us each Monday, and we look forward to some “recess” time with you.