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Technology has grown rapidly and continues to evolve, making it an essential tool in education. As educators, it’s important that we learn to use it in ways that support not only teaching and learning, but also communication with families and the wider community. In my district, I’ve used technology to keep parents informed about their child’s progress, share class announcements, and remind families about homework or upcoming projects through apps like Remind or ClassDojo. For students, I’ve used platforms like Google Classroom and iReady to assign work, give feedback, and track academic growth. Tools like translation apps and parent portals help break language barriers and keep multilingual families engaged. Whether it’s used during whole group instruction, small group work, or independent practice, technology allows for flexible and personalized learning experiences that strengthen the connection between home and school.

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Remind is a really helpful app I use to stay in touch with parents. I send out class updates like reminders about field trips, project deadlines, or anything important happening at school. It’s great for reaching all families at once, especially when I want to quickly share a message with the whole group. I also like that I can message parents one on one if I need to talk about something specific with their child, like missing assignments, behavior updates, or even to celebrate something good. It makes communication feel more personal and easy to manage. One of the best parts is that Remind translates messages into the parent’s home language, so even families who don’t speak English feel included and informed. It helps create stronger relationships with families, keeps everyone on the same page, and supports student success.

Challenge: Sometimes families don’t download the app or check messages regularly, so communication can still be missed.

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Integrated communication for schools, districts, and other organizations

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Schoology is a helpful platform I use with both students and families to keep everything organized in one place. Students can log in to view assignments, check due dates, and revisit lessons we've already covered in class. It's a great way for them to stay on track and review material as needed. Parents can also access Schoology to see their child’s grades, monitor upcoming or missing work, and read messages I send out to the class or individually. It keeps communication clear and helps families stay involved in their child’s learning.

Challenge: It can be a little overwhelming for some parents to navigate, especially if they aren’t used to digital platforms.

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Lexia English is an awesome tool for supporting ELL students at all levels, from Entering to Commanding. For students at the Entering level, it starts with simple vocabulary, visuals, and repeated sentence frames to help them build confidence with basic communication. As students move into the Emerging and Transitioning levels, the program gives more complex tasks like forming full sentences, understanding academic vocabulary, and responding to conversations in context. By the time students reach the Expanding and Commanding levels, it pushes them to use higher level thinking skills, speak more fluently, and apply language in academic settings like science and social studies. I like that students work at their own pace and the program adjusts to meet their needs. It also gives me helpful data to track their growth, and I can share that with families so they stay informed and involved in their child’s language development. I use it during small group time or as independent practice while I work with other students.

Challenge: Students may rush through lessons or rely too much on the program without fully engaging, so teacher monitoring is important.

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Lexia English Language Development™, for grades K-6, is an adaptive blended learning speaking and listening program that supports students' English language development through interactive, academic-rich conversations. It is designed to help English Learners acquire higher language proficiency levels of English by integrating three key areas: speaking, listening, and grammar, while emphasizing the language of cross-curricular content.

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School Pace (ARC) is super helpful for teachers because it gives real time data on student reading progress. It tracks things like reading level, comprehension, and writing responses, so I can see exactly where each student is and what they need next. This helps me plan small groups, conferences, and even class goals based on real data, not just a guess. It’s part of the American Reading Company (ARC) framework, so everything stays connected to our reading curriculum. I also use it during data meetings or to share progress with families, so they know how their child is doing and how we’re supporting them.

Challenge: It takes time to learn how to use all the data features effectively, especially for new teachers or staff.

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SchoolPace, by American Reading Company, is a web-based student achievement dashboard that allows educators to monitor growth and performance in real-time. With SchoolPace, you’ll have out-of-the-box access to reports including:

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ARC Bookshelf is a digital library that gives students access to tons of leveled texts that match their independent reading levels. It’s part of the American Reading Company, so it connects well with School Pace and the ARC curriculum. I use it during independent reading time, especially when students don’t have a physical book at their level or need more variety. It’s great for bilingual students too, since there are books in both English and Spanish. It also helps me make sure students are reading books that match their ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development), which supports steady growth in comprehension and fluency.

Challenge: Students need devices and internet access at home to take full advantage of the digital books, which can be a barrier for some families.

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DiFiT, is a super useful resource for planning targeted instruction based on student data. After students take their i-Ready diagnostic, I can log into the toolbox and find lessons, activities, and resources that match exactly what they need help with whether it's a reading skill like main idea or a math concept like fractions. It saves me a lot of time because everything is ready to go, and it’s broken down by standard and skill. I also use it to pull small group lessons or send extra practice home for families who want to help out. It’s a great way to make my instruction more data driven and focused.

Challenge: The materials aren’t super interactive, so you need to pair them with hands on or engaging activities for student interest.

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Magic School is an AI tool made just for teachers, and it helps with all kinds of planning and prep. I use it to create things like lesson plans, rubrics, behavior supports, and even parent emails it saves me so much time. You just type in what you need, and it generates a quick draft you can edit and personalize. It’s helpful for differentiation too, since I can ask it to make something for specific grade levels or language learners. It’s like having a virtual teaching assistant when things get busy, especially during report card time or when I need to send home letters in both English and Spanish.

Challenge: Like any AI tool, it can give generic or off topic results if you don’t give clear input so teachers still need to tweak and review content.

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MagicSchool.ai - AI for teachers - lesson planning and more!

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Join over a million teachers saving hours of time using the #1 AI Platform for Education, MagicSchool, to help lesson plan, differentiate, write assessments, write IEPs, communicate clearly, and more!

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Lalilo is a fun and interactive phonics and literacy program that’s great for early readers, especially English language learners. It focuses on foundational skills like letter sounds, word recognition, fluency, and comprehension. What’s nice is that it adjusts to each student’s level, so they get practice that fits their needs. My students enjoy the animations and game like activities, which keep them engaged while they’re learning. I use Lalilo during centers or independent work time, and it gives me reports so I can see how students are doing and where they might need extra support. It’s also great for bilingual students because it supports listening and reading in a way that builds confidence.

Challenge: It's mainly focused on early literacy, so it’s not as useful for older students or those working on advanced reading skills.

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Lalilo by Renaissance | Practice and instruction on Foundational Literacy skills

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Sign up and invite parents remotely for home access to phonics and reading lessons.

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TalkingPoints is a communication app that helps teachers connect with families in their home language. It automatically translates messages back and forth, so I can send updates, reminders, or check ins, and parents can respond in their own language. It’s super helpful for keeping ELL families in the loop, especially when there’s a language barrier. I use it for one on one messages or to send announcements to the whole class. It helps build stronger relationships with families and makes sure they feel included and informed about their child’s progress and classroom events.

Challenge: The translations aren’t always perfect, especially for less common languages or complex messages, so miscommunication can happen.

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TalkingPoints is a free application that lets you communicate with your children's teachers and school. You will be able to send and receive messages through this application in your preferred language, because TalkingPoints will translate your message into English for teachers. Stay engaged and involved in your child's learning by communicating and collaborating with their teacher and school using TalkingPoints!

Enhanced Accessibility Support: We've made significant improvements to ensure our app is fully accessible to everyone. This update includes voice-over support, high-contrast mode enhancements, and screen reader optimizations to make our app more usable for people with visual impairments.

Thank you!!

Very good idea, and easy to follow app! I love that it will even tell you if your child is in each class on time! Fortunately my child doesn't skip class like his mommy did, but he won't be able to with this app!! It also gets all the info needed to parents in a timely manner rather than the last minute relay I'm used to getting from my son, not to mention whether or not his work is getting done and turned in Thank you for this!

Worst app on my phone

Unfortunately this app has a ton of usability problems. See the list below: -the private messaging feature is very buggy and laggy. -the picture quality of uploads/attachments is very poor. -saved pictures are not saved properly and unsharable from the photos app -if you have two parents on a group chat, you cannot send a new chat individually to a teacher. -you cannot update your phone number in the app if the school controls it. If you do, it creates a new account and you lose access to the old message history. And as for features, it's barebones: -No dark mode -no Home Screen -no Lock Screen widget -no time sensitive notification support -no video attachment support -no video conferencing -etc... So, to the developer, these are useful iOS features and updates, and I hope to see improvements coming soon... but for now, it's a long way up to 5 stars from here. Expect more from an app like this!

Hi there, thank you for taking the time to leave feedback! We would love to assist you further with what you have listed, as well as continue the conversation on features you would like to see. As we don't have your email, kindly email us at support@talkingpts.org, and we'll get you connected to a member of our team.

Why would I use this app?

Update #2: Thank you for the response, but: Too little, too late. This is May daughter's last year in school and I will celebrate by deleting the app.

I am sorry, but this is billed as a communication app, and it fails miserably at that. I go back to my original complaint! The communication from teacher to parents is OK. But there is no communication from parents to teacher. ONLY parent to teacher works.

As a programmer myself I would not have released an app with such a glaring hole.

Update: no response from the developers! I wish the app would just die!!! I use this app not because I think it is good in any sense. Nor does it provide any features that a plain old text message cannot provide! I use it because my daughter's teacher uses it and it is the only way to communicate with the teacher. My complaints: 1) When I get a message from the teacher I have no way to know if it was sent to just me or to a group of people. 2) There is no way for me to send a message to the teacher and my daughter's mother. These two "features" lead to miscommunication and confusion. I am sure that an app supposedly built to foster communication does not want to hear those complaints but they are real. I would not use the app if I had any other option for communicating with my daughter's teacher.

Thank you so much for providing your feedback - it helps us better understand ways in which we can improve our service. In fact, we have launched a "shared messages" feature based on similar feedback from other families.

When there are multiple family members associated with a student, each can opt-in to see each other's messages to the teacher. When each family member turns on shared messaging, messages from your daughter's teacher will always be sent to both you and your daughter's mother. You can find this feature by going to a specific message and clicking the purple "people" icon on the upper right side of your screen.

If you would like help setting this up please let us know by reaching out to our email hello@talkingpts.org so we can connect you immediately with our support team.

The developer, TalkingPoints Corp, indicated that the app's privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer's privacy policy.

Data Linked to You

The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:

Data Not Linked to You

The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

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‎TalkingPoints is a free application that lets you communicate with your children's teachers and school. You will be able to send and receive messages through this application in your preferred language, because TalkingPoints will translate your message into English for teachers. Stay engaged and inv...