Emerging Technology that Supports Communication

At the high school where I teach, teachers are required to maintain communication with parents, especially if their child is failing. We are expected to contact parents anytime their child drops below the pass/fail line. However, I teach 7 periods a day and have only 45 minutes of planning time to prepare for those 7 classes. Not to mention, if I go to place phone calls during my planning period, it is impossible to get a free phone line because they are constantly busy. Moreover, a lot of the phone numbers listed in our computer system are no longer active. Being a teacher, it is not possible for me to take a phone call during the day if a parent calls. The best way to contact me is via email. I have started using a web program called callingpost.com. With this website, I can upload each of my students and their phone numbers and send out mass phone messages to their parents. I am able to record a phone message that states what the call is about and how a parent can contact me (preferably email, but I also give the school phone number). Callingpost.com keeps track of what happens with each phone call, as well. It records whether someone answered the phone, whether an answering machine picked up, or if there was no answer at all. If the phone call is not received, then callingpost.com attempts the number 12 more times. When I am ready to turn in a contact log of my parent contacts, all I need to do is go to callingpost.com and print out a copy of all the calls it has made and the response that it received from each phone call. The program does cost about 9 cents per call, but it is well worth the money instead of having to fight the headache of trying to get an open line at school and hoping the phone number that I have is active.