Welcome back, educators! As the new school year begins, we’re thrilled you’ve chosen ClassTag to help you with family engagement!

With your ClassTag School Launch Kit, you will be ready to get everyone on board ClassTag’s free family communication platform in 3 easy steps:

1. Setting up your School and Classroom
2. Invite teachers and staff
3. Bring parents onboard

ClassTag School Launch Kit

1. Setting Up Your School

Go ahead, become a ClassTag Leader, and claim your school on ClassTag.com:

• If you need help locating your school or want to become a District Leader on ClassTag, please send a note to support@classtag.com, and we will promptly assist you.
• If you have already signed up as a teacher, add your classroom to a school or reach out to support@classtag.com to help you get connected if the school has been claimed
• If you have not signed up for ClassTag, sign up as a leader and claim your school

Interested in using ClassTag Schoolwide? ClassTag Connect can help you do just that!

2. Invite teachers and administrators

Invite school leaders and teachers right from the school page so they can connect instantly. ClassTag Leaders will be able to access and manage everything on ClassTag, while teachers you invite can only add other teachers and create their classrooms.

Now that your school is set up, it’s time for the Launch Party! Here’s a handy Classroom Launch Checklist to keep everything organized!

What to bring to the party?

You’ll want to begin with a video showing what ClassTag is about. This short video is perfect for introducing ClassTag to your school and highlighting its benefits.

Have a bit more time for a presentation and comparison vs. other communication solutions? We’ve got you covered!

• Here’s a powerful presentation you can share that outlines the key ClassTag benefits
• Flyer that gives an excellent ClassTag overview
• Flyer that helps you compare ClassTag vs. other tools

Now is a great time to open up your ClassTag account and show off the next steps for teachers.

• Create classes right from the school page (you can do so for them as ClassTag Leader, or they can themselves)
• Invite co-teachers, specialty teachers, or support facilitators to classes (from the directory page in that class, click “+teacher”)
• Show teachers how to add student lists, parent contacts

If teachers are ready to go ahead of the meeting, you can use the time to help everyone get set up right on the spot! In this case, here are a few party favorites that teachers should bring:

• Roster with students and parent contacts (to invite on the spot);
• List of holidays, days off, and planned school activities (to be set up as events);
• Resources you want to share with parents (i.e., study packet, printables, or links to valuable resources)

You can read on for additional resources below that will guide you step by step.

Student list and parent contacts

To join ClassTag, you must have a student roster for each class or group. To add a student roster and invite parents, a school leader or a teacher will need to click on a class name from the school page or left-side navigation and go to the Directory tab.

There are three ways you can invite parents to join ClassTag:

1. Copy & paste student names and parent emails using a template

2. Enter students’ and parents’ emails or cell phone numbers manually

3. Copy & paste or enter manually the student list and print flyers with codes for parents to join.

Helpful resources:

• How can I create a student list and invite parents?
• Can I send invitations via SMS, email or both?
• How can I send invitations in different languages?

List of holidays and planned activities

Wouldn’t it be great to post all your activities at once and then sit back and see parents’ responses, RSVPs, and volunteers coming your way? It is possible with ClassTag! To take full advantage of ClassTag’s smart automation (which automatically create an upcoming week at a glance), you will need to load up as many activities as you can. Here are a few ideas:

• Set up Events for days off, tests, important assignments, community events, dress-up days, parties with multiple types of volunteers, meet the teacher night, etc.
• Organize volunteer requests for field trips, snacks, item donations, virtual read-aloud, etc.
• Use parent-teacher conferences for activities that require families to pick a time slot, such as welcome calls, weekly check-ins, parent-teacher, or student-led conferences. Remember: You can easily schedule virtual meetings with Google Meet and Calendar integrations!
• Create To-Dos for any submissions required from parents, e.g., permission slips, forms, health records, and more! You can easily store and share important documents with Google Drive and a virtual student backpack.

Helpful resources:

• What activities can I organize with ClassTag?
• How can I organize parent-teacher conferences?

Resources to share with parents

Adding handy resources in a visible place for parents to reference is a great way to streamline communications.  An easy way to share these resources is by using ClassTag’s Library and Quick Links.

ClassTag’s Quick Links is a visible place for parents to reference classroom information, such as conferencing links, Google Classroom links, resources, etc. ClassTag’s Library is your all-in-one resource hub for both parents and teachers. With the Library, you can safely store and share files with parents, individually or with the whole class.

Helpful resources:

• What communications can I do with ClassTag?
• How can I communicate in different languages?

PRO TIP: Like schools, you can customize your classroom cover photo, avatar and profile picture. For online teachers: consider changing your cover photo to a picture of your virtual classroom and your profile picture to a picture of your Bitmoji avatar!

3. Launch with parents

It’s GO time! Parents have been invited to ClassTag, and it is the time to build excitement and help parents utilize the program to stay on track with school happenings and connect with the teachers and each other.

Amazing news! Once parents are invited to join ClassTag, they start receiving all communications and can sign up anytime to see more pictures, pick a conference slot or send a message. This way, you can quickly reach all parents.

PRO TIP: Once you invite parents to join ClassTag, send a welcome announcement. It should say how important it is to join ClassTag, benefits for parents and a link to how to use it for parents. You can send it individually for each class and pin it for easy reference at the top of the Home tab.

Helpful resources:

• How can I introduce ClassTag to parents? + Flyer + Meet the Teacher Presentation
• What can parents do on ClassTag?

PRO TIP: If you have a meet-the-teacher night (even if you have it virtually), check out our resource on Having a Successful Back to School Night!

With this Launch Kit, you are guaranteed to unite teachers and parents in every child’s success and make this collaboration simple and joyful! Now you can reach and engage every parent, regardless of their device, with relevant, timely, and personalized communications.

Need some help?

We are just a step away at support@classtag.com if you need to reach us.