ClassTag Stories: How Melanie Made Connecting with 130 Student Parents Possible

Imagine this scenario – you’re a brand new teacher and you are given responsibility over 130 students. Each of those 130 students has AT LEAST one parent or guardian (and some have two or three!) that want to stay in the loop about their child’s education.

You’re on your own and have to find the time, among all of your other tasks, to find a way to connect with these parents.

Gosh, wouldn’t it be nice to have an assistant to help you out? Even if it’s… a virtual assistant? Well for Melanie Mavins, that assistant’s name is ClassTag.

Melanie is a 3rd grade public school teacher and a 7th grade middle school science teacher in Maryland. Across all her different classes, she is responsible for 130 students and in her first year of teaching, she had almost no communication with the parents of these students.

I couldn’t figure out how to maintain an open dialog. It just seemed impossible to reach all of the families. – Melanie

In her second year of teaching, she found ClassTag. ClassTag was an app that claimed to be able to assist her in reaching 100% of parents in her classroom.

At first, I thought that ClassTag’s claim of reaching 100% of parents was ambitious – but it turned out to be true. ClassTag has absolutely transformed my parent communication and strengthened those relationships. I have been using the app for 2 years now and have never looked back. – Melanie

Melanie did the impossible – she made it feasible to connect with 130 student families. Setting up ClassTag was also very easy. Just one week before school started she added all the families and students and their respective contacts. Now with A SINGLE CLICK she is able to send the information out in the parents preferred method. Some of the families of Melanie’s students are ESL and she loves that she is able to send them information in their native language.

ClassTag has been particularly useful in this situation:

One of the students in my class had been dealing with anger issues, and having ClassTag made it much easier to communicate with their parents. Through ClassTag I was able to get them in frequently for parent teacher conferences and that had such a tremendous impact on that student, which just wasn’t possible before. – Melanie

Melanie also loves how amazing the feedback is from the parents since using the app. They are truly loving the communication.

Some of the parents have shared with me that they open the app during dinner conversations and chats with their children. They often reference some of the updates that I’ve shared, such as a particular activity from the week or something new we are starting to study. – Melanie

She has been able to build parent engagement and participation in their children’s education – it has been truly transformational.

What seemed impossible to me was made possible with ClassTag. – Melanie

Since beginning with ClassTag, she has recommended it to other teachers and many of the teachers in her school have started using it. They find it incredibly useful for everything from planning parent teacher conferences to announcements and messages. They are really opening up and building stronger relationships with student’s parents.

Do you know another teacher that may love ClassTag for their classroom? Click here to learn more about our referral program!