TextMarks - Breaking Through the 21st Century Divide through Text

Teachers, do you find it's difficult to get ahold of your students' parents, or communicate on a daily basis with them? How easy would it be to send one mass text to your parents every day letting them know what homework your students have? Not so easy, you say? Not anymore! 


With TextMarks, sending a free text message to all subscribers is simple and easy. After you create a FREE account, all you need to do is create a  "group keyword", announce it to your parents and tell them the simple directions to sign up for your daily text (they text the keyword to 41411 and are automatically signed up). You login everyday to TextMarks and send a text. Simple, easy and fast. The most important part? Most parents text and would appreciate that daily text. It doesn't cost them anything (only if they don't have unlimited text - they would have to pay their own standard text messaging fees). TextMarks does NOT charge any fees, but they do send ads in the text. A short ad at the end of the text to have better instant communication with your students' parents? I'll take it. 


Sign up today and simplify your life! You can even embed a widget on your website that sends the text to that widget, so parents can just check your website every day if they don't want to receive the text. 


Says Jeromy Sumner, a Sixth Grade Teacher in Springfield Public Schools, 

"Textmarks helps me to reach my students on their level! I am able to forward my homework assignments to the entire class with one click. Parents even signed up so that they could receive homework lists and special announcements from me. Every classroom should use this service - it has helped increase the percentage of homework turned in each day, as well as reminding students of school events, library day & to bring in that field trip money!”

BBC Languages

World Language Teachers, 


Do you feel like you're always looking for a good way to invovle the parents but maybe give them "a little more" so that they're more interested in learning the language, as well? Or maybe your students' parents really want to help with homework but don't understand a grammar concept or correct pronunciation. Look no further! BBC Languages  gives the parents these concepts in "Plain English". In other words, they don't have to sit in an hour-long class to "get it". 


With BBC Languages, students and parents can work together to not only reinforce their knowledge of the language, but also includes beginner courses for parents who want to "catch up" to their beginner or intermediate student. It would also be great to use for students and parents when they tell you they're going on vacation to a country that speaks a language other than English. 


BBC Languages provides not only grammar concepts and correct pronunciation in French, German, Spanish, Italian, Greek, Portuguese, and Chinese but also includes audio and video such as a conversation between two students in Madrid, which helps reinforce certain important words, such as greetings and good-byes. It gives you the weather in different cities in the language, along with a beginner program called 'Steps' that allows learners to take a free class for 12 weeks and then BBC gives them a certificate for their achievement. 


One really cool aspect is that BBC Languages offers what they call a "Quick Fix" which offers important, emergency vocabulary and phrases in 36 different languages. 


All in all, BBC Languages is a great resource you can give to parents to help them with their student's learning as well as brush up on their own language skills! 

Quizlet - Vocabulary & FlashCard Games

Are you looking for a way to get your parents involved at home, without it being a big hassle? Want students to practice vocabulary in their spare time, but need it to be a very specific vocabulary list? Using Quizlet, you can search for flashcards made by other users, create your own flashcards for class and at home, and even share everything you create with your fellow educators and more importantly, parents! it's incredibly easy to get started, just a quick and easy (and of course, free) registration and then you are on your way! Quizlet takes the hassle out of studying for vocabulary quizzes, practices world language vocabulary, and even can make it engaging! It automatically creates games such as Scatter, where you have to drag words and definitions on top of each other to make them disappear, and (my personal favorite), Space Race, where you write the word or definition before the word races off the screen. It's easy, automatic and free! 


It is a great way to utilize this with parents who are having a hard time finding time to study vocabulary sets with their students. Just create, send, and watch magic happen when your students tell you how "FUN" it was to "STUDY". ( The words "fun" and "study" have never been in the same sentence before now!) Needless to say, if you want to engage even the parents and really get them involved, Quizlet is definitely a great way to get started!