Tuesday Tech Tip: Parent Communication in Schoology

com·mu·ni·ca·tion

kəˌmyo͞onəˈkāSHən/

noun: communication

the imparting or exchanging of information or news."direct communication between the two countries will produce greater understanding"

Communication is essential.  Lack of communication can lead to disaster.  Organizing communications can be frustrating.  Did you know Schoology has built in tools to help with this task?  Specifically, we are talking about communicating with parents.  Among the advantages of using Schoology for a communication vehicle is the fact that you do not have to worry about building emails lists. (Silent cheer, right?) Parents are connected to their students’ courses through online forms.  

To start with, we suggest that you make certain that parents know how to log in to their parent account which is different than logging in as their student.  

Below is some verbiage that you may want to use for a letter to your parents:

This year we will be using Schoology for students as well communicating with you.  Please make certain that you can login to Schoology by doing the following:

• Log on to http://my.cherrycreekschools.org. Use the same log-in information that you used to register your student.
• Click on the tile that says COLE 3.0.  This will take you to Schoology.
  

  
  

• Set your notifications in Schoology by:
• Click on the drop down arrow next to your name to set your notifications preferences. (Choose to receive notifications daily or weekly)

Schoology also has a help page:  http://help.schoology.com.  

If you require assistance adding emails or logging in to your parent accounts, please contact the Cherry Creek School’s Help Desk at 720 554-4357.

Here is a link to a pdf that you may want to send home to parents.  

You may wish to consider using Schoology to communicate with families in these ways:  

• Send a message to all the parents at once

To do this click on course options under the picture for your course then click send message.  Follow the prompts to create the message.  This will send to all members, admins, members or parents.  This message will remain in an individual’s message section.  

• Post an update to your course

To do this click on updates on the left side of your Schoology course.  Follow the prompts to create an update.  This update will remain associated with your course and will be found when parents and students click on updates.  

• Post in the calendar

To do this click on Add Event.  Follow the prompts to add an event to the calendar. This will show up in the calendar and the calendar feed area.  

For additional information on this topic, please consider this past blog post.  

We hope that this information will help you make the lines of communication clearer this school year.