Five Ways for Owensboro City School Parents to Stay Informed This School Year

In certain situations, I totally have my stuff together. Actually, now that I think about what those situations would be, I definitely would lose my head if it was screwed on more often than not. When life gets busy, I get distracted so easily and overwhelmed by all of the things going on. Especially during the school year. I'll either send the field trip money the first day the paper comes home in Rollins folder, or I will hang onto it until the day it's due. Or maybe even forget to check the folder altogether for a few days. Basically, I need all the help I can get to stay organized and be in the know during the school year. We have survived so far without any major incident, *knock on wood.*

On Meet the Teacher night, we received a list of the five ways to stay connected with the Owensboro Public Schools. All free, they contain a plethora of information that will come in handy this school year. Since I know I am not alone in the struggle of staying organized and on top of things, I am going to share them with you.

Infinite Campus

I'm sure you are all familiar with this site as it is how we register kiddos for school every year.  This is also where you can keep track of student grades, and report cards to monitor your kiddos' success.  You can view their class schedules and attendance as well as officially update contact information if you move, change your phone number, and things like that.

Class Dojo

This is probably the app I have used most while Rollins has been in school. Of course, we did have two years of virtual instruction, but his teachers have preferred using this to communicate directly with parents. They also use it to give reward points for noticing good habits or behavior like staying focused and participating. They also use it for sharing field trip photos or things they are doing in the classroom. It is up to the teachers whether or not they want to use Class Dojo. For instance, if I understood correctly, Rollins' fourth-grade homeroom teacher will primarily use it as a classroom tool vs. a tool to communicate with parents. Cross your fingers that I got that right!

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OPS/School Website App

On this app, you will find your particular school event calendar/s, news, and alerts.  This is where you can also find the school lunch menu.  Want to be the first to know about school closings or snow day announcements? Bookmark that OPS district website or download the app.

Social Media

You can find your kiddos' school on Facebook for information regarding events, family nights, and fundraisers as well as see pictures of exciting happenings. I like following Owensboro Public Schools' page as well. They do a great job of helping parents stay informed. My favorite posts are about OPS in the community. For example, they recently shared how much fun was had at their Stuff the Bus event. I'm going to have to check that out next year.

Talking Points

This last one is the newest one, and I have a feeling I have saved the best for last. So far, it seems to be a conglomeration of all of the avenues of communication from the individual schools as well as the district as a whole. You can also receive texts from your kids' teachers which I love so much more than Dojo, because I would totally forget to check that sometimes. Whoopsie! This way, the communication goes through my messages on my iPhone. So, you will receive classroom, sports, and extracurricular updates based on your push notification settings.

Rollins is starting his 4th-grade year. Despite my hot-messness, we have been able to survive and thrive thanks to the efforts of all teachers and administration. I think Owensboro Public Schools does an amazing job of making sure we are all up-to-date on everything happening in the Red Devil world.  If you still need to download any of these helpful apps, here are the handy dandy QR Codes to get started.