The Digital Classroom
Dear LREI Families,
As Phil mentioned last week, Family Conferences are an important part of the school year. Middle School students and their teachers have been preparing for these dialogs and the fruits of this hard work was much in evidence on Wednesday. I have no doubt that Friday’s conferences will be equally rich in substance. If you have not done so already, please read my previous posts about Progress Reports and Family Conferences (and some additional resources). The structure of our Family Conferences is always an evolving one and I encourage you to let me know about your conference experience. Your feedback is tremendously useful in helping us to shape this experience so that it is a meaningful and productive one for all.
On the subject of home-school communications, please access http://blog.lrei.org/msnews/the-middle-school-digital-classroom/ for a listing of all of the Middle School homework blogs. You can bookmark this page or return to this blog where the address appears on the sidebar on the left. This page serves as an entry to our “Digital Classrooms.” As we explore the use of this technology as a way of disseminating information, I offer the following observations, which I hope will provide some context for how we envision these pages fitting into our educational program.
First, while much valuable information can be found in the blogs, we will still expect students to record homework assignments in their planners. We think it is absolutely critical that students develop this important organizational skill. While this is especially true for fifth graders, it is also important that students in all four grades continue to refine this skill. The seemingly simple task of writing down homework calls on students to listen actively, to ask clarifying questions, and to attend to specific instructions given by teachers. If a student thinks to him or herself, “I don’t need to pay attention to this, I’ll just check the blog,” he or she is likely to miss more than just the homework assignment. So you should continue to check your child’s planner and you can use the blog as a reference to see if your child’s is capturing in his or her planner what he or she needs in order to complete an assignment.
Teachers will use the blogs in a variety of ways and, as a result, the blogs will vary in the quantity and kind of information provided. It is reasonable to expect blogs to identify nightly homework assignments. In those classes where homework is assigned less frequently, the blogs may also be used to communicate information about what is happening in these classes. These blogs may not be updated on a daily basis and will more likely be updated weekly. Some teachers will post additional resources on the blog and others will not. If you have suggestions for a teacher that you think would be helpful, please do not frame these suggestions in a way that compares their blog to another teacher’s blog. Just describe the kind of information that would be helpful for you and your child. In these cases, teachers will consider the information in terms of thinking about how to best support your child. They may offer alternative suggestions that they feel may be more useful than changes to the blog. The homework blogs should be seen as one of a number of tools and not the be all and end all of what we do. We also hope that you will use the blog not just as a check for homework, but as a means to engage your child in conversations about his/her school experience.
Finally, as teachers refine their use of the blogs, we will identify ways in which the use of this technology can enhance and deepen opportunities for learning. An example: In the next few weeks, seventh graders will start to use the blogs as a forum to discuss the literature that they are reading. In this way, we will be able to add a new dimension to the literature circle experience that is already an important part of our program.
So we look forward to strengthening our partnership with you as we take this step forward into the digital world.
Regards,
Mark