How do you celebrate student success with communication tools?

1 Why celebrate student success?

Celebrating student success is not only a way to acknowledge their hard work and progress, but also a way to motivate them to keep learning and growing. It also helps to build their self-esteem, confidence, and sense of belonging. Moreover, celebrating student success can strengthen your connection with parents and families, who are your partners in education. By sharing positive feedback, stories, and examples of student success, you can show them that you care about their children, value their input, and appreciate their support.

2 How to choose communication tools?

Choosing the right communication tool to celebrate student success is essential. To make the best decision, consider the goal of your communication, the audience, the frequency, the format, and the preferences of your communication. For example, do you want to inform, praise, inspire, or invite feedback? Who do you want to reach? Is it a daily, weekly, monthly, or occasional occurrence? How do you want to present student success? Do you and your audience prefer text, images, audio, video, or a combination of them? Once you answer these questions, you can narrow down your options and select the most suitable tool for each celebration. Email, phone calls, text messages, newsletters, blogs, social media, video calls, and online portfolios are all available options.

3 How to use email effectively?

Email is a popular and efficient way for teachers to celebrate student success. It allows you to send personalized messages to individual students or their families, attach files that display student work, and get feedback. However, emails can easily be ignored or deleted and can be seen as too formal or impersonal. To make the most of email, it’s important to follow best practices like having a clear subject line that summarizes the purpose and content of your email, starting with a warm greeting that addresses the recipient by name, explaining the reason for your celebration and highlighting the student’s achievements, including relevant evidence of success such as photos or videos, and ending with an encouraging closing that expresses your appreciation and invites feedback or questions. Don’t forget to proofread and edit your email for clarity, accuracy, and tone.

4 How to use phone calls efficiently?

Phone calls are a popular and effective way for teachers to celebrate student success. They allow you to express your emotion and enthusiasm, build rapport and trust, and have an interactive conversation. However, they can be time-consuming, intrusive, or affected by background noise or poor connection. To use them efficiently, plan ahead and schedule your calls in advance. Prepare a script or an outline of what you want to say and how you want to say it. Choose a quiet and comfortable place for the call. Introduce yourself and the purpose of your call at the beginning. Focus on the positive aspects of student success and avoid comparison or criticism. Listen actively and attentively to the recipient's comments or questions. Keep your phone calls brief and concise, respecting the recipient's time and availability. Thank them for their time and attention, summarizing the main points of your call at the end.

5 How to use online portfolios creatively?

Online portfolios are an innovative communication tool for teachers to celebrate student success. These digital collections of student work display the learning process, progress, and products, and can be shared with a wide range of audiences. Additionally, online portfolios give students the opportunity to take ownership of their learning and reflect on their achievements. However, there is some planning and preparation required to use online portfolios effectively, such as selecting a platform and organizing the content. Therefore, it is important to use online portfolios creatively by following some suggestions. Involve students in creating and managing their portfolios, use different formats and media to display their work, add captions or reflections to explain the context, purpose, and significance of student work, encourage self-assessment and peer-assessment with constructive feedback, invite parents and families to view and comment on student work, and showcase student work to other classes, schools or organizations.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?