Report Card Day in RCSS

Report cards for the first nine weeks of school were distributed today (In the Richmond County school district). For parents and guardians who access iParent...there will be no surprises IF all of your student's teachers are using the electronic gradebook. Today should not be the first day that you learn the names of your student's teachers.

The school board passed a recommended iParent timeline for all schools to implement the iParent program starting with the 2nd 9 week period. This item was on the consent agenda for the Sept 2008 school board meeting. Does it mean the program is in place and operational in all schools? Have you received a notice for iParent orientation or an alternative appointment if you cannot make it to the school? Please come out when your school has iParent night and help other parents who may be new to using a computer or a student information system. Remember this is one step in bridging the digital disconnect.

Georgia School Keys PL 3.4 Partnerships to Support Student Learning’s operational strategy is to increase family involvement to support student learning through communicating with families about school programs and student progress.

iParent, a component of School Max, is an interactive web tool that allows parental access to a child’s attendance record, a list of grades along with the current average of each class recorded in the electronic iCue-Gradebook, and the current daily schedule of classes.

In the 2007-2008 school year, iParent was implemented in Davidson Fine Arts, Butler High, Westside High, Hephzibah High, ARC, C.T. Walker and East Augusta.

Currently, Cross Creek High, Morgan Road Middle, Tutt Middle and A.R. Johnson are in the process of implementing iParent. To fully implement iParent in the remaining Richmond County schools, the following actions must take place: (1) Family Information Sheets must be completed by parents, (2) teachers must be using iCue-Gradebook, and (3) a parent registration packet must be provided either through an on-site parent workshop or some other method of packet delivery.

OK...so parents are you accessing the electronic gradebook offered by your school districts? If so, are all of your student's teachers using the program? Do you know who to contact if you have problems with program? Is a system in place to resolve questions and concerns, such as course changes, teacher additions/replacements, grades, tardies, and absences?

Do you know your student's teacher(s)? Do you know your student's counselor(s)? The school administrators? School support personnel? Do you know who your school board representative(s) are? Have you ever attended a School Advisory Meeting or a School Board Meeting? If not, can you access the agendas, budgets, and minutes online?

While your student may be attending school, remember that we are our child's first and lifelong teacher. From home training responsibilities, learning to tie a shoe, brushing teeth, table manners, taking care of family members or pets, riding a bike, driving a car, to financial matters. We cannot forget that our children are always learning from us, because of us, or in spite of us which includes interacting (or lack of) other adults.

Many of us grew up with parents, educators, and administrators living in the same community. You knew your neighbors, schools were a central part of the community, parent nights were never scheduled on the same night because families had children in school at all levels. Of course, we didn't have cell phones (only 25 years old), computers, Internet access at home and/or through local libraries.

So are you a participative parent? Your lifelong learning skills will improve as you learn about your school, the school system, and how it impacts your student. Be involved, self educate, and get to know the people where your student spends at least 1/3 of their day (more if they are involved in after school activities) for the 180 days they are in school.

As always, your recommendations, shared knowledge and experiences are always welcome whether it is your experience with electronic grade books to parent involvement. Please share a comment.

Chris Lehmann - We need more principals like him

Just the snippet you need after working in the digital divide! I survived the digital divide in the military, transitioning from analog to digital and digital to IP. I live in a miniscule digital divide with a parent and a child, one who discovered a love for technology later in life and one who continues to grow with technology. Both embrace technology, are willing to learn, try, ask questions, and share experiences. Lifelong learning is a part of everyday life in this household.

My mother encourages me to "Bloom where I am planted" when I become discouraged with the divide in the city that hosts the Masters Golf Tournament. The mayor has a Facebook page, yet we still have educators that do not check email and call a cell phone "just a cell phone".

Chris Lehmann's blog Practical Theory contains his blog entries as a principal of the Science Leadership Academy in Philadephia, PA. Mr. Lehmann's recent appearance at IgnitePhilly should be viewed by everyone, whether you are an educator, a parent, a community partner, a tax payer, students and saved as a favorite for anyone who works within the digital divide and has one of those days, weeks, or months, where you just want to run away and join the forward moving techies.

I also came across this shared presentation through Dr. Mcleod's blog, Dangerously Irrelevant and Darren Draper's blog, Drape's Takes. Through my RSS reader, I am sure I will see more links as Mr. Lehmann's video and presentation goes viral.

Thanks Chris for sharing this snippet and thanks to everyone who continues to share through their blog posts. Your posts, shared knowledge, and experiences provide the light at the end of the tunnel when one thinks about throwing in the towel and just sticking with the forward thinking techies.

Essential conditions for ISTE NETS

A discussion centered around the ISTE NETS for students (2007), teachers (2008), and next year for Administrators (2009). The standards, essential conditions, and profiles are available from the ISTE NETS website: http://www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=NETS

From the ISTE NETS site, "A major component of the NETS Project is the development of a general set of profiles describing technology (ICT) literate students at key developmental points in their pre-college education. These profiles are based on ISTE’s core belief that all students must have regular opportunities to use technology to develop skills that encourage personal productivity, creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration in the classroom and in daily life. Coupled with the standards, the profiles provide a set of examples for preparing students to be lifelong learners and contributing members of a global society" (ISTE, 2007).

The discussion centered around what else can we do to help our students, teachers, and administrators when a student has the essential conditions at home, the library, but not at school.

If the essential conditions do not exist: Shared Vision, Implementation Planning, Consistent and Adequate Funding, Equitable Access, Skilled Personnel, Ongoing Professional Learning, Technical Support, Curriculum Framework, Assessment and Evaluation, Engaged Communities, Support Policies, Supportive External Context. What else can we do?

Stay involved. Encourage our students to start or participate in a movement through organizations like Do Something! or What Kids Can Do. We continue to support our students by volunteering at the local libraries and conducting the computer workshops to enhance the skills of the students, stay involved with our students' computer activities, and encourage our students to be proactive in learning something new with their technology gadgets and continue to share the knowledge, digitally or F2F (Face to Face).

I empathized with my daughter and her friends and felt their frustration when her educators feared or refused to do anything with technology. I stepped up and volunteered at the local library to conduct computer and scholarship workshops. Now as my student begins college and has a requirement to log in to her college website even before school starts I am confident in her ability to embrace the technology that was banned or neglected at her last public school. I am concerned with the students still in the system.

An external audit provided recommendations to the school district with an entire chapter for technology, but technology touched every portion of the the recommendations. With so many free tools available, and sites and projects like Vicki Davis' Cool Cat Teacher Blog, the Flat Classroom and Horizon Projects demonstrating what is being done with students on a global educational level, why is it that our students are not keeping up globally, not just in core subjects by technology as well?

Your feedback, success stories, and shared links are always welcome.