A school community is a group of students, teachers, admins, parents, and other stakeholders that work together to build a nurturing environment for learning and development. These stakeholders interact with each other at school events and meetings. The quality of a school community influences student achievement. Moreover, the school culture also influences the formation of the school community. For instance, strong schools have a high level of trust among community members, and every member shares a common vision. In contrast, schools with a weak culture lack a shared sense of purpose and might fail to accomplish their goals. The school management module (SMM) can sync the actions of different stakeholders and make the process of teaching-learning more enjoyable for everyone.
What is SMM?
SMM is a solution that helps admins and teachers improve the learning experience of students. At the same time, the module saves time for teachers and enhances their productivity. Once the redundant tasks are eliminated from the system, teachers can focus on providing valuable lessons to students.
SMM for School Community
The SMM is a cloud-based solution that helps teachers and admins manage school activities efficiently and effortlessly. They can log into this system at their convenience and can run the institution from anywhere, anytime. It offers a comprehensive suite of features that makes the task easier for admins. The major modules in this system are attendance, admissions, library, parent portal, reports, exam planner, and student information system.
Each module has specific functions, and they work together to make the chores easier for admins, teachers, students, parents, and other stakeholders. With SMM, schools can easily look after new enrollments, calculate attendance trends in the classroom, and manage books and other learning resources in a few clicks. However, before deciding to buy an SMM, decision-makers must consider the tips mentioned below.
7 Things to Consider Before Selecting an SMM
To give the best experiences to the school community and make school management easier, decision-makers must invest in an SMM. The top things to consider before selecting a school management module are:
Plan Properly
Before making a positive change in the school environment, admins must consider what impacts will be seen after the changes. Moreover, academic and non-academic goals must be considered. When making decisions, the interest of every stakeholder must be carefully thought of. This ensures that every stakeholder is involved in the decision-making process and their interests are not ignored. If everyone shares the same vision, the chances of confusion and tension reduce.
Make it a Reality
It involves making decisions to ensure student welfare. Students spend most of their time within the premises of educational institutions. Therefore, admins must provide the right environment within which they can develop and grow by utilizing their maximum potential. Moreover, admins should set a few goals that can help students move forward in the direction of growth.
Act Smartly
Before taking any actions, admins must create SMART goals. These goals must be specific and measurable. Admins must make such goals that students can accomplish easily if they put in the required hard work and effort. Once the goals are laid down, it is time to evaluate and re-evaluate them.
Take a Look Around
Once the interests of community members are aligned, admins can look around to find what they can do to support the community. They can find relevant material to strengthen the core beliefs of the community and make a change in the school. Admins can take references from other schools. In addition, they should understand what additional materials teachers will need to hone their skills and provide the best education possible to students.
Look for the Best Options
Before fixing a routine or set of activities for the school community, admins must explore different options. It will help them understand which activities will work best for their school community. They should evaluate the changes to know what adjustments they need to make to provide the best educational experience to students.
Make It Happen
Once admins have started the implementation plan, they must hold everyone accountable to make the process work. Moreover, they should support the staff as soon as possible.
Be Vigilant
As the school community inches toward a common goal, it would help if they worked together and shared a common mission. Once every community member has understood the goals clearly, the next step would be to encourage them to accomplish those goals. Therefore, admins must remain vigilant when evaluating community members.
Creating and nurturing a school community takes equal effort from all members. Every stakeholder must feel important and respected. Moreover, they should be aware of their responsibilities as a community member. The process of establishing a strong relationship with community members becomes easier with the SMM.
Important Modules in an SMM
Some of the crucial modules that make SMM a package for admins and other decision-makers are:
Admission Management System
An admission management system is critical for schools if they want to retain top talents and improve their academic performance. Moreover, this module also improves the productivity of staff engaged in admission processes. Imagine standing at the admission counter to get details of the entire procedure. Parents and students may lose critical hours of their daytime at the school campus. The admission management system enables parents and students to participate in the enrollment process without leaving the comfort of their homes. They can upload the document and keep a track of the process without facing hassles. The dashboard gives them real-time information on admission processes. Moreover, admins can also track the quality of lead generation through the system. Once the procedure is over, admission counselors can make changes to the admission database using this module.
Attendance Management System
Managing classroom attendance is no less than a headache for teachers. This everyday activity takes a lot of classroom time. Therefore, admins should make an effort to streamline the attendance mechanisms in every classroom. An attendance management system assists teachers and makes tasks easier for them. It helps them record classroom attendance in a few clicks. Moreover, the system also calculates classroom trends and lets teachers know how many students in their classroom do not meet the minimum attendance criteria.
Library Management
Books and reading materials are a crucial part of the learning process for students. With the help of the right books, students can learn and absorb the concepts easily. However, managing books, ebooks, and other learning materials can be difficult for librarians. To sort and arrange the books in order, they need to go through huge piles of books. This consumes time and leaves the staff with no motivation to work. Moreover, keeping a track of the books in circulation also becomes a task. Admins can reduce the workload of librarians by taking help from the SMM. The library management system makes book categorization easy and keeps a record of which student issued what book.
Academic or Exam Planner
Planning the exam schedule is nothing less than hectic for teachers and admins. They need to consider multiple factors before deciding on the exam schedule. For instance, they need to take care of holidays and should give teachers enough time to complete the syllabus. Having an exam planner reduces the workload of teachers as this system can schedule the exams in a few taps. Moreover, teachers can use this feature to evaluate the answer sheets of students.
Parent Portal
Parents may find it difficult to track the learning curve of their children. Moreover, they may not find the time to track how their child is performing in the classroom. A parent app connects teachers and parents and helps them understand their child’s requirements. Moreover, parents can track their attendance, pay fees, and communicate with teachers using the SMM.
All these modules are important to manage the school efficiently. Moreover, the system also captures student information and connects different departments for easy flow of information. It brings transparency and keeps all stakeholders informed.
What is the Importance of the Relationship Between the School and Community?
Having a connection between school and communities is crucial as it promotes student development. Other benefits of schools and communities working together are:
- Better grades
- Low absenteeism
- Higher qualifications for students
- Lower incidents of bullying and delinquency
A study conducted by Oakland International Academy showed that community involvement in the learning process of students has a positive impact on school outcomes.
Below mentioned are a few strategies that school management can use to bridge the gap between schools and communities.
Treat Schools and Communities as Equal
It has been noted that communities take interest in academic decisions if they are treated as equal partners. Admins can build a strong school-community relationship if they give all stakeholders a chance to drive students’ success. They should view teachers and parents as equal contributors to the progress of students.
Find Ways to Connect with Communities
Admins willing to strengthen their relationship with community members can conduct community-based events and use such events as an opportunity to establish secure relationships.
Participate in Community events
By going out into the events, admins can establish a robust relationship with members. Listening to the thoughts and opinions of community members will help them get insights. Admins can team up with different organizations that share the same interest.
Set Up a Community Resource Map
A community resource map is a skill map that informs admins what skills are available within the community. Taking benefits from the available skills, admins can improve the learning experiences of students.
These strategies can help admins build a stronger community. By bridging the gap and considering the concerns of every stakeholder, schools can promote a better learning environment for students.
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