School Communication

keyaiko
Community Novice

We are finishing our first year with Canvas and are starting to evaluate things that went well and things that need improvement. One of the big areas of self-identified needed improvement is school communication at all levels. We are a small International school largely made up of volunteer and part-time staff, so we don't have anyone on staff whose main job is to handle PR and school communication. I am a math teacher by profession, but help with educational technology and Canvas administration by hobby. Therefore, I need a lot of help! I have been looking around the Internet at articles and webinars for ideas how to do an effective communication audit so that we can form a strategic and simple communication strategy that meets the needs of our parents and staff. I was wondering if anyone here has resources to help.

I realize this is a big question. I value any input/ideas you have, but especially would like to know anything about:

  • Methods to identify communication gaps
  • What information needs pushed to parents and students and what should be made available for them to pull
  • How much should Canvas be involved in school communication? Should it be only used for course-level communication or can it be used for communication about school events?
  • What is the best way to structure calendars? (School events, athletics, etc.) Is Canvas good for that or is there something better? We are invested in Microsoft 365 so Google is not an option for us.
  • What is the role of social media in school communication? (Facebook, Twitter, ...)
  • We have a school website, but it's more for prospective teachers and families, not current families. Should that change? How much of a role does your school website play in communicating current events?
  • How do you train parents on school communication methods so that they know how to receive and initiate communication with the school?
  • Everything else I'm missing.

Thanks!