subject: How To Let Parents Know What's For Homework On A Daily Basis [print this page] I have always had problems with parents telling us that they never know if their child has homework or not. Students aren't always forthcoming about what assignments they have to do that night. I knew that most of the parents of my students had access to the Internet, so I thought of creating a web page that had the homework listed on it. I found, however, that I could never find the time to update it on a daily basis. With all the other tasks that had to be done in the class or after school, it just wasn't getting done. That's when I stumbled upon the perfect way of notifying parents what homework their child was expected to complete each day. Here it is:
1. Create a Blog. There are many sites that offer free blogs. I use Blogger.com. If you're not tech savvy, then have a student create it. It's easy. Trust me.
2. After creating an account, select TWO responsible students to be in charge of it. These students should have good spelling and grammar skills. We all have those awesome students who write like they're in college. Select two of these students. You will need two, so that in case one is absent, the other can handle the job. Very rarely do I have a day when both students are absent.
3. Once you have selected you two students, give them the username and password to the blog. I would use a password that is different from the password you have for your personal email account. It should be something that is easy to remember, such as the name of the school, the name of the mascot, etc.
4. Select a specific time of the day when these students will update the blog. I use a time just before lunch. If you tell them to update it "whenever," you're going to find that "whenever" never shows up on some days. Make sure it's a specific time every day. These students will then sit at your computer and update the blog. At my school, we work in teams, so my students will go to each teacher on the team to get their homework, and then they will add it to the blog post. After the first week, I have the students take turns updating the blog. It doesn't take two students to do this job.
5. Finally, I give the web address of the blog to the parents, so they can confirm that their child is not lying to them when they say that they have no homework.
It's worked great for me and my team. Parent love it. Teachers love it. Students are not that crazy about it, but it is a great communication tool that we use to keep the students on track, and the best part of it is that I don't have to do any work after the initial set up.
