Classroom Insights / May 25, 2023
Family Engagement Plan Examples: Supp...
Educational leaders today are often like scientists in the lab, mixing and testing messaging apps, phoning, creating…
7 min read
Reaching parents and keeping them engaged was already challenging, without the added burden of helping them support their child through hybrid learning.
Whether that child is learning completely online or in a blended environment that combines online elements along with learning in a classroom, it’s important that you have the right platform and tools to easily communicate and share resources with parents. If we’re going to fight an ever-widening achievement gap that has been added to by the COVID crisis, we need to reach, engage and share learning resources with every parent in the class!
Comparing different platforms can be overwhelming, so we’ve pulled together a comparison of the parent engagement essentials, to help you make the right choice for your classroom community.
How is supporting hybrid learning on ClassTag different from Remind?
ClassTag is a free parent-teacher communication platform with everything you need to reach, engage and support every parent, no matter what back-to-school brings. We have been, and always will be about parent-teacher connections.
Remind’s focus is on “two-way communication” sending parents and students phone texts.
Of course, when choosing a platform, you probably want one that has robust online parent-teacher communication capabilities!
Comparing features for supporting parent participation and engagement
Teachers are struggling to get in touch with parents while parents are stretched thin and don’t have time to learn new platforms.
ClassTag is perfect for teachers looking for an all-in-one parent communication tool that supports parent participation and engagement in any scenario. Our users love that they can use ClassTag to reach every parent with messages, announcements, event-coordination, sharing student work and more. Now, with the built in Google integrations, teachers have the ability to schedule parent-teacher conferences complete with Google Meet and can send messages through ClassTag without ever leaving Google Classroom!
ClassTag has been extremely helpful, because it is such an easy and effective way for us to keep parents up to date and be able to check in with them during this difficult time.
Jennifer Lutz, Middle School Teacher
Which can help me minimize the achievement gap?
Parent engagement and participation is one of the top indicators of student achievement. Reaching every parent of a hybrid learning student can be even more difficult than in a traditional classroom setting and can put students at risk of slipping behind.
Which is more accessible for parents?
Parent access to technology can have a major impact on important communications. Communication between teachers and parents can only happen via cell phone texting on Remind, whereas ClassTag can reach parents through email, SMS, paper, mobile or web app.
Communicating with ELL parents of hybrid or online students can be challenging, but ClassTag makes it easy to communicate with automatic language translation into over 100 languages. While Remind users can receive messages that are translated, two-way language translation on Remind is a paid feature.
ClassTag also gives teachers smart, actionable alerts and recommendations, ensuring they are able to connect with harder to reach parents. With read receipts and parent-engagement stats, you can focus on the parents who are not receiving messages or participating, and may need additional support and follow-up. Remind has read receipts, but does not have a comprehensive way to target parents who need extra support with engagement statistics.
Which is better for Google Schools or Google Classroom educators?
Like Google Classroom and Google’s suite of tools, ClassTag is completely free for teachers and parents. We know how important it is for teachers to have access to a free stack of tools, and we’ve designed ClassTag to integrate with the full Google suite in a seamless way.
Google Integrations
ClassTag’s integration with Google Classroom and Google’s suite of tools keeps parents in the loop without any added frustration for you, the teacher.
With ClassTag’s integration with Google Classroom, teachers can save time with roster-syncing, with only having to add parents and students once! Additionally, teachers can direct message ClassTag parents with automatic translation in over 100+ languages, without ever leaving Google Classroom.
ClassTag helps streamline file sharing, scheduling and conferencing through integrations with Google Drive, Meet and Calendar.
Remind integrates Google Classroom, Google Drive and YouTube to simplify file and link sharing, but does not integrate or sync with Google Meet or Google Calendar. Teachers and parents using Remind would need to use a multitude of platforms to support all the benefits ClassTag offers parents and teachers.
Need to hold events and conferences that ALL parents will attend? (Even online)
ClassTag makes scheduling in-person or remote conferences and events a breeze by allowing parents and teachers to pick times that work for their schedule.
Events and conference times will automatically sync with Google Calendar and add a conferencing link through Google Meet. This helps parents keep track of important event and conference information, all in one place.
When using Remind, teachers will have to use other platforms for coordinating events and conferences.
How can I share student work with parents?
Remind works with their partners to directly link and share work whereas ClassTag has a portfolio of student work within it’s platform. ClassTag’s virtual student backpacks house student work, but also provide a safe and secure area for important documents with a FERPA and COPPA Certification from iKeepSafe (e.g. IEP or 504 copies).
ClassTag’s ability to let parents respond to stories with student work helps promote classroom community and collaboration.
The best fit for hybrid learning
When it comes to hybrid learning, ClassTag has the features that will keep students and parents informed and engaged. The Google integrations create an easier workflow for teachers with the ability to sync events to Google Calendar and add a Google Meet to their scheduled events in ClassTag. Drive integration makes it so easy to share important documents with parents and students without leaving ClassTag. Let’s not forget roster sync, which is perfect for teachers with multiple classes. Communication is the key to success when learning from home, which is why ClassTag is the perfect app for successful online learners.
Need an all-in-one parent teacher communication platform?
Go back to school strong with ClassTag. It is Free and always will be.
