Connecting with families is essential to making your experience of using Classtag successful.
There are multiple ways to do this and it's up to you to decide what process will work best for your classroom.
First, decide how you'll invite the parents.
How you choose to invite parents to ClassTag depends on whether or not you have good email addresses or mobile numbers available to you. If you have updated contact information for parents, then inviting them via email or SMS is a great idea because they will start receiving your communications right away before they join your class on ClassTag.
You will be able to see which parents haven't been able to join and give out flyers to them at parent/teacher meetings or open houses. You can even send flyers home with students at the start of the school year containing ClassTag information.
No matter what method you use, the first thing you need to do is create a list of your students on ClassTag. It is important to have all information in the directory and signups neatly organized by family.
If you have the parents’ email addresses or mobile numbers, you can add this information to your Directory so that the system will send a notification to parents to join your class on ClassTag. If you have both the email and mobile number of a parent, you can decide to include only one contact or both. Once you provide an email address, you will see an option to add a mobile number for that same parent or vice versa. Keep in mind that when you include both contacts, the default communication channel will be Email.
Important Note!
Parents' email addresses and mobile numbers will only be visible to you, and not to other parents. Once parents join ClassTag, they can select to make their contact information visible to other parents or not. This puts parents in control of their own privacy and that becomes one less thing you have to worry about.
Option 1: Add the students' and their families' contact information manually
1. Click the Directory tab.
2. Click the orange button on the side or Add Family at the bottom.
3. Enter the student's First and Last name.
4. Click Add.
4. Click the orange button on the Guardians section.
5. Enter the parent/guardian's email address and/or mobile number.
6. Select the parent's preferred Language.
7. Click Send Invitation.
8. Repeat the process until you've added all students and their parents/guardians' contact information.
The invitation will automatically translate to the Language that you selected.
Use the Preview Message button to see how the parent/guardian will see the invite!
Option 2: Use a list from a spreadsheet
Prepare your spreadsheet following the format in this example file. Please note that the title of each column MUST be the same as the example for it to work.
Follow the instructions from this article.
Option 3: Sync with Google Classrooms
If you already have set up your class roster on a Google Classroom, you can sync the students from Google to Classtag.
1. Click the Directory tab.
2. Click the orange button on the side.
3. Click Connect to Google Class.
4. Click Connect Google Classroom.
5. Select your Google Account.
6. Allow Classtag to access your Google Account.
7. Invite the students' parents/guardians.
Option 4: Print the flyers
If you don’t have the parents’ email addresses or mobile numbers or if you have incomplete parent information, you can still ask them to join ClassTag by using ClassTag Flyers.
ClassTag is designed to help you go paperless and save a lot of time with amazing automation of follow-ups and reminders, but all this magic works if parents are invited and join. Flyers have a unique code for each family and can be sent home with your students or distributed at one of your parent or open house meetings. Please follow these steps:
1. Add the students using any options above.
2. Click the orange button on the side.
3. Click Print Parent Invitations.
4. Select the students.
5. Set each parent/guardian's preferred Language.
6. Click Print.
7. A PDF of the flyer will be generated.
8. Print the flyers and you're all set!
NOTE: The Language selected in this process will automatically translate the flyer. Please see the sample below.
Each student has a unique code that can be used multiple times by multiple (maximum of 6) parents/guardians. The flyer will include instructions on how to use the code.
Classtag Connect has many other options to invite families including syncing with the District or Schools SIS system. If you are interested in using these features instead, please reach out to our amazing Support team at support@classtag.com.