🎓 Parent Communication HACK + When Your Best Plans End Up in a Creek 😂
⏰ TL;DR
🧩 Resource of the Week - Parent Contact Form
🛠️ Tech Tip - Force Make a Copy
💎 Gem/GPT of the Week - Parent/Guardian School Communication Assistant ➡️ Gemini // Opal // ChatGPT
😁 Just for Funzies - My Daughter & I Going into a Creek
🎓 HONOR ROLL - Resource Roundup: Pre-Made Templates and How to Adjust them for YOUR Class!
👋 REAL TALK
Just in case you’ve been Rip Van Winkle’n for the last 2 weeks and didn’t hear the 4 BILLION news reports about the impending Snowpocalypse, we got some snow.
Which in our house automatically means: find a hill and full send.
So we’re out there sledding, having a great time. There’s this hill that looks perffff… except for two small details: the slope is so steep that students would think their slope-intercept formula broken, AND a little ditch at the bottom that may or may not have been connected to a freezing creek that may or may not have been part of a sewer-adjacent water system. Unclear, but soon to be tested.
Naturally, as a responsible millennial parent, I test the hill first. Feet down, slow yourself, all good. I tell my daughter, “Just drag your feet and you’ll be fine.”
Easy peasey, lemon squeezy.
She nods.
She smiles.
She does NONE of that.
She comes flying down that hill like she’s auditioning for the Winter Olympics. At this point I have two options:
Plant myself and risk a knee-to-face collision that ends in tears and Jim Carrey level dental work, or
Jump to the side and grab her jacket
I grab the jacket.
Physics grabs us.
Next thing I know, we are transported into the aforementioned freezing cold poo-creek.
Wet.
Cold.
Hint of spoiled eggs.
Here’s the thing though:
I had a plan.
I tested the plan.
I communicated the plan.
And it still went sideways.
And that’s teaching.
You can plan the lesson.
You can prep the activity.
You can anticipate the behavior.
And sometimes… you still end up in the metaphorical poo-creek of Pooville.
That doesn’t mean you failed.
It means you tried.
The key isn’t beating yourself up for landing in the water, it’s getting out, drying off, adjusting, and trying again tomorrow.
If today didn’t go how you planned, you’re not bad at teaching.
You just hit poo-creek.
Change clothes.
Take a breath.
Tomorrow’s another run down the hill.
Never Stop Learning!
📥 THE DROP
🧩 Free Resource of the Week - Parent Contact Google Form
This time of year, parent communication starts ramping up like Tony Hawk. Testing, behavior, missing work, interventions… all the things.
One thing that matters way more than we like to admit is documentation. Not because we loveeeee paperwork, but because when you need it…you fr need it. As an ex-principal, CAN CONFIRM IT MATTERS A LOT. 😂
This Google Form helps you:
Quickly log parent contacts (calls, emails, conferences)
Keep everything time-stamped and organized
Show patterns of communication without digging through inboxes
Protect yourself by proving you followed up
You don’t need documentation…until you do. And then you’ll be reallyyyyyyy glad you have it.
Trust me like Aladdin.
👉 Grab the free here: Parent Contact Form
🛠️ Tech Tip
📚 Force “Make a Copy” on Any Google Doc, Slide, Form, or Sheet
If you’ve ever shared something with students or parents and had to say, “Go to File → Make a Copy…” and they promptly ignored you and requested editing access, this one’s for you!
You can force dat copy automatically 👇
How to do it:
Open your Google Doc / Slide / Sheet
Click Share and make sure viewers have access
Copy the shareable link
In the link, replace /edit with /copy
Boom-shaka-laka!
That’s it.
Now when someone clicks the link, it automatically prompts them to make their own copy, no extra instructions, no confusion.
Prefer those instructions from a southern-sounding dude as opposed to that voice inside your head? I GOT YOU FAM! 😂
🎥 Watch my video: How to Force Make a Copy
💎 Gem/GPT of the Week
Parent/Guardian School Communication Assistant ➡️ Gemini // Opal // ChatGPT
What it does:
This automatically drafts clear, professional messages to families, things like:
Positive notes home
Reminders
Conference invites
Class or grade-level newsletters
It keeps the tone neutral, friendly, and human (not 🤖), and it can translate messages into specified languages when needed!
Why it’s clutch:
Saves you from staring at a blank screen
Helps you say the right thing when emotions are involved
Keeps communication consistent and professional
Cuts writing time wayyyyyy down
You tell it what you need to say and who it’s for, and it handles all the wording like your chill/professional BFF.
This is one of those tools that quietly removes stress from your day (and actually makes you send the email you wouldn’t send otherwise)!
👉 Parent/Guardian School Communication Assistant ➡️ Gemini // Opal // ChatGPT
(it’s free btw 😂)
🔐 THE VAULT
Weekly highlighted tips, trainings, & resources just for the Honor Roll VIPs! 👩🏫 Admin ➡️ get full access for your ENTIRE school!
🥋 Resource Roundup: Pre-Made Templates & Resources to Plug Into Your Classroom!
This was a 3-hour live training where I walked through as a PLETHORA of my free Tarver Academy templates as humanly possible.
What’s included:
How each template works
When to use it
How to customize it for your classroom
Ways to tweak them so they actually fit ya workflow
If you’ve ever downloaded a free resource and thought, “Okay… now what?” this training fills in that gap!
👉 Watch the Training Here (Honor Roll Only)
➡️ Get the Curriculum Companion Here!
Not in the Honor Roll yet?
You can join today and grow with 50+ trainings, slide decks, and every course I have!!
Check it out if you’re in the Honor Roll! 🙌
P.S. Also, you can have your school get full access to all 70+ on-demand trainings to learn + knock out them summer PD hours! 🙌
✈️ Places I’ll Be
Come hang with me if you’re nearby and/or want an excuse for a road trip! 😁
2.13.2026 - Newport Schools
3.2.2026 - SE Arkansas ESC
3.5.2026 - NCTIES 2026 - Raleigh, NC
6.1.2026 - Royse City ISD
6.9.2026 Regional Office of Education #4
6.16.2026 InnovateEDU Tech Conference
6.23.2026 SE Missouri State University
7.31.2026 Fentress County Schools
8.7.2026 Pottsville Schools
8.19.2026 Trenton R-IX
If you want me to speak at your school and/or conference, hit me up! Snagging days for the summer now! 🙌
Also, I’m currently looking for:
One school in Northwest Arkansas
One school in the Little Rock area
…to host a Google in an AI World one-day conference for teachers (in collaboration with Google)!
If you work at a school (or know one) that might be interested, let ya boi know! We’d toss y’all a ton of free spots if you’d be so kind to host!
💌 Never Stop Learning!
