Week of September 25, 2023

Classroom Communication Tools UPDATE

Our primary communication method with families is Remind for teachers and staff, while Blackboard is the preferred tool for school-wide communication from the office. Remind messages are delivered to the parent and student's email InBox, and if a cell phone number is provided in Synergy, they will also receive a text message. Parents and students can use the Remind App optionally, but the app is NOT necessary it to receive or send messages.

However, Remind lacks direct communication features for individual students and formatting options for longer messages. To address this, we've explored Synergy options. Synergy Mail, introduced for teachers at the beginning of the school year, requires parents and students to log into Parent/StudentVUE to reply, adding a barrier to communication.

Remind:

• PROs

• 
  Remind allows for two way communication WITH TRANSLATION

• Remind is synced nightly with Synergy (classes, student and parent contact information).

• Archived communication to protect staff and students.

• SMS, email, App - allows for parents, staff and students to customize HOW they are notified of a new communication.

• For students under 13 yrs old, teachers can send direct messages by finding the student under the People menu to initiate a new Message.

• CONs

• Staff/Teachers cannot easily message multiple guardians of a student (without knowing who they are)

• No formatting options.

* Click HERE for Knowledgebase Articles on how to use Remind.

As of 9/28/23, Synergy's "Communication" tool has returned to TeacherVUE under the Home menu, to address the specific limitations of Remind listed above.