1. Engaging Students and Parents with Technology
Shelby Simmons, MAT
August 14, 2013
Colleton County High School

2. Goals/Objectives: Increase quality and quantity of:
Information distributed to parents
Session Content
Parent Attendance by 15%
Provide activities and interventions to measurably improve student achievement
Build capacity in the parent community
Note Program Constraints and challenges (slide has been removed)
Funding
Title I Legislation
Community Apathy
Poor Attendance
Negative Perceptions
Limited Time and Small Staff

3. Review of Initiatives Student Achievement
Class Size Reduction – Teacher Salaries = at least 85%
Interventionists
Student Supplies/Software (MAP)
Teacher Quality –Professional Development
Parent Involvement
Involving parents in school activities
Improving parenting skills
Supporting Student Achievement
Salaries = 86% of general fund
81% of all revenue
All activities must be supplemental; T1 cannot supplant.

4. Input from stakeholders
Parent Survey results
2009 surveys returned
#1 – Motivating children
#2 – Teaching reading and math (common core, increasing rigor)
#3 – Bullying
All numbers taken from District-wide survey
Staff Survey identified needs – 250 responses
#1 Teaching at-risk students and closing the achievement gaps
#2 Increasing higher order thinking strategies (common core. Increasing rigor)
#3 Increasing student engagement
#4 RtI
60% parents felt that mobile devices enhance education

5. Input from Stakeholders
Parent Survey
92% support more spending on Interventionists in Reading, Math, and Science
85% support After-School (Day Care) and Summer School Programs
81% support class size reduction
91% say their child is taught by a highly qualified Teacher
87% say they are satisfied with the learning environment

6. Title I Parent Involvement Program
What we do:

7. Do It Online! Remind 101 – Text Message Notices
Please text: to
Have participants with cell phones join the group, mention the ability to schedule text messages – this is a free service

8. Do It Online! Tweet deck – Social Networking
Text to 40404
Ask participants to follow us!
Discuss Permissions for facebook and twitter and personal accounts for Twitter/Facebook

9. Do It Online! PebbleGo – Content Area Literacy Support
Online Access for UPLIFT Parents
Uses UDL Principles
June: 2425
July: 842
August: 313

10. Online Activities: Abcmouse.com – free 30 day trial for 2-6 year olds 
Apps and games for parents and teachers to encourage vocabulary:
Ruzzle

11. Do It Online! New hardware to support student achievement
Study buddy – Self-Paced Tutoring
Replacing Laptops
Give opportunity to work in groups to assess study buddy for parents with low to moderate abilities, point out portability, single-purpose, no street value, inexpensive, bring sample

12. Programmatic Interventions
Combined Parent Sessions with school wide events like Literacy Nights, PTO, SIC
Teachers can use DVDs, Books, and Games to engage entire families and find new ways to find educational aspects of existing activities:
HayDay
Reading Rainbow
ABCMouse
Video of annual meeting, preparing a Spanish language version

13. Programmatic Interventions
District-wide support for family literacy program and Common Core integration
Using discounted books from FirstBook.org and TheReadingWarehouse.com as Parent Incentives and Literacy Session materials
CorePlanner.com will track common core standards taught to parents in Literacy Sessions
Time for prizes (books and lesson plans)

14. Individual Interventions
Take control of Professional Development
@edutopia
@techtia
Develop Online Professional Persona
LinkedIN
Class website
Edmodo
QR Codes –

15. Use Tech in the Classroom
Research, Review, Assess:

16. Use Tech in the Classroom
Projects and Alternative Assessments:
Bubbl.us
= stem game

17. Use Tech with Parents Communication is a two-way street
Regularly share contact information
Check and voice mail
Use meaningful phone calls, postcards, stickers and certificates
Vistaprint.com
4imprint.com
Remind 101 – have a class for parents, use new website features and encourage parents to sign up, attend after-school activities

18. Results: Increased Content Increased Attendance Increased Excitement
Increased Opportunity
Study Buddies are checked out 2.5x faster than laptops with 96% favorable parent response
Websites average 60+ unique hits a day with average of 5 minutes on the site
Over 1000 parents and students attended our Back-2-School Bash – up 300%
District Parent Center visits up 100%
Laptop loans up 100%
Met initial goal for Facebook Likes
Only looking for 100
Plan to increase yearly by 15-25%
50% of goal for Twitter Followers
Library Participation in District Calendar
Online Sessions moving to local cable

19. Discussion/Questions?
Ask Me Now!
Ready for our drawing?

20. Contact Me:
Shelby Simmons
x 3
40253