Group items tagged

This article provides four points to increase parent involvement and communication: 1) Make a case for increased parent involvement, 2) Reach out to parents who want to make a connection, 3) Find ways to involve families in school culture, 4) Make the commitment to join the conversation with other teachers and parents. Within each of these four points, there are various links to more actively engage with tips, articles, and discussion groups.

Every school has a need to increase parent involvement for a variety of reasons, with such intended results as a better sense of "community" among families, faculty and students, improved student achievement, and the like. This can be a challenge for all these entities. It's helpful from time to time to have reminders of strategies that work.

This article is looking at how schools can involve parents in schools better. It asks schools to think about how welcoming their school really is to parents.

Parent participation is sooo important to student success. When the parents are involved, students tend to be motivated and engaged. It is our job as educators to keep the parents connected. They have to feel welcomed to participate.

The article uses a friendly approach to help teens stay safe and for parents (adults) to understand how to change privacy settings. There is a series of videos (11) to help learn more about social networking and how to check yourself it something doesn't seem right. The article also demonstrates the use of protection your personal property from hackers and spammers.  I personally think the article does a great job using the friendly approach with teens, and using videos, and teens will click on a video than read an entire article. Holly

These are great articles. I like the user friendly approach to all of these; In www.connectsafely.org there are great personal accounts of what can go wrong using social media. Those articles really resonate with my own fears. We must be wise when we use the web.

This online discussion forum offers adults insight into the legal, social, and safety issues tied into specific social networking sites.

Katie Heissenbuttel created this wiki for her fourth grade classroom. Over the past year, Katie has enjoyed watching her students' discussions develop. Initially, students only answered Katie's questions on the wiki but they soon began to comment and respond to their peers' postings. As you visit the wiki, you'll find student podcasts covering recent news events and individual pages showcasing each student's work. Katie's students are always excited to share their latest projects with their parents and parents really love the page of upcoming homework assignments. It's a great example of how a wiki can transform learning into a community process.

Not an amazing article. But, it is important to note that four...maybe all five of her "five lessons" are based on communication. "1. Keep the student at the center of every decision that needs to be made. 2. Foster relationships with students and parents, because parents can be a teacher's biggest help. 3. Talk with your students every day by phone. Dove said that the majority of her day is spent talking directly with students to build a one-on-one relationship with each of them. 4. Celebrate every effort and success, no matter how big or small. "Always be positive in your feedback, even if the assignment may not be stellar. The written word is so powerful online, and you always want your students to feel that you are cheering them on and appreciate their hard work," she explained. 5. Build relationships with fellow teachers. Share resources, best practices, and stories to feel less isolated or alone in the home office."

How schools and families can partner to set boundaries with digital communication and make children conscience of how they use technology. 

Interesting view that schools have a powerful role to play..."Schools have taken on a more significant, all-consuming role in helping parents find the right language to communicate with children, especially in the digital realm." It is easy to forget that parents are looking for guidance about their children and effective technology use.

This article brought to light the number of students and parents that have smart phone and use them as their primary source of communication. At the conclusion of the article, it suggested that school districts need to adjust their method of communication with parents due to their overwhelming use of social media and smart phones. This article was focused on the role of social media in communication with parents rather than the use of social media instructionally in the classroom

This article puts forth the premise that if student transgressions with technology are handled early on with an open school, parent, and student communication loop - then there will be a decreased likelihood of a major transgression later on in life.

After reading the article and as a parent myself. I tend to disagree with this article. Students learn by reading, seeing and applying. It's great to be book smart, but you need to know how to apply the smarts. I love my classes and the project based learning. I think that's all I do the majority of the day. It's great to be a teacher and facilitator at the same time. All students are different.

This article gives reasons why schools should encourage tweeting among their student body. It shows the benefits of connecting students to students, teachers, parents and the entire community. Reading this article could give the reader new ideas for communicating and connecting using a popular Web 2.0 tool.

This article has merit from the perspective of a district principal. The 12 reasons are aligned with the school mission statement and since Tweeter is free, it is accessible to all stakeholders in the school community. It suggests that parents receive training in the tool to build two-way communications. Tweeter will help build a Personal Learning Network (PLN) and allows for anytime, anywhere PD, and that it is easier to send a tweet than it is to correct a webpage. The last reason #12 actually seems to be the most important in that students can make a connection not with only one mentor but with "a million other mentors" to learn from using Tweeter.

This article looks at online communication from a district's point of view. Using tools such as websites, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, online surveys, YouTube, and Pinterest, school districts are getting information out to a variety of constituents, not just parents and students. They are building a connection to the community.

Teaching students and faculty to produce videos to enhance education and schools are also using videos on their web sites to keep parents informed about school events.

This article lists some interesting statistics about the pervasiveness of social media. According to this post, 96% of students with internet access use social networking technology, and 56% of those talk about education-related topics while they are online. Educators say social networking gives them access to a professional community, and it encourages collaboration and the exchange of ideas. Parents say it helps them become more involved, helps them understand the teacher's expectations, and increases student-teacher communication. Social media helps students learn collaboration and develop important workforce skills. It also gives them a positive view of technology, stimulates engagement, and increases academic networking. Interesting statements, to be sure.

Brenda offers some great suggestions and ideas for using Voicethread in classes. Brenda suggests using Voicethread as an assessment tool for teachers but I am thinking it might be a great tool for students to assess/comment on each other as well.

Laurel, I agree that students could also use Voicethread in class as a tool for commenting on peers' work. I could see groups viewing each other's work and offering feedback, as well. I like that you can add images to this. Have you used Voicethread before? I will have to spend some time checking this out.

This article highlights how little social media is used in the classroom. Many teachers see potential benefits with social media but are unsure of using it in the classroom. One issue highlighted is setting clear boundaries for how to use social media when interacting with students and parents.

A great article that discusses some of the potential uses for technology and communication beyond the walls of the classroom. Through the use of the internet, online programs, and direct communications like Skype, Edmodo, and other instant messaging, students can attend the classroom, even if they can't get to the school on days of weather inconvenience. Snow, Water damage, bomb scares, you name it. Provided that the students could access the internet and had power, the school could exist for that day. Part of the issue is getting kids to realize that the learning can occur outside of the classroom. Another part is that sometimes snow days occur at very inopportune time, like right before benchmark/standardized tests. But, it appears that for the most part the article discusses saving money and keeping the schooling going, when the weather won't allow it. Not sure how many snow days your school has but... not the biggest issue for me. But then there is the other side of this issue. Some parents, and myself included, agree that there just isn't enough time off in the winter. Go to school in the dark, leave in the dark, creates no time for play, no time for a mental break from the classroom. And in a world where students have been accused of not spending enough time outside being kids, I would have a difficult time as a teacher expecting to see them sign in to my classroom, when I was also outside playing on one of those mythical "Snow Days."

Westside High School has extended learning after the school bell has rung. Teachers and parents encourage creativity and productivity to meet the needs of every student in a 24/7 learning environment. Technology is used to promote educational activities that meet students' unique needs. Communication is supported through podcasts, tweets, ipods, ipads, flip cameras and video technologies. Media literacy is enhanced by tech integration.

Education blogs are becoming a means for educators, students, administrators, and parents to interact more effectively than ever before on the internet. The number of blogs available is overwhelming. This website seems to hits and filtering tools to showcase some of the top education bloggers.

Good article on teaching students how to be decent digital citizens. Emphasis on parental involvement too. I found this interesting as we struggle with the admin's decision to ban mobile devices in the middle school. This article gives helpful advice on communicating with students on how to monitor and use the devices appropriately and safely.