 Welcome to Engaged Families on CESA. My name is Ali and I'm a professional development and training specialist here at CESA. Prior to being at CESA, I taught both fourth and fifth grade. I was a reading interventionist as well as an instructional coach and I'm so excited to be here today with you to help you learn how to engage your families on CESA. So let's go ahead and get started. Research shows the best predictor of student success is family involvement. CESA gives you the tools to engage families as active partners in their child's learning and we will show you how today. In this training, we're going to explore the family view of the CESA app. You're gonna learn two ways to invite families on to CESA. You're gonna learn how to ensure all families are supported to connect by meeting them where they are and some support on how to support homeschool world connections. So let's first explore what families see in the family view of the CESA app. Families access CESA via the app or by going to web.CESA.me and then they select I am a family member. This is the family view of the CESA app. Connected family members can scroll through the home tab to see their child's learning. To protect student privacy, family members only see their own child's posts or posts that their child is tagged in. If families tap on the journal tab, they will see all the students that they have connected to their account and for each student, they see all the classes even past classes that their student is enrolled in in CESA. This allows family members to go back and see how their child has changed and grown over time. Keep in mind that families log in as family members and their view of CESA is for families to view student work and communicate with the teacher. Students must log in as a student to post to their journal and respond to activities. Family members can also engage with their child's work in CESA. They can leave either text or audio comments to reinforce the learning that is happening at school. And family members can reply to all CESA messages that are sent to them by the teachers. Now, depending on your administrator settings, families can create conversations with their child's teacher and the administrator at the school. So be sure to check with your administrator about which school messages settings they have chosen. Another important benefit of the family app is translation. If a family member's device is set to a language other than English, they see the option to see a translation for all typed text. So if there's a language barrier, no worries, not with CESA. With CESA, creating partnerships with families has never been easier. Families see and reinforce with their child is learning at home and teachers get to know each and every family in deeper ways. So let's get families connected. There are two ways to invite families into CESA. Always start by tapping the plus families button on the bottom right of your screen. Then you can tap on print invites to print PDF invites and printed invites are available in 15 languages. So choose a language and tap print invites. You're then gonna get a class set of personalized PDFs for each child. Family members scan the QR code or head to the website link provided on the PDF and follow the prompts to connect to their child's journal. If you need invites in more than one language, just repeat the process for each language that you need. You can also invite families digitally. Type each family member's mobile number or email address, then tap invite families. It is that easy. Family members then either receive a text message or an email depending on whether you entered their mobile number or email address and they go ahead and click the link and follow the prompts. To check the status of your invites, tap on that plus families to return to this page and you can see the status of your invites here. You can also add additional family members or resend invitations from this page as needed. No matter how you invite families, each student can have up to 10 family members connected to their seesaw journal. Now make sure to check out the family section in class settings. That's that wrench icon in the top right. You're able to manage connected family members here, see appending approvals and manage settings for families like their liking on posts, commenting, as well as sharing. Okay, it's gonna be your turn to pause this video and explore in just a minute. So I'm gonna have you explore getting families connected. You're gonna tap on that plus families button, choose which method you're going to use to connect families, try the printing method, try email, try text. Go ahead and invite your families and then wait to see which families have connected. So pause the video now to explore getting your families connected. Welcome back. Now sometimes a printed or digital invite doesn't work for all families and that's all right. Let's make sure we're meeting our families where they are at. So our first tip is to support families to connect is to leverage in-person events like back to school night, curriculum night, one-on-one meetings or even conferences. Before these events, print PDF invitations to have on hand. Go back to part two of this video if you need a refresher on how to do that. Spend a few minutes to explain why you're using CSOT and how connecting as a family member on the CSOT app helps students achieve. Then give families time to connect on the spot. You are there to help them download the CSOT app or access app.csot.me, help them scan their child's QR code and create an account. It also helps to walk families through key family CSOT app features like how to see their child's posts and communicate with you. We created handouts that you can share with families at in-person events or as a follow-up via email. So check the handout section of this webinar to access these resources. Our second tip is to motivate families to connect. The best way to motivate families? Posting something special that can only be accessed on CSOT, of course. So make sure you've sent printed text or email invitations. Go back to step two again if you need a refresher on how to do so. Then have students create a special post just for their families. Students are gonna go home, tell their families about this special post and families will have to connect to see it. They're not gonna wanna resist. Here's a ready-to-assign in CSOT activity you can use. And you can also get the link to this activity at CSOT.pub forward slash make a card. Our third tip is to help families who don't have access to an email address or technology. Build those technology gaps. So some families may not feel comfortable using an email address with their real names. Right now families do not need, or excuse me, families do need an email address to create a family CSOT app account. You can help them create a free email address and use pseudonyms if needed. Some families don't have access to a smartphone or to reliable internet. And so note that CSOT works on many different devices. If families' devices don't support the CSOT app, they can visit app.csa.me on any web browser to access CSOT. And if families don't have reliable internet, help them find community spaces where they can check CSOT from time to time. No matter how you invite families, follow up is key. Keep track of who still needs to connect and reach out to see how you can help get them connected. Now you can find all resources for connecting families, including handouts, videos, and step by step instructions at web.csa.me forward slash resources dash for dash teachers. Once families are connected, you can support homeschool world connections. Use CSOT messages to send an announcement with learning games, resources, and more to families. Just tap on the messages icon at the top left of your CSOT journal. Then tap Create New and select New Announcement. Go ahead and search for the student's name. Your family members are attached to those students so you can easily find the family members that you're looking for. Or tap the Add Classes button. Then select Family Members. If you wanna send this announcement to all family members in a certain class, select the class or class that you want this message to go to. Remember, this is just going to those family members. And tap on Add Selected. In this announcement, you can share information about learning in class and also provide learning resources to support learning at home. Now remember, all typed text here can be translated in the CSOT app for families. Tap the green Add button to add an attachment and you can use any of the learning tools in CSOT. You can send home a photo of learning in class, a video sharing your message, or you can use any of the other tools to engage families in the learning taking place in your classroom. And you're now ready to send your announcements to families, just tap Send. All connected family members receive CSOT announcements and can reply to you privately with questions and photos or videos of their child's learning at home. Use CSOT announcements to support homeschool world connections. You might share learning games, strategies, resources or exemplars. All connected family members receive CSOT announcements in their messages and can reply to you privately with questions or include those attachments of photos or videos of their child learning at home. So now it's going to be your turn to try to send a message. In a minute, I'm going to have you pause this video. Head to CSOT, tap the Messages icon in the top left-hand corner, tap Create New, and then go ahead and tap New Announcement. Practice adding family members either individually or as an entire class of family members. Type your message, add an attachment and tap Send. This is a great way to welcome families back from summer to a new school year, introducing yourself as their child's teacher. Another way to support homeschool world connections is to assign activities for students to complete at home. To complete CSOT activities at home, students need to sign into the CSOT app. We recommend students use home learning codes to sign in at home no matter how they sign in at school because they're unique to each student and protect privacy by preventing students from seeing each other's work. So on a computer, go to the Student section in Class Settings, tap on Home Learning Student Codes, then print PDFs or download a spreadsheet of codes to share with your students. Students simply scan or enter their home learning code when they go to log into CSOT. Then assign activities that leverage family relationships and the home environment. Students complete them exactly how they complete activities in class. Effective home activities reinforce skills at students' independent levels, involve family or community members, and leverage the home environment. You did it! We learned a lot today. You learned about the Family View of the CSOT app, how to get your families connected, and how to support homeschool world connections with CSOT. Really encourage you to head to our learning hub at learn.csot.me to access pathways and courses to help you continue learning on your own pace about how do you CSOT in your classroom. Also head to our training page at web.csot.me forward slash training to sign up for some webinars that are happening during this back-to-school season as well as watch other on-demand webinars. Thank you so much for learning with me today. We'll see you again soon here at CSOT.