Playground Web: Teacher Communication

Communicating with your fellow Teachers on Playground can be done via Playground Web/Programming and Planning.

Bulletin boards/Noticeboards can be created to suit your style, and keep you up-to-date with everything happening at your service.

Please read on for some ideas on how this can be implemented.

Tables

Quick to create, easy to use, structured; Tables are a great way to communicate!
This feature would be useful for services who are needing to sort through categories of information quickly and will be using both computers/latops and tablets to access Programming and Planning.
 

Logistics

We recommend starting with a Layout. Once created, you could use this layout weekly, fortnightly, monthly or by term. You might choose to keep these records in a folder, or wipe the slate clean every month and continue using the same Table. It's entirely up to you!

• To use your layout, click 'New Table', select the layout, and change your title ("May Noticeboard", "Term 1 Bulletin Board" etc).
• Type in your message/content in to the relevant cell/s, ensure no children are tagged, and click 'Publish to Parents'. This will ensure everyone can see the same updated information, and it won't be lost or overridden.

Please note: You can address certain Teachers by typing @THEIRNAME, but please keep in mind they will not receive a notification for this - they will need to remember to open up the Table and review the information.

Design/Structure

Your Bulletin Board/Noticeboard can be structured however you like.

The example we have below is structured Monthly, by week in our rows, and by Teacher in the columns.

• Each Teacher can use their column to provide updates to others, or other Teachers can leave a message for someone in their dedicated column.
• We would encourage you to use the colour palette and pictures to add some life to your Table, making it a space that everyone will want to use.
• From here, all Teachers will be able to access and edit this table to use it as an ongoing form of communication.
• Each time a Teachers adds a message, they will need to click 'Publish to Parents' to update the Table.

Alternatively, you can structure by Room and Teacher as below:

Canvas

Canvas is all about creativity. A bulletin board/noticeboard created in this feature can reflect the personality of your service.

This feature will be useful for services who like to mind-map, get creative or make flow charts. Canvas can be accessed on a tablet, but some Teachers find it a little easier to use on a laptop/computer.

Logistics

We recommend starting with a Layout. Once created, you could use this layout weekly, fortnightly, monthly or by term. You might choose to keep these records in a folder, or wipe the slate clean every month and continue using the same Canvas. It's entirely up to you!

To use your layout, click 'New Canvas', select the layout, and change your title ("May Noticeboard", "Term 1 Bulletin Board" etc).

Drag and drop your text boxes per your layout, or add new shapes to expand on the existing structure. You can use stickers, layering, and the opacity slider in the colour palette to add some personality to your messages.

From here, ensure no children are tagged, and click 'Publish to Parents'. Other Teachers will be able to see your messages and add their own content as well.

Each time a Teacher adds a message, they will need to click 'Publish to Parents' to update the Canvas.

Design/Structure

Canvas is a place to get creative - maybe your noticeboard looks like a tree, with individual leaves bearing a notice/message. It might look like brightly coloured post-it-notes on a wall, or a set of pigeon-holes.

Documents

A bulletin/noticeboard in Documents would be particularly useful if you have a lot of information to convey, of you would like your messages to be displayed in chronological order - like a newsfeed!

Logistics

We recommend starting with a Layout. Once created, you could use this layout weekly, fortnightly, monthly or by term. You might choose to keep these records in a folder, or wipe the slate clean every month and continue using the same Document. It's entirely up to you!

To use your layout, click 'New Document', select the layout, and change your title ("May Noticeboard", "Term 1 Bulletin Board" etc).

Type in your Headings and any relevant sub-headings needed. You can drag and drop in some images to separate sections by room or to add some colour.

From here, ensure no children are tagged, and click 'Publish to Parents'. Other Teachers will be able to see your messages and add their own content as well.

Design/Structure

As Documents are designed to hold large amounts of text, this feature will lend itself better to a more streamlined/newsfeed style of bulletin board.

If each Teacher posts under one another, and adds a date, it will be clear to everyone what the latest information is.
To break this up a little, you could add Week headings, or structure by room - this will prevent the bulletin board from looking like a wall of text, which can be difficult to read.

Each time a Teacher adds a message, they will need to click 'Publish to Parents' to update the Document.