Parent Night Powerpoint
October 16, 2009 by Intrepidteacher
Hey guys,
This next post is actually for you and your parents, so run to the other room and bring them over. Yes, I am serious! I want you to sit down next to your mom or dad and read this post together. Hi mom or dad!
As we progress this year in our efforts to create a constructive learning community within and without our classroom, we hope to use a variety of online tools to help us all stay connected and communicating. We hope that this blog can be the central place where we all meet and discuss what is happening in our class.
Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the parent night last week, but I heard it was a great success. I have included the fantastic powerpoint that Ms. Gould presented to parents, as a way to keep us all informed. Please take a few minutes to flip through it.
If you have any comments or questions, please leave them in the comment section below. You can either ask you child how to do this or read this post for instructions. It would be nice if you could drop a line even if you don’t have any questions, so we can see who is here.
We would love to have as many parents participate as possible. By regularly reading this blog you will be able to keep up with what your child is dong in class, you can comment on his or her work, and you can stay in touch with Ms. Gould and myself.
In closing, I want to thank you in advance for being active members in our community of learners.
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My mom and dad already saw the powerpoint presentation!
I watched it this morning!
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A comment that Ms.Gould said that stood out to me during her presentation was, “Mr.Raisdana thinks it is VERY important that ICT is … (I think she something like) is included into the curriculum.”
I would like to know if other teachers at the school feel that ICT integration is important as well? If so, how are they demonstrating this in their daily practice?
Simple but important examples,
1. Do the students/teachers know what the term “Digital Citizenship” means?
2. When searching for images on the internet are the students guided to creative commons license search engines or a Google image search?
3. Are students taught the reason why it is important to site information? Will this be common practice for the students this school year?
I really enjoyed the information night and appreciate the time the staff took out of their evenings to offer it.
Two ideas
1. Is it possible to have a discussion forum set up for the school? That way if we have questions the answers can be placed in one spot where we all have access to them (time saver for staff). It also could be a place where parents can connect easily with other parents… for instance, have the school shirts arrived at Zacks yet?
2. Could photos of the teachers/staff be placed on the website? It makes it easier for me to understand who my daughter is talking about when we talk about her day.
Thank Jabiz for setting up this space–I am sure it will soon become a busy community.
Rebecca
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Okay great! We have our first parent comment. Let me address a few of her points, then we will wait and see who else will comment.
Rebbecca asked:
I would like to know if other teachers at the school feel that ICT integration is important as well? If so, how are they demonstrating this in their daily practice?
As our school grows, we hope that ICT will play a more and more substantial role in what we do. At the moment, I think that perhaps I am the most experienced and vocal about the role I think ICT should play in the everyday student life, but I will say that everyone on staff has been more that open to learning new skills and asking questions about how they can incorporate appropriate technology into their daily practice.
I do not want to speak for others, nor do I want to discredit any work others are doing. I will let them answer that question themselves, but I do know that the two teachers I work with closely have been nothing short of enthusiastic and open to learning new things.
Let me address a few other questions:
1. Do the students/teachers know what the term “Digital Citizenship” means?
I think that as a school we are learning these things together. It will take time, but I hope that what we do in English class will spill over to the entire community, including parents. Just curious how many parents truly understand “Digital Citizenship?”
2. When searching for images on the internet are the students guided to creative commons license search engines or a Google image search?
We just started talking about CC, again, I hope that these issues will discussed schoolwide.
3. Are students taught the reason why it is important to site information? Will this be common practice for the students this school year?
Quick answers: no and yes.
As for the last two questions:
1. Is it possible to have a discussion forum set up for the school? That way if we have questions the answers can be placed in one spot where we all have access to them (time saver for staff). It also could be a place where parents can connect easily with other parents… for instance, have the school shirts arrived at Zacks yet?
2. Could photos of the teachers/staff be placed on the website? It makes it easier for me to understand who my daughter is talking about when we talk about her day.
I think we need to take baby steps and not overwhelm, students, parents, or teachers. Public forums that discuss school administration is not my expertise and not the purpose of this space here.
This blog has been designed to allow students a place where we can continue with our instruction outside of our classroom walls. It is a place to extend our learning, and so I hope that parents will join us here to stay tuned with what their children are doing in class, and also to take part in the conversations we have as a learning community.
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John Todd Reply:
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Rebecca,
with respect to the last questions:
2. Yes, we can do the photos, give me some time to work on that.
1. It’s on my list and I want to add something to the website. If you have some experience with this or ideas, please come and talk to me as I am still reviewing the best way forward.
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We would like to say thankyou to Mr Cottenden, Mrs Gould & Mr Holmstrom for an excellent and imformative parent night presentation.
Also thankyou to Mr Raisdana for setting up this blog and keeping in contact with the students via internet during the week the students were off for swine flu.
It’s a new way for all the students to keep in contact and stay updated with school work when disruptions occur.
Following the Parent Teacher consultations yesterday it just confirms that we have made the right decision choosing COMPASS INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL for Candida’s secondary education.
All the teachers are not only professionals but they are very approachable and willing to listen. Although you have had a few teething problems we wish you luck with Al Rayyan Campus and the future of COMPASS INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL DOHA.
Caroline & Chris Myers.
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Intrepidteacher Reply:
October 21st, 2009 at 6:30 pm
Wow! Thank you for your supportive comments. While we are smarting from the teething pain, it is great to have such a supportive parent community and flexible amazing students.
We are thrilled to have Candida at our school and we are happy that you chose us. We are all looking forward to helping her grow.
Just a few quick technical points, as we all learn about these communicative tools:
1. You can comment with your own name and email address, so we don’t confuse your comments with Candida’s.
2. For safety reasons we have asked the children to try and refrain from using last names. So students if you are using this, your parents don;t know the rules yet and they are learning, so you continue to leave last names off all Internet activity.
3. These tools came in handy during a disruption, but we hope to use them throughout the year, and more importantly we hope that you continue to pop in and comment as well.
So thanks, again for taking the time to participate and we look forward to seeing here you often in the future.
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