What does collaboration mean to you? When I think of the word collaboration, I think teamwork. I think unity. Collaboration does not mean working separately to accomplish a common goal. It means working together and sharing ideas to create something that would not have been as impactful or meaningful if it had been done alone.
While I was exploring the #MSFTEduChat hashtag on Twitter, I realized that perhaps the most important type of collaboration during this current school year, may just be between teachers and parents. With COVID-19 still largely affecting in-person learning, it is more important now than ever for teachers and parents to work together. One tweet I stumbled across from a MicrosoftEDU team member asked the question, “How can teachers and parents work together to support their students’ learning?” Some students are hybrid-learning, spending half their week in the classroom, and the rest at home. Other students are learning completely remotely. Collaboration and communication have never been so important between parents and teachers to help students navigate this new world of virtual learning. Many parents are taking on a new role in their children’s education. They have become at-home teachers overnight, and it has not been an easy task.
Using Microsoft Education tools, this transition has the potential to be a lot easier on both parents and teachers, and therefore easier on students. Microsoft Teams gives parents and teachers the ability to communicate with one another seamlessly with the weekly parent/guardian email digest. This feature of Teams shows parents a breakdown of their child’s assignments and what they have or have not completed. This makes it so much easier for parents to stay up to date on their child’s progress from subject to subject. It allows them to see whether they are on track or struggling in certain areas. It also gives teachers to ability to send weekly emails to parents to give them a run down of information regarding the upcoming week’s assignments. This is just one innovative Microsoft Education feature that can aide communication between parents and teachers to foster a more collaborative learning environment for students during this challenging time.
The most important thing to remember about this school year, is that it is a brand new journey for everyone. Teachers, students, and parents alike are all navigating the virtual learning world for the first time. It’s also important to keep in mind that there is always room for improvement and feedback on what is and isn’t working. Although teachers can keep track of what is working for them by their own measurements, they can also benefit from receiving input from their students and parents. All parties should try their best to give one another feedback and offer helpful suggestions when possible. Since parents now have an up close and personal look at how their children are being taught via Zoom, Skype, and other online education tools, it gives them the opportunity to be more vocal and speak up when they feel things are being done well or could use some adjustment. Teachers can certainly take advantage of the educational technology at their fingertips to make these adjustments and facilitate a stronger partnership between classroom and home. Although collaboration and communication between parents and teachers has always been significant when it comes to education, it seems virtual learning has definitely highlighted its importance. As the saying goes, “It takes a village“.
