How Technology Can Be Used During Open House

Lots of us have open house coming up in the very near future. Why not have technology help you with the process…below are some ideas.

Going to be Absent to Your Own Class?

Whether you are a teacher who cannot attend Open House yourself OR you want to be able to reach all of your parents (even those that could not attend), why not create a quick screencast of your presentation? Making screencasts are very easy to do now. You could record yourself talking through the presentation OR you could just turn on your webcam and talk to the computer.

If this is the route that you want to go, I would recommend using the Chrome Extension Screencastify. Below are instructions on how to use the tool if you have never used it before.

Worried about privacy and YouTube? No worries, just save your screencast to your Google Drive account with ‘anyone with the link’ sharing permission. When it is time to share, provide a link or QR code on your door if you are going to be absent. You can also email your screencast and/or embed the video on your teacher website for all parents to see.

Want to Have Fun with Parents?

In past years, some teachers have created a Jeopardy Game for the parents to play – this is a great way of getting parents engaged and involved. If you are interested in going this route, you can create a quick Jeopardy game using Flippity.net and Google Sheets. Instructions on how to do this can be found from a previous blog post that I wrote.

Up for a different competition game? Why not have parents participate in a fun game of Kahoot! We know that our students love participating in the game – might be great to share the fun. You could ask parents questions pertaining to your class and then go into more detail about the answers. It is important to note that parents would have to be willing to use their mobile device to make this work.

Need to Get Feedback?
It is important to know that both options below would require a parent to use their mobile device to provide feedback.

Are you one that likes to collect information from parents? How about making a Google Form to have parents fill out instead of passing around a piece of paper.

Another great option is using the Exit Ticket option from Socrative. This could be a great way of asking parents/guardians what they want you to know about their son/daughter.

The possibilities are endless as to what you can do. The most important thing is to make sure that you are having fun during open house as well as the parents.  Stop by room 222 if you would like to talk more about what you can do with technology during open house.

Happy Beginning of the School Year!