There has to be a first blog post and for ClassroomAngel, this is it. Over the next few weeks, we will post a series of “first” posts that cover the topic of why we built ClassroomAngel and how we plan to use this platform. We will then start to focus on topics that should benefit parents and help steer them through the craziness of K-5 elementary education. 

A diverse group of experts both in education and in experience will contribute to these topics. Their suggestions and ideas might be very helpful or might be just a little helpful. Your own background will determine how useful these are for you. Our hope is that you let us know how we’re doing with our blogs. Did you find the post useful? Are their topics you’d like us to address? 

And of course, if YOU would like to be a guest blogger, we’d love that!

Building an App for Everyone

We built ClassroomAngel first to be a multipurpose classroom app whose value will be shared by all in the classroom. We understand that the needs of the room parent and the parent will overlap but will not be exactly the same. That’s fine. That’s expected when you build a tool to be used by different groups.

Even though there will be different groups using ClassroomAngel, the vision stands that ClassroomAngel desires to have every parent and caretaker in every community involved in their child's education. 

Our mission: to provide a service that will enable and enhance classroom involvement. We are parents, teachers, room parents, and community citizens who share a common belief that everyone can benefit when parents and caretakers are involved in the classroom. We built ClassroomAngel to connect, engage, and amplify this mission. 

For the Room Parent

We aim to be THE one stop app for you to handle everything from managing the classroom finances, to parent volunteers, to school events as well as quickly generating reports, sharing updates, and communicating with others in the classroom as well as school admins and other volunteers. We’ve spent the most time interviewing room parents, learning about their challenges as well as the rewards of holding this demanding volunteer position. 

Goal: Reduce the time spent and eliminate stress of “doing things” so that you can focus your creativity and parental instincts to enhance the students’ experiences. We want to learn more about your unique situation and we want to make sure that we address your needs and your wants. We have this survey we’d love for you to complete to help us reach our goal of being your one stop app.
Survey URL: https://forms.gle/4X7wrZKpmEqB24G59

For the Parent

We aim to be THE one stop app that you need to be involved in your child’s classroom. We understand you’re busy. We know you care about your child’s education. Making these two things work means we have to deliver timely information, reminders, and more to help you focus your child and not the ancillary needs an active parent faces. 

Goal: We want to provide you a service that helps you focus on your child and not juggle all many links and apps parents currently use for their child’s classroom management. We anticipate that in most situations, the Room Parent has set up the classroom and shared the unique code to get started and verified.

Verification is an important step in getting the parents involved. Why? This ensures that only parents and caretakers of classroom students have access to the dashboard that provides everything from the classroom financial updates and classroom events. We also give you the opportunity to communicate directly with the room parent(s) and other parents through the app. Keeping this in a secure environment is important to us and was shared in the many interviews we did with parents prior to launching. 

That being said, we’re always looking for more input. We have this simple and quick survey that we hope you, as a parent, will take a few minutes to complete.
Survey URL: https://forms.gle/fGiqHXeTfu9DwtqW7

For the Angel

As we know, all parents, caretakers, and room parents are “angels” but for ClassroomAngel, we label Angel as someone without a child in the classroom. This could be a grandparent, a neighbor, or anyone who wants to contribute financially to a specific classroom. 

In some cases, the angels might not even have a family tie to the classroom. We heard from some of the people we’ve talked with that they have interest in finding a classroom from their hometown to contribute as well as classrooms that are in need. For example, one teacher had many of her books destroyed when a pipe burst during a hard freeze. These are the opportunities that angels seek.

Goal: We want to help classrooms and if we can introduce one person to one classroom, that person will make a difference. Involving the community, both near and far, in the mission of ClassroomAngel is a great help to all.

For the Teacher

From our experience and interviews, we know that teachers like for room parents to “run the show” and be available to volunteer and that the teachers don’t want a lot of hands on requirements. We also know that there are schools that don’t have a room parent nor do they have a strong volunteer force of parents looking to help. For these situations, we offer the teacher some options.

Goal: We want the teacher to focus on teaching the kiddos. They took on this profession for that reason and not to collect money, deal with permission sheets, and so much other stuff. If a teacher wants a classroom, we’re happy to help set that up. Just like the others, we have a survey for you! We’d love to get your thoughts so please consider taking this short survey. It will really help us continue building an app that benefits everyone!
Survey URL: https://forms.gle/jBJdXRmPrCNi9EP37

For others

Who’s left? Well, some room parent coordinators, those are volunteers that help room parents, they have asked for some administrative options. They LOVE the idea of implementing ClassroomAngel in every classroom. They see the benefit not only for the classroom but also for them and the administration. 

For you!

You may or may not fit into one of the audiences above but that does not mean that ClassroomAngel does not benefit you. We believe that education is one of the most important needs of a community.With education comes hope, understanding, appreciation, and so much more. This helps all citizens of the community!

What’s next? 

We will continue building functionality and features into the app. We already have a robust roadmap laid out and because of people like you, we get new ideas weekly. Keep checking back or better, keep up with us on social media and through our newsletter!