Community in the Classroom with the Bloomz app

When Horacio from Bloomz contacted us to try out their app, I was super excited.  With *almost* everyone connected to technology today, it is such a great opportunity to show parents what their kiddos are learning in the classroom.  Of course with *everyone* connected, you also have to find a safe way to share with parents. And you want it to be an easy and quick method so that you don't waste too much time saving, e-mailing, uploading and you control the communication.  

Did I mention that this app is easy and quick to use?  After you EASILY set up the e-mails of your parents in the app, you are READY to get going!  If you click the button on the top right of the app, you get a whole list of things you are able to do with this app.   Here is what it looks like... 

Need tissues or more glue sticks?   Choose the "Volunteer" option where you can ask for materials in addition to volunteer help in the classroom.  You can also tell them exactly when you need them to volunteer.  No more back and forth e-mails or texts, your parents can easily see and choose the times you need volunteers.  You can see below that I added Kleenex and Glue Sticks to the supplies I needed... you can even select the amount... let's just set that glue sticks to X100!

Probably one of the best features available is the conference option. You set the date, times, length of conference, length of break between conferences and then send out the schedule for parents to sign up. Every teacher knows what a headache it is to try and schedule conferences with so many work schedules!  Parents can see what times are still open and which work with their schedule.

There is also a special ALERT function for emergency situations... Hopefully you never have to use it, but this function not only sends the parent a notification but also sends them a text message.  This is a great way to alert a parent that their child is unharmed and safe during any emergency situation that may arise during a school day.  It comes directly from you so the parent will have even more of a sense of ease than a school wide call.  Of course this is something you hopefully never have to use but this would be extremely useful for lock-downs, weather emergencies, or even just last minute early releases due to a loss of power.

This app also has all that feel good stuff... share an album of pictures from a project, make announcements for school activities, or create a calendar with important events.  One of the great features of Bloomz is the "Disable Reshare" button.  If you don't want parents re-sharing a picture you can very simply press this button.  This is an awesome and safe way to let parents into your classroom.  What is any better than being able to quickly and easily share photos directly with parents on a regular basis directly from your phone, a class iPod/iPad, or other device?  This is a great way to include and welcome parents into your classroom!

If you or your school is looking for an app like this, you should for sure check out Bloomz... they have thought of everything when it comes to communication from the classroom!  It's super easy to use for the teacher.  I can't imagine how much time I will save uploading and sharing, commmunicating, and scheduling with this app!  Check out more information by clicking below!  

Stephany 
Primary Possibilities