Google Classroom, Remind, Class Dojo, Blackboard – the list goes on and on. In the last decade, so many communication platforms have surfaced for teachers, students, and parents to stay in touch and stay in the know.
Glendale Unified School District adopted Student Square / Parent Square in the 2023-24 academic school year to streamline all the various methods of communication being used throughout the district. Student Square and Parent Square are the same platform, each for their respective audience. GUSD uses this platform to send out district school announcements, important dates, upcoming events, and just about anything that students, parents, and staff need to be informed of.
Despite Clark’s extensive promotion of Student Square, many students still seem to disregard the messages they receive. At the grade level assemblies, Clark’s administrators, Mr. Mark Rubio and Dr. Hairapetian, explicitly talked about Student Square reminding students that this was their official platform to get information straight from the source so that students wouldn’t have to rely on word of mouth information from their peers.
During Homecoming, a major school event with over 485 tickets sold, many students complained that they did not receive messages or notifications, despite the fact that multiple messages were sent on Student and Parent Square. ASB Advisor Narine Tatevosian tried to hold down the line but also did her best to try to help students out. “It really bothers me when a student says “no one told me” when I know that multiple clearly outlined messages have been sent out for students to get the information they need. At that point, students are choosing to remain uninformed,” Tatevosian said.
A major goal of high school is to teach students life lessons, like being informed and taking accountability. Some of the messages students skip out on are not even for events. It might be important memos about bus delays, academic opportunities, free dress days, schedule changes, field trip opportunities, and even time-sensitive reminders.
The main issue now seems to be the overload of notifications and messages students are getting. “I already feel so stressed with all the constant announcements and assignments posted by my teachers that when it comes to these extra messages, I just ignore them,” sophomore Ani Mazmanyan said.
It can certainly be overwhelming to get information from multiple platforms. Most Clark students complain that they get bombarded with Gmail notifications because the same message that comes on Student Square, also gets received as an email and sometimes even a text message.
So where do we go from here? If students take the time to set up their notification settings, this major issue of excessive notifications would be less problematic. Another solution is deleting unnecessary messages as they come in, to avoid thousands of emails or notifications from piling up in all the apps and platforms.
If students and teachers use each platform for their purpose instead of a universal tool, it will also really help the situation. Google Classroom, for example, should be used as a bulletin board. Students shouldn’t rely on notifications to remind them that they have homework since that definitely won’t be the case at the college or university level, or even in a work environment. Instead, it should be a space they turn to when they are in work mode to confirm they have done all that they need to.
Teachers and staff should consider sending Student Square messages only when it is vital so students know that if they receive a message on that particular platform, it is necessary to at the very least glance through it. If the subject of the message pertains to them, they should read it carefully. For instance, if a message gets sent out to all seniors with the subject “Information about graduation” it seems obvious that all seniors should be taking the time to read through it fully instead of just skimming and hoping that their friends will fill in all the missing pieces.
Student and Parent Square is one of the most necessary tools for successful weekly reminders and updates about what is happening on campus. Most people are already used to waking up and picking up their phones to check their notifications. If students can commit just five minutes of time per day to check their notifications from campus, they will be fully informed about all that is taking place on and off campus.
As a generation, we need to move away from the culture of quick information in 30-50 second TikTok clips and embrace the fact that most important information will require us to be fully attentive for the two to five minutes it might take to process important messages.
