5 Free Digital Tools to Increase Family-School Communication

1. I love Schoology.  It's got everything in one place: Grades, assignments, discussions, and a messaging system. Parents and students can join courses and groups. We have nested groups: Whole school, parents by grade, and then parent interest groups. In the smaller groups, parents have control of their own discussions. There's also a calendar, event invites, and RSVP functions for school events, as well as a built-in simple poll tool to ask questions. You can embed Google Forms, Twitter, Facebook, and Google Drive, You can create albums of pictures, send home forms and reminders, and embed links like Google Forms or Youtube videos. It's truly awesome, and everything I've described is part of the amazingly powerful free version.  iOS and Android apps connect parents who use a smartphone as their primary means of access.

2. Remind 101 is great! Many families at our school don't have internet at home and Remind101 sends one-way texts to cell phones.  The service, which is free, gives you a special phone number and code when you sign up. Parents send a single text with that code to the number, and they're "subscribed" to your class. You don't have to give them your number, they don't have to give you theirs. Then you can send reminders and suggestions. Parents cannot text back with this service, but it's an awesome one-way system.

3. Google Forms. Oh my goodness. Survey away.  I love survey data and I can get parent opinions on all kinds of things with a simple Google Form.  Tips: Remember how you might want to sort this data and add questions that will allow you to sort, like "I have another child who attended this school before/ My family is new to this school this year" or whatever. I just post the survey link on Schoology! Also, create a shortened URL with TinyURL and print little paper slips to pass out to get more participation.

4. You-Log Reading is an awesome free reading log app that lets students or parents log the pages and time they read at home. Students can text or email reports to their teacher, as well as classify books by genre and take notes on their books.

5. Jooners and Sign-Up Genius are fabulous tools for figuring out who's bringing things to the bake sale or coming to help at the car wash.  I've also used it to make the standard beginning-of-the-year plea for class supplies from parents.

What tools do you use to keep in touch with families?