Engaging Families Through Bloomz

Sponsored post, Opinions are my own

Since March of 2020, educators around the world have been working to improve their practices when it comes to staying connected with families. A big concern during school closures was effectively and consistently communicating with students and families and finding the right tools without overwhelming everyone.

So why does consistent communication matter? When it comes to family engagement, research shows that it is the most accurate predictor of student success. During the past school year, as we experienced transitioning learning environments, fostering a home-to-school connection was essential. With students shifting between virtual, hybrid, and in-person instruction, having a consistent way to communicate and provide support for our learners was critical. As a result of these learning environment transitions, students experienced varying degrees of what has been referred to as “learning loss.” Finding ways to address learning loss or gaps in learning have become highly popular topics in education. In a study released by Mackenzie, it was estimated that an average student lost nine months of math instruction, with other content areas also seeing an impact on students’ overall academic achievement. While student learning was adversely impacted in some ways, we need to focus on the positives that we experienced as a result. What did we gain?

Importance of family engagement

Because of a heightened awareness of the need for consistent communication and having a consistent and reliable space to obtain information and resources, educators and families connected and supported one another during this challenging time. Educators found a variety of tools to facilitate communications, provide information and share class resources with families. As a way to prevent learning loss / support the learning process, educators can select the right tools to engage families in learning and help them to support their students at home and to strengthen the home to school community. Research shared talked about learning gaps as a result of school closures and the changes in instructional space and time. So the question is “how can teachers help students with areas where they need extra support? Using a tool that can help foster the home to school connection is essential so that teachers can share learning as it’s happening, provide families with information about student progress, identify students that may need some additional support, and focus on promoting student wellness and setting students up for success.

Choosing the right tool

To connect home to school, there were many apps being used by teachers and the use of so many technology tools is amplified with multiple school-aged children in the family. Apps which helped to support students as they learned while at home, to exchange information with families, to complete the clerical tasks such as attendance, grading and more. In some cases, educators were using a different app for each task. Some schools use an attendance tool, an online gradebook, a messaging app, various assessment tools, and perhaps even an LMS or class website. In addition to these school-wide uses, there are many other ways that teachers are using technology. With so much information being exchanged, it’s important to have a reliable, consistent and centralized space for families and educators to connect. An all-in-one space that enables many of these different tasks to be done helps to reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed that can happen with the use of so much technology.

When used with schools, Bloomz facilitates district and schoolwide communication. Bloomz is an easy-to-use, modern, social-like, unified School-to-Home communication system to reach all stakeholders in one-place providing the control, security, oversight and configurability you need! It enables schools to streamline a lot of the other apps and tools they might be using. Research from Project Tomorrow reported that 88% of administrators saw a positive impact from communicating with families via social media, while 66% of parents preferred emails or phone messages as communication. With Bloomz, schools and families can communicate in ways that meet their preferences. Bloomz is focused on individual parent needs and provides a choice for how they get their information (SMS text, email, and voice) in an easy to navigate platform that is fully available on any device.

What makes Bloomz different

Bloomz provides multiple school apps in an all in one centralized platform which helps to improve communication, engage parents and families, and save time by using less to achieve more. With features such as messaging, student assignments and portfolios, behavior management, a calendar, parent teacher conference sign ups and volunteer signups, families can be fully engaged in the learning experience of their child. To further engage families in daily learning, teachers can send photos and videos of activities and school events as they are happening which keeps parents informed in real time. Bloomz also offers language translation in more than 100 languages. Teachers can use the calendar to quickly create an event which includes permission slips, sign-up sheets, and have the ability to track RSVPS or force smart reminders.

So why should schools choose Bloomz?

Bloomz is a teacher tool that integrates features such as a messaging app, calendar, event planner and more into one safe and user-friendly platform. Bloomz enables educators and parents to communicate through messaging instantly, privately, and as often as needed. It can be used at the classroom level and by administrators at the school or district level to facilitate communication with teachers, staff, and parents, whether individually, in groups or to the entire school/district. The Bloomz administrator dashboard centralizes essential information such as contactability, deliverability, attendance and behavior with reports to focus on what matters most.

At the school and district level, being able to provide everything that students and families need through a comprehensive program and in a manner that parents and families choose is important. The entire school community benefits by having a consistent and efficient program in place that meets the needs and preferences of each of its members. Check out Bloomz to build your home-to-school community.

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Originally published at http://rdene915.com on February 14, 2022.