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<\/span><\/p>\nWritten by <\/span>Alanna Dushok<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n School-Based Technology Specialist at Fairfax County Public Schools<\/span><\/p>\n Administrators at Westlawn utilize the platform to ensure timely and convenient communication. They value that the concise messages go directly to the guardian\u2019s phone and allow preferred language translation. Administrator Stephanie Carpenter recalled an instance during an early release day where a student was terribly upset over losing part of a water bottle. Carpenter quickly messaged the mother, who responded immediately with reassuring words that could be shared with the child, allowing the student to quickly transition back to the group.<\/span><\/p>\n Another administrator, Erin Theiss, uses <\/span>TalkingPoints<\/span><\/a> to send positive messages and communicate regularly about students she supports, ensuring families are aware of minor interactions or attendance\/incentive plan communication, helping her connect with families more often, regardless of language barriers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n See TalkingPoints in action\u2014<\/span>watch a 90-second explainer video<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n By meeting families “where they are,” often preferring quick, tech-friendly, timely communication over phone calls, Westlawn is utilizing TalkingPoints to fully embody its mission to partner with families to create an extraordinary experience for every student.<\/span><\/p>\n Principal Christoph Hill echoes the sentiments of his fellow administrators and highlights TalkingPoints\u2019 ability to \u201callow us to whisper into families\u2019 ears\u201d about school events and deadlines. Hill added, \u201cTalkingPoints has revolutionized education in a way that few things do. It is a purpose-built program designed for this generation of parents. I love how it meets their needs instead of forcing them to fit into structures that we already had in place.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Westlawn has been using TalkingPoints for five years, and originally adopted the program due to the school closures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. When the school originally adopted TalkingPoints, they asked teachers to sign up for the free product and manage their own accounts. After two years using the free product, Fairfax County Public Schools funded it for the entire school system and Westlawn transitioned to the full product, which allowed school administrators and school-based technology specialist Alanna Dushok to use newly available data to make decisions about communications schoolwide.<\/span><\/p>\n In the first year of having access to the data, Dushok focused on celebrating the successes of the staff members who were \u201cpower users\u201d of TalkingPoints through monthly shoutouts in Westlawn\u2019s weekly staff kudos slide deck. Although most staff were on board with using the tool by that time, the kudos raised awareness of the number of messages sent by the school\u2019s top users and highlighted TalkingPoints\u2019 ease of use. Throughout the course of the year, Dushok and Westlawn\u2019s administrative team monitored the data and supported homeroom staff who were not yet using TalkingPoints to its full potential by offering workshops, setting up email alerts for messages, and modeling program use via sending schoolwide announcements.<\/span><\/p>\n In the second year of having data access, Dushok and the administrative team focused on using announcements and direct messages to ensure that families could receive \u201cjust in time\u201d information about upcoming events and links to virtual evening events. They also used TalkingPoints as the primary vehicle to gain parent permission for students to access digital resources, a task that must be accomplished annually. Their efforts resulted in families relying on TalkingPoints as the primary source of school-related information.<\/span><\/p>\n Now, in their third year of having data access, the Westlawn team is focusing on non-homeroom staff and their use of TalkingPoints to continue to build community. During eight after-school sessions throughout the course of the year, all non-homeroom staff at Westlawn gather together and brainstorm different ways to use TalkingPoints to reach families in ways that complement homeroom teachers\u2019 efforts. The goal is simple, yet effective: to help families directly connect with all the staff at Westlawn who support their child, from specialists to ESOL or special education teachers, to instructional coaches.<\/span><\/p>\n Dushok says, \u201cAt Westlawn, we embody the idea that \u2018it takes a village.\u2019 We want families to be as engaged as possible, and we work tirelessly to lower barriers to entry to ensure that everyone feels welcome. There is a concept from Bren\u00e9 Brown about a marble jar, where small acts of kindness add marbles to the jar and eventually build strong, trusting relationships. When our students leave us for middle school, we want all families to feel confident in their understanding of the American school system and comfortable advocating for their children throughout the rest of their experiences in K-12 education. TalkingPoints is the most significant way we can add marbles to the \u2018marble jar\u2019 we have for each family, which also makes it the most powerful lever we have to reach our goal for family engagement, not just with us at Westlawn, but also as our students advance into middle school and beyond.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Let\u2019s build something great together\u2014<\/span>start your journey with TalkingPoints<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Celebrating 10 years of partnership and impact<\/b><\/p>\n For a decade, TalkingPoints has supported students, families, and educators through the power of effective family-school partnerships. As an education technology nonprofit, our award-winning communication and family engagement platform has improved outcomes for districts and students across the country.<\/p>\n We connect 9 million+ educators, students, and family members annually and have facilitated more than one billion conversations\u2014building trust, fostering relationships, and fueling student success. Named by\u00a0Common Sense Education<\/a>\u00a0as \u201cthe best overall family communication platform for teachers and schools,\u201d TalkingPoints drives measurable gains in attendance and academic achievement, backed by\u00a0rigorous, causal research<\/a>.<\/p>\nFostering timely support and intervention<\/span><\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\n<\/p>\nCultivating the conditions for success with TalkingPoints<\/span><\/h2>\n
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