Wakelet can help you keep parents informed, engaged and excited about their children’s work in the classroom. Misbah Gedal shares one teacher’s experience
2018 was an incredible year for all of us at Wakelet, in so many ways! Not only did we launch some fantastic updates and enhancements to the platform (we’re looking at you Flipgrid), we also welcomed thousands of teachers onto Wakelet.
Being embraced by the online teaching community has been a fantastic experience. We’ve never met a group of people as passionate, sincere and enthusiastic as teachers and watching our educator community grow has been really rewarding. We’ve also had our minds blown by the ingenious ideas they’ve brought to the table, helping us understand how Wakelet can be useful for teachers all over the world.
One of the most impactful ways the platform has been used has been to improve parent engagement in schools and classrooms. Brandi Reams, a Kindergarten teacher, first brought this to our attention. Here’s her story…
Solving the problem of parent engagement with a Wakelet superhuman
Brandi is a Kindergarten teacher at Wilson Preparatory Academy in North Carolina. My first call with her was special. I could tell instantly that I was speaking to an educator with a true passion for teaching. Brandi was already using Wakelet to engage the parents of children in her class and wanted to bring the rest of her school on to the platform too. Since then, Brandi has provided a whole host of ideas and suggestions that have helped us improve Wakelet. We even paid her a visit on our trip to the US!
The ‘Brandi’ Model: How teachers can use Wakelet in the classroom
For parent engagement
It was Brandi who first explained to us that ‘not all parents are on social media!’ Instead, she found she could use her Wakelet profile to create a weekly newsletter for her class, keeping parents informed and engaged with their children’s learning. Brandi now creates a collection every week and parents can just visit her profile to find out what their child has been learning!
For learning reinforcement
Brandi’s Wakelet page is chock full of amazing resources for parents and teachers. It can often be difficult for parents to find good quality online content for their children, so Brandi handpicks the best content for her students and organizes it into collections. She takes content from all over the web and includes YouTube videos, infographics, flash games and more.
For educator resources
Brandi has used our ‘sections’ feature to add a deeper layer of organization to her page. She has one section for collections housing professional resources for other teachers. These collections contain content that she’s found useful in her own career, along with tips and resources that she can share with other teachers in her network.
For humanized learning
One of the reasons we love Brandi so much is that she really brings a human touch to both her teaching and her Wakelet profile. Her ‘Meet the Teacher’ collection is a great way of helping parents and students find out more about who she is and what she loves. It’s perfect for new students anxious about starting the new school year; parents can take their children through the collection and get to know Brandi in a way no staff directory could ever do!
Become a superhuman
Parent engagement and personalized learning are two elements of education that will likely be even more important in 2019. If you’re an educator looking to bring these into your teaching then give Wakelet a try – you might just become our next Wakelet superhuman!
Brandi is just one of the many teachers who have helped us this year and the first to be featured in a new series of blogs we’ll be writing explaining how educators are using Wakelet in innovative and exciting ways.
As for the Wakelet team, we’re eagerly anticipating the amazing new ideas that are sure to surface in 2019!