Class Dojo and Tapestry

 As a teacher in an international school, it is important to understand the need for effective and positive communications with parents. The right way of communicating with parents one of the key aspects of teaching, especially when it comes to Early Years. I am a parent and a teacher at the same time, so when I want to bring something to parents, I initially look at that from parent’s side then bring it to a parent. Both, parents and teachers want holistic development of a child in all areas of their learning. “Parenting and teaching are two very similar jobs. The primary objective of both these jobs is to mold young minds into something great. Therefore, parents and teachers must always be working together. Regular school communication with parents is needed. There are many benefits of parent-teacher relationships on child development”, (Pew Research Center, 2020).

Long past are the times where a teacher would simply speak to the parents after school. In the COVID age, safety precautions have been set up in such a way that it is, at some points, nearly impossible for one to have a face-to-face meeting with a parent or caregiver. It is now at a point where we must use technologies to bridge the gap between school and home life.

 

Many technologies exist in this day and age that would allow for us to simply message parents and inform them on a basic level. However, as parents are becoming more aware of the benefits of effective teaching, and are taking interest in how their children are learning and making progress. For this I would like to discuss two applications, Tapestry and Class DOJO.

 

ClassDojo is an app that allows parents to be alerted in real-time to the progress of their children. According to ClassDojo, this is ClassDojo’s plan: “we listen to teachers, kids and families. We help them work together as a community. And we help them bring the world’s best learning experiences into their classrooms and homes”, (ClassDojo, 2020). Throughout the day, teachers can award progress points on the class app for things that may be academic in nature, such as reaching milestones in math and English. Once a teacher awards a point, the parent is alerted via the parent companion app, an explanation can be added by the teacher and could appear something like this:

 

‘Timmy has been awarded a ClassDojo point for making excellent progress in math’.

 

Although only a snapshot, this has the benefit of making parents aware of the progress of the child, whilst also using positive reinforcement for the child in the classroom. The app also doubles as a ‘Home to School’ communication tool which allows parents to directly speak to the teacher, and vice versa, without requiring personal information to be shared. For more information visit, https://www.classdojo.com/about.

 

The second app I will speak about is Tapestry. According to Tapestry, the app is an “easy-to-use and secure online learning journal helping staff and families celebrate their children’s learning and development”, (Tapestry UK, 2022). Tapestry is a true teaching journal and student assessment tool that allows teachers to record progress using statements and assessment goals set by multiple curriculums, including the EYFS, IEYP and PYP curriculums. Teachers use the tool to record progress and perform assessments using technologies in the classroom. As an additional tool, these assessments can be simplified to send to parents in real time. The alerts that are sent to the parents can list information including images and what goal or milestone that the child is achieving or making progress towards. Tapestry will also keep a complete academic record of the child, provide data for parent-teaching conferences, and generate end of year reports. For more information, please visit https://tapestry.info/.

 

No matter what the application or platform used, I think that the importance of technology is paramount to the success of teacher-parent relationships. Each day, parents put the academic progress and emotional wellbeing of their children into our hands, and I believe that they have the right to understand what and why we do the things we do, which are ultimately for the best interests of their children.

Word count: 617

References

 

ClassDojo. (2020). About Us. ClassDojo. Retrieved March 11, 2022, from https://www.classdojo.com/about/

Pew Research Center. (2020, May 30). How working parents share parenting and household responsibilities. Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic Trends Project. Retrieved March 11, 2022, from https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2015/11/04/raising-kids-and-running-a-household-how-working-parents-share-the-load/

Tapestry UK. (2022, February 28). Online learning journal for early years education: Tapestry. Tapestry UK. Retrieved March 11, 2022, from https://tapestry.info/