Spamming Families....????

I know that there have been lots of changes across the country when it comes to school.  Schools who have been in person full time from the beginning, those who have been hybrid, others with half day classes, virtual and then those who have gone back and forth; to and from the classroom and online.  My school…district, has been 100% virtual up until March 1st at which we went to hybrid.  My school started hybrid with different plans per grade level needs and parent choices.  My grade level, 2 teachers came back hybrid and we have to stream to those on opposite cohorts.  Then week 2, new hybrid students started then week 3 of March another second grade teacher started hybrid changing rosters again.

There has been LOTS of change which also meant A LOT OF MESSAGES GOING OUT TO PARENTS IN CLOSE proximity…no spacing.  Weekly we get a message from our principal, then almost daily reminders about events coming within our community, plus teachers sending reminder messages for student work and assignments, positive comments and behaviors messages.  Don’t forget teachers are also reaching out in class stories with weekly updates and reminders.

Parents started the year super responsive then slowly they their responses fade away. It becomes harder and harder with the changes continuing to happen within out school and the district.  With the latest change being full-time in-person starting April 6th.  What does all this change mean?

Well…it means lots of surveys, reminders on which day your child reports to school and which teacher your child will have with every change.  Constant change does not help when planning events for community building.  Finding the time to plan an event among all the change is tough, but it is manageable.  It takes patience and a lot of videos to administration about the event, because let’s be real, they barely have time to walk and chat without counting steps or planning social distancing.  Now it is time to schedule an event and hope for families to respond and see the excitement in bringing community together again through writing. What a tough time for everyone. I guess the question with this is…. Is there a cap on the messages administration should be sending out? Is there a cap on messages teachers should be sending out? At what point does a parent shut down and just say whatever, you’ll call if it is truly important for an emergency!

These times are tough, and planning an event is exciting, its just hard to reach out to families who are already getting mass messages SPAM style from the school and the district.